The following on comp.lang.cobol should give us some food for thought although the mainframe is now being used as a web server.
Clark Morris On Sat, 05 Jan 2008 11:22:26 -0600, in comp.lang.cobol Scott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >Howard Brazee <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in >news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]: > >> It's about allowing a student to connect his laptop computer to the >> Web, log on, and sign up for a class. It's about allowing a salesman >> to connect his laptop computer to the Web, enter his sales and pull up >> some graphs. >> >> The functionality is more than just the pretty face. > > >It is about a pretty face WITH functionality and you cannot have >a pretty face on the mainframe. Companies always want the pretty screens >and the mainframe loses because of it, in spite of its clear advantage in >almost every other area. > >I'm sorry to say but as a Systems Analyst, over and over again, users >and management are always more interested in how an application LOOKS >than in how it WORKS. Of course if it doesn't work right there is a big >problem. But the point is, in every phase of an application life cycle, >to the people outside of I.T. who hold the purse strings, LOOKING good >is always their first priority. And to THEM, looking good MEANS >functionality. That's what screws the mainframe. > >It may have cost IBM a pretty penny years ago to make graphic screens >but what is it costing them now? Short-sighted corporate mentality >loses the business again. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
