Why use C++ on Iseries?

[rpgKnight]

Re: Why use C++ on Iseries?

Wow, interesting discussion. I've been using RPG and its variants for a long time. There are some outside coders using C/C++ as a GUI front end and I told them that C/C++/Java/PHP lived on the i which had a light bulb turn on for them.

If RPG can be considered THE language to use on i, what is considered a good language to use for developing front-end apps to the i from outside in?

[dhanuxp]

Re: Why use C++ on Iseries?

If RPG can be considered THE language to use on i, what is considered a good language to use for developing front-end apps to the i from outside in?

I Prefer Java...

[MichaelCatalani]

Re: Why use C++ on Iseries?

Wow, interesting discussion. I've been using RPG and its variants for a long time. There are some outside coders using C/C++ as a GUI front end and I told them that C/C++/Java/PHP lived on the i which had a light bulb turn on for them.

If RPG can be considered THE language to use on i, what is considered a good language to use for developing front-end apps to the i from outside in?

That really depends on who your users for the front end are going to be (customers or users or both), and how exotic you want to make your front end, and what kind of talent you currently have in order to develop it. You have heavyweight stuff and lightweight stuff. You have free stuff and costly stuff. You have third party software that will take existing code and transport it into a web page. You have some stuff already on your system. (ie Php).

I am currently on a project where I am writing the backend of a web site for an insurance company. I am wrapping data into xml documents, and deploying them as web services. These web services are being called by a third party vendor who developed the front end, written in C++ in the .Net environment. As far as which language I would want them to use, I dont care. I am handling all of the business logic, business rules, and data getting / setting via RPG. The front end developers only get what data I allow them to have. Their only job is to make it look pretty with a nice user interface. As far as we're concerned, they could develop it using an abacus and a compass.

Now, if the company had a fleet of java programmers, then we would likely be more particular about using that language, especially if we planned on performing future maintenance in-house.

I've personally developed front ends with pure RPG CGI, static web pages with RPG Ajax calls, ExtJs and other UI components, and a myriad of others. I dont really have a preference. If your front end is going to serve out to the company users, then you can get as heavy and intricate as you want, because the company has control over browser versions and OS's. If you are going to serve out to internet customers, then you have to be sure what you are deveoping will serve the masses and whichever browser / OS they are using.