Part of the reason these flashy systems are still being worked
on months afterwards is that the users have much more control
over the "look and feel" of the screens.  It's much easier to
get something working from a practical/technical standpoint
than it is to get it "looking perfect" from a users viewpoint.
I find that more of my development time is spent on aesthetics
than on function.  Years ago when all of my work was on a
dumb terminal, that was not the case (people didn't have as
many things to "tweak" back then :).

To quote your email:
>And with tools like ScreenJet available for the 3000 now even the
>Image/Cobol people can create flashy GUI screens for their apps in the
>same time as anyone else.
And probably with a similar increase in the overall amount of time
spent too ;)

Regards,
Michael L Gueterman
Easy Does It Technologies LLC
http://www.editcorp.com
voice: 888.858.EDIT or 573.368.5478
fax:   573.368.5479
--


-----Original Message-----
From: HP-3000 Systems Discussion [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
Behalf Of Alan Yeo
Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2001 11:33 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [HP3000-L] Free RDBM Systems (PostgreSQL)


Not being one to seek confrontation but :-)

I still don't believe in the end its any quicker to develop mission
critical applications in P/J/J rather than I/C/V. Quicker maybe to dash
something off. But by the time you build a real multi user mission
critical application, with logging, recovery etc. I think I'd still put
my money on a fully tooled up Image/Cobol team any day. And as for
support and ongoing maintainability.

I watch many projects going on around me both internally and at customer
sites, where there are Web Site developments going on, or ERP & RDBMS
applications being implemented alongside conventional I/C/V
applications. And sure the new toolset users can have something flashy
to show and fast, but by the time all the banging and thumping is over,
most of the new systems are being worked on months after the
conventional stuff was finished and put to bed.

And with tools like ScreenJet available for the 3000 now even the
Image/Cobol people can create flashy GUI screens for their apps in the
same time as anyone else.

Anyone remember the story about the tortoise and the hare?

Alan (polishing up my shell) Yeo

In article <[log in to unmask]>, Donna Garverick
<[log in to unmask]> writes
<snip>
>  i'll be the first to admit getting from here (image/cobol/vplus) to
> there (postgre/jdbc/java) is a significant challenge -- but that's
> never slowed us down before.

>Bruce Toback wrote:
>
>> The Java/JDBC/PostgreSQL model is a heck of a lot faster to develop
>> for than COBOL/IMAGE/VPlus.
>




Alan Yeo
[log in to unmask]    Just because you're paranoid
Phone +44 1684 291710   it doesn't mean someone isn't!.
Fax   +44 1684 291712