Is this funny or not?

Quick backstory: I'm the webdev/LAMP guy here, and I'm working on getting our E-Learning and intranet stuff to talk to the iSeries/AS400 (whatever IBM calls them now) minicomputer.  Only Rumba, the package/driver we use, won't ODBC.  I call the tech support line, and the guy explains that IBM basically broke ODBC when they upgraded to OS/500 R5.

Okay, now, is that supposed to be funny?  Is my impending deadline screwing up my sense of humour?  When I think iSeries/AS400, I think data warehouse.  A back-end system built for two purposes:

1. To store data.

2. To send/recieve data.

What part of "IBM broke #2 then shipped their product" makes any kind of business sense?  Am I missing some secret, clandestine humour from IBM?

Andrew Burton
Friday, February 27, 2004

Sorry, OS/400 R5.

Andrew Burton
Friday, February 27, 2004

Call IBM they may have a workaround

john
Friday, February 27, 2004

They do, I'm just amazed that they'd ship their software when it didn't work.  It seems like a bad way to do business.

Andrew Burton
Friday, February 27, 2004

Seems to work for a lot of companies.

sgf
Friday, February 27, 2004

True.

Andrew Burton
Friday, February 27, 2004

At the risk of sticking my neck out and ending up revealing my lack of Phat Skilz, I've spent the last six months working on a project that gets data out of AS/400 X V5R1 for a web based workflow application using the ODBC driver that ships with Client Access V5R1.  Andrew, if you care to elaborate on the trouble you're having I would be happy to pitch in anything I've learned during the process.

BTW, we had a lot of trouble with ODBC, but IBM never told us it was broken (although I don't doubt that it is--we do seem to have it working, however).  They did fail to come up with answers to my problems though, leaving me to eventually figure them out myself, so maybe there are some similarities in our situations.

Do you have access to an MSSQL server?  If so, and it's not too late to consider architecting your application with it as the back-end and having MSSQL do the talking to AS/400, that might prove more sound than trying to glue a pure web app directly on to the AS/400 (unless you go the websphere, JSP route--so I've heard).

Our application is in ASP.NET, but I'm a LAMP guy outside of the day job, so hopefully there can be some skill translation there.  Feel free to email me directly--that is if I'm not sounding like I have no clue what I'm talking about (which is entirely possible!).

MacSqueeb
Saturday, February 28, 2004

BTW, I am aware that the M in LAMP stands for MySQL, but from your original post it sounded like you aren't factoring MySQL into this particular solution.  I spoke of MSSQL, not because I don't like MySQL (I love it), but MSSQL has linked servers and DTS, which saved our bacon on the project in question.

MacSqueeb
Saturday, February 28, 2004

"I'm just amazed that they'd ship their software when it didn't work.  It seems like a bad way to do business."

But with 60 billion in the bank, MS can afford to this a long while longer.

Mike
Monday, March 1, 2004

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