Actually I think you got the themes reversed, Wirt's way is the
"old" way of doing things. To re-quote last year's famous quote
regarding QCTerm:
"I've seen the future, and it's 1975!"
Joe's tutorial is actually the "new" way of doing things.
Although highly dependent upon the underlying infrastructure
of the data center, as you so eloquently say: Complex,
fragile, requiring lots of CPU cycles spread across three
computers,.."
I only say this because as Wirt has stated before, the underlying
technique of QCTerm using half-duplex, is ... old. The concept's
purpose was to save the number of bits transmitted on slow lines.
It reminds me of a 1930s style teletype, because the local machine
impacted the platen upon the user hitting the key, not because any
signal was returned.)
Sometimes the "old" ways are best.
Tom Brandt wrote:
>
> Random thoughts from HP World:
>
> HP's commitment to MPE
> ------------------------------------
> All of the HP brass I heard, Carly, Ann Livermore, Winston, Duane Zitzner
> (sp), emphasized HPs commitment to their MPE customers. All of the e-mails
> and recent eruptions of unhappiness here on 3000-L evidently made a real
> impression. Everything Ann, Winston and company said about their
> commitment is fine and good to hear, but I was still unsatisfied.
>
> What I was hoping they would talk about more were specific plans to grow
> the MPE user base. Without growth in the user base, the platform is
> dead. And yet, the only time growth was mentioned in all the presentations
> I heard was when Ann mentioned - in passing - that HP will continue to try
> to grow the user base in specific vertical markets. HP needs to talk a lot
> more about their marketing strategy for attracting new users before I am
> truly convinced that they see this as a viable platform.
>
> (Mark Klein said that HP seems to treat the MPE user base like the weird
> kid the family hides in the closet. Anyone who read books about someone
> with the initials HP will understand the reference.)
>
> Contrasts
> ----------------
> The first session I attended was Joe Geiser's excellent tutorial on
> webifying the HP3000. The last session I attended was Wirt Atmar's
> excellent tutorial on webifying the HP3000. The contrast could not have
> been greater. Joe presented the "old" way of doing things: n-tier
> client-server architecture where an HTML client interacted with an
> application server like Cold Fusion or ASP running on an NT server, which
> in turn did gets and puts to remote IMAGE databases via Active-X controls
> working through ODBC and Image/SQL. State is grafted onto the stateless
> HTTP protocol via cookies, hidden variables, or URL queries. Complex,
> fragile, requiring lots of CPU cycles spread across three computers, and
> requiring at least some knowledge of HTML, server-side scripting languages,
> ADO (DOA?), ODBC, and Image/SQL.
>
> Wirt, by contrast, presented what will soon become the "new" way of doing
> things: terminal-host architecture with a simple virtual cable between the
> server and the client using QCTerm. No HTML, ODBC, ADO, SQL, application
> servers, etc. Robust, simple. The architecture is fully stated. All the
> developer needs to know is how to access IMAGE, and how to read STDIN and
> write STDLIST. And yet, with the graphic capabilities of QCTerm, the
> screen can be just as nice looking as any HTML screen. The active objects
> of QCTerm make it as easy for the user to enter data as any GUI program.
>
> Certainly, there will be occasions where the old way of doing things will
> be necessary. But I am convinced that the new way will become the way many
> data-entry applications will be done.
>
> Acronyms
> -------------
> Old acronym: TLA - three-letter acronym.
> New acronym: xTLA - extensible three-letter acronym (thanks to Terry Floyd)
>
> Names and faces
> -----------------------
> It was very nice to finally meet in person Wirt Atmar, Rene Woc, Steve
> Rittenour, Neil Harvey, Gavin Scott, Donna Garverick, Ted Ashton, Greg
> Stigers, Lane Rollins, Ron Balboni, Bruce Hobbs, Terry Floyd, David Floyd,
> Gary Jackson and many others.
>
> Tom Brandt
> Northtech Systems, Inc.
> http://www.northtech.com/
--
BT
NNNN
Tracy Johnson
Justin Thyme Productions
Sponsors Empire on the WEB at:
http://198.190.228.6/
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