>Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 10:06:44 +0100 >From: Ian McCallion <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: Re: <vendor/> Re: EJB CICS integration > >Ken litwak wrote: > >> With all due respect, I haven't read doc on CICS in years, BUT I did used to >> program in it. I used CICS to read and write records to DAM files (Not een >> VSAM) at TRW INformation Systems in Orange, CA> Their entire system for >credit >> information was premised on CICS. Furthermore, I've read a description >> (undefiend) of CICS a stransaction manager or TP monitor. An application >> server, unless y9ou wish to define this so broad as to be meaningless usually >> provides support for running other applications like logging, transaction >> management, database connectivity, and the like. CICS didn't do that kind of >> stuff for me that I could tell. > >CICS did all that then, it does it all better now. We just didn't use the term >application server in 1984. I've worked with CICS in the 70's, 80's, and the 90's. I used to program with it and now I have to interface with it. CICS is whatever IBM says it is! It's the Swiss Army Knife of products. They've ported it to every platform under the sun (MVS and other IBM mainframe variants, Microsoft products, Unix (AIX/RS/6000, anyway)), and including the solution looking for a problem: OS/2. It's core business for IBM and is in IBM's best interests to call it an application server or an EJB server (or whatever is de jeur next year). In all fairness, CICS has been improved over the years and is one of the best PROPRIETARY TP systems available. Just don't use it if you ever want to achieve vendor independence. Just another day in the life of IBM, adding bells and whistles to CICS. CICS is starting to look like Jimmy's Vespa motorbike in Quadrophenia, what with all the mirrors, horns, etc. sticking out! Almost doesn't look like a mainframe TP monitor anymore! ...<IBM's CICS/App Server comparison justification argument deleted ...> Self-serving vendor SPAM follows: >CICS does all of these more thoroughly than any EJB server today, staying up for >weeks or months at a time, running millions of transactions a day meeting the >core busineess needs of tens of thousands of large companies. And next year >CICS will be an EJB server. > > >Ian McCallion A question for the list: Do you believe in re-incarnation? Please answer in 10,000 words or less. Bonus question: Do you believe that IBM would ever actually offer a non-proprietary product when it is in their best interest to not do so? Answer briefly, please! BTW, Ian, please don't take any of this personally. IBM is remarkably consistent in its support of CICS. It's just that I've heard it all before and am not surprised to see you repeating the updated version of it. I just don't want to hear it in this newsletter! I've made hundreds of thousands of dollars working with, interfacing to and converting from IBM systems to client-server and n-tier architectures since the mid-70's. IBM technology has been bery, bery good to me! Monetarily, that is! David Tomlinson President, EACG, Inc. [EMAIL PROTECTED] =========================================================================== To unsubscribe, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and include in the body of the message "signoff EJB-INTEREST". For general help, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and include in the body of the message "help".
