Re: AS/400 and DB2 vs. Unix and Oracle

In article <4dc12i$q0h_at_vanbc.wimsey.com>, gschenk_at_wimsey.com (Gerry Schenk) writes:
|> Last week I posted the article "AS/400 vs Unix. It has been very
|> interesting to see the different posts. As indicate in my original post we
|> have been a Unix/Novell shop for the last 5 years, running Oracle 6 and
|> Oracle 7. After reading the posts, I'm not convinced that the AS/400 is
|> any better than Unix. The majority of the posts have concentrated on the
|> hardware side and reliability. From what I can see there is not
|> much of a difference.
|>
|> Having read the arguments, I more curious about the application side.
|> What makes the AS/400 and DB2 more attractive than Unix and Oracle.
|>
|> We are running on Oracle 7.1.6, soon to be 7.2. We have been running in
|> a client server shop with Windows 3.1, using Uniface, Power Builder and
|> Objectview.
|>
|> We are looking for a Inventory Control/Merchandising system, that can
|> support 150 locations running Novell, where the data is batched through a
|> nightly DOS process back to the Head Office. Currently JDA's MMS running
|> on the AS/400 is the favorite.
|>
|> Perhaps someone can answer the following questions.
|>
|> 1. Are there more Business applications on the AS/400 than
|> there is on Unix?
|>
|> 2. Are the costs for these types of applications typically more or less
|> on these types of systems?
|>
|> 3. Any recommendations on either AS/400 applications or Unix
|> applications. For the Unix applications, it would be preferable that
|> they run with Oracle.
|>
|> 4. What kinds of Retail locations are running Unix and Oracle. I've
|> heard or read that Starbucks, Walmart and Home Depot are using AS/400s.
|>
|> I look forward to the all the excellent responses.
|>
|> Below is some of my thoughts on why Unix is better. Below that is the
|> original post, which I've included for the benefit of the readers of the
|> Oracle newsgroup, which I've cross posted to.
|>
|> Thanks in advance.
|>
|> regards,
|>
|> ->Gerry Schenk
|> ->gschenk_at_wimsey.com
|>
|>
|> In support of Unix, this is what I can see.
|>
|> 1. It is very progressive. The OS has been around for 20 years and
|> foundations of the Internet are based on Unix. It has a lot of support
|> and is a very open system.
|>

This calls for a little story. I admit I work for IBM in Rochester, so feel free to discount for that, but I mostly work in the lower layers of the system and so when it comes to signing on and using the system, I have no real advantage over anyone reading these words, except maybe that I have used well over 1/2 dozen operating systems, not all of which came from IBM and some prior experience with S/38.

I was running a test and had my choice of three platforms:

1. PC
2. VM
3. AS/400 (back before its initial release).

I had also MVS to choose from, but I didn't happen to have a signon at the moment. AIX was possible, also, but I didn't know it well enough; I might not even have had a signon yet, because I still had a PC and not an AIX workstation in those days.

It was a Sunday (this work really needed to get done _now_).

Now, I had never signed on to an AS/400, though I had done work on S/38.

But, the AS/400 did have significant differences in its user interface over the S/38 and this turned out to matter.

I took a tape which consisted of binary data in two files. What I wanted to do was read in the 32 bit words, sort them as words, and then compare them (a la "diff" for you Unix hounds).

I defined the file as a series of 32 bit binary words, though it was 4K records on the tape. I don't think I needed DDS.

I created the file and read it in. I may have had to "reblock" the records somewhere else first; I forget. But, I think I managed to handle the blocking at the AS/400 somehow.

Anyway, I had it on AS/400.

I first tried AS/400 SQL. Turns out, I knew nothing of SQL and hoped to learn enough to do what I needed to do (it was a very basic, binary level sort).

Didn't happen. SQL is not something I could learn ,very casually, on a Sunday afternoon with no manuals and no gurus in to guide me.

I then switched to Query/400.

I was able, using its online help text alone, able to take the file and do the sort.

I think I was then able to do quite a bit of the file comparison also using Query one way or another. The job was done or very nearly so all on a machine I had never used before.

Consider:

1. I had never signed on to an AS/400 before, though I had some S/38 knowledge. Just enough to get started. The key facts I knew were to use PF4 for prompts and PF1 for help (including context sensitive help). This is what really mattered, especially when blundering around, looking for commands that might help me.
2. I had not used S/38 Query in years, if ever, and certainly never used AS/400 query.
3. I was able to get the job done without any manuals whatsoever on a machine I had only a basic understanding of with no help.
4. I had not just a "programming" interface to deal with, but an "operator" set of interfaces while I played tape jockey. Admittedly, the S/38 knowledge helped on the latter, but the interface was still quite different in appearance.
5. I wasn't particularly looking to use AS/400. If it could have been managed faster, I'd have picked another of the platforms; in fact, I may well have done some of the tasks (e.g. reblocking the tapes) on other platforms. I was picking the machine where I could get the job done fastest and AS/400 (I thought) could indeed do this job, even though I had never used it before.

I could not do this with VM's Query By Example. I don't know if I could do this with Sybase or Oracle. I could not do this if all I had to work with was SQL verbs on any machine (including AS/400).

Yet, I got the job done. I admit I blundered around quite a bit, but I still got it done.

I was very impressed, being able to get the main meat done without any programming (something I could not do elsewhere).

Now, I probably could figure out (now) how to do such a thing on Unix. That's not the point. The point is, using little more than PF4 and PF1, I worked through a process of medium difficulty on an unfamiliar computer. To this day, I use AS/400 for tasks of that kind whenever I can't figure it out elsewhere.

I am very certain that on my first AIX signon, I could not possibly have done something like this. In fact, _I_ may not be able to do it today due to the binary nature of the data.

I don't know if that's reason enough to buy the machine, but it illustrates what some have been saying; what it does, it does very well and it is pretty easy (once one knows a few very basic facts of navigation) to find out how to do something.

-- 
   Larry W. Loen        |  Science is often the act of trading
                        |  comforting myths for exciting ideas

   email to:  lwloen_at_rchland.vnet.ibm.com