I've been watching the issues surrounding the release of WDSc version 7.0 with interest, and to some degree, amusement. In the March 15, 2007 issue of this newsletter (article ID 54281) I reported that the new release was imminent, and I discussed some of the controversy surrounding the release. Little did I know that this was only the beginning!

Last week, I was in Las Vegas for the RPG & DB2 Summit, where IBM's George Farr provided some interesting hints regarding the future of WDSc and its pricing strategy. His words have set off a whole new controversy.

In this article, I provide updated information about how to download the new release of WDSc. I also provide links to information about Farr's hints, my own opinion of the situation, and links to some of the other opinions that I've thought were interesting.

Download Information Update

When the new release became available on March 16, there were some technical difficulties on IBM's Entitled Software Support (ESS) website that prevented customers from seeing the download. I've been told that this issue is now fixed, so if you happened to be one of the folks who weren't able to find the download, please try again.

If you missed the previous article where I provided links to the ESS website, you can view that article at the following link:
http://www.systeminetwork.com/article.cfm?id=54281 [2]

In addition, IBM's Claus Weiss reported to Midrange.com's WDSCi-L mailing list that it's also possible to download the WDSc disk images as PTFs for V5R4. The PTFs create IFS directories containing the new version of WDSc so that you can use the IFS to install WDSc on your PC. Here's a link to Weiss' announcement, which contains the PTF numbers that you'll need to order:
http://archive.midrange.com/wdsci-l/200703/msg00855.html [3]

Note: As of April 2, 2007 IBM has withdrawn the PTF support mentioned above! Here's an explanation from Weiss:
http://archive.midrange.com/wdsci-l/200704/msg00002.html [4]

Hints From George Farr

If you weren't lucky enough to hear George Farr in person at the RPG & DB2 Summit last week, NEWS Daily provided a report that will bring you up to speed:
http://www.systeminetwork.com/article.cfm?id=54370 [5]

My impression from listening to him talk was that Farr's vision for WDSc is subject to change. Until IBM makes an official announcement, nothing is certain. Farr did say that he was interested in hearing from System i developers if they had any ideas, so if you have a strong feeling about this issue, be sure to let IBM know!

Opinions

There are a lot of people voicing their opinions on this subject, so many that I've grown bored of reading them. However, I'd like to spotlight a few that I have found interesting. Please note that I'm not saying that I agree or disagree with any of them, only that they're interesting.

George is Farr From Where We Want to Be by Aaron Bartell:
http://imho.midrange.com/2007/03/27/george-is-farr-from-where-we-want-to-be/ [6]

Karl Childers, from Midrange.com's WDSCi-L:
http://archive.midrange.com/wdsci-l/200703/msg00982.html [7]

Buck Calabro, from Midrange.com's WDSCi-L (two messages):
http://archive.midrange.com/wdsci-l/200703/msg01000.html [8]
http://archive.midrange.com/wdsci-l/200703/msg01022.html [9]

Steve Richter, from Midrange.com's Midrange-L:
http://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l/200703/msg01273.html [10]

Jon Paris, from Midrange.com's WDSCi-L:
http://archive.midrange.com/wdsci-l/200703/msg01116.html [11]

Scott's Opinion

In addition to my writing and editing responsibilities here at SystemiNetwork.com, I also am the IT Manager and Senior Programmer for Klement Sausage Co, Inc. We are a relatively small shop, with only four developers, but we're all i5/OS bigots, preferring it to other platforms. Our management, however, does not seem to share our love for this environment, and it's a constant battle to convince them that staying with the System i is the right decision for the company.

According to George Farr, the per-component charge means that we'd have to pay "several hundred dollars instead of several thousand" for the new tools to design screens and diagram our applications. Frankly, we were never going to pay the several thousand for the Advanced Edition, and probably won't pay several hundred for the components, either. The price we pay for 5722-WDS is already comparable to what we'd pay for a Microsoft tool such as Visual Studio. If you add several hundred per developer, it's no longer competitive. This is a hard blow, because the System i itself already costs more than a Windows server. It's hard to justify spending more for both the hardware and the development environment, especially when we already have to work hard to convince management that staying with the System i is the right choice.

Of course, nothing is forcing us to buy these extra components for WDSc. Since the entire IT department prefers this platform, we'd be willing to make concessions. We'd just stick with version 7.0 where we have CODE Designer, or else we'd use the green screen tools, such as SDA. Is this the direction IBM wants us to go in? Staying with old software, eventually forcing us into obsolescence?

Farr makes it clear that IBM can't offer everything for "free", and that they must find a way to charge us for the new features. However, WDSc is not free! It's included with licensed program 5722-WDS (WebSphere Development Studio) that we have paid for. A portion of that money should be used to pay for WDSc development. I guess that Farr is saying that this isn't enough.

Only a comparatively small percentage of i5/OS developers use Java or WebSphere Application Server, and WDSc is designed to be the development environment for those tools, despite the fact that they're not part of 5722-WDS. Granted, the people who work with Java and WAS are very vocal about it, but if you spend a lot of time in System i forums or talking to people at System i user conferences such as COMMON, you learn that only a very small percentage use these technologies. Where does IBM get the funding for that, if they don't have funding for the mainstream tools like RPG?

Farr also spoke about moving more towards tools that are platform-agnostic, primarily Java and EGL. I don't understand this point of view. There are some distinct advantages to i5/OS, and the System i architecture in general. By moving to tools that are less integrated into that architecture, I lose many of those advantages! Personally, I've worked in more than 20 different programming languages on perhaps a half-dozen different computer platforms. Of all of them, RPG is the best language for writing and executing business rules. You can quickly and easily write a tool that handles your business objectives without worrying about the multitude of details that always seem to come up in other environments. Really, the advantages of the System i lie in the deep integration between RPG, i5/OS, and DB2! If IBM pushes me into Java or EGL, I lose these advantages.

They also lose my loyalty, because if my programs run equally well on a much cheaper PC or Unix platform, why would I need the System i? Isn't it in IBM's best interests to make RPG, CL, and DB2 as attractive as possible?

Frankly, those of us who use tools that only IBM provides, such as RPG and WDSc, should be getting a discount from IBM, not a surcharge. A loyalty discount, that is.