Why a blog about LANSA
There are many excellent application development technologies out there. Over the last 30 years I have had opportunities to work with many of them and built many enterprise applications with interfaces that included character based, web, windows, XML. In 1998 I had pleasure to be introduced to one language that I believe really stands out. The LANSA vision is built around the concept of a central repository. This repository manages business rules, triggered activities, dictionary of files and fields, reusable components, and many more great features. The power behind LANSA is that using one base language, a developer can wrap any presentation (including native iPad/Android) around this repository; It has multilingual features and supports multiple databases types. To top it all off, should you decide to move your application to a new platform, it supports Linux, Windows, iSeries production environments.
Having taught LANSA for many years, I have found that it is very easily understood by all the students and they are off and running very quickly. It has standard structured language constructs that many of us have studied while learning programming. It’s easy to learn, and produces enterprise quality applications. There are other languages which I enjoy using, but you can definitely say that I am a LANSA Fanboy.
Why LANSA cookbook
Purpose of the blog: LANSA as a software vendor has some incredible documentation, and if you have not yet checked it out…you can download it here. However, I believe that
us computer geeks often go to Google first when we get stuck or need tips/techniques, or need to see some sample code. I have for a long time envisioned growing an online presence that would assist developers, not by posting questions, but by posting solutions….solutions that may help others doing a Google search. The blog is inspired by Perl Cookbook, one of my go-to books from the mid-90s for a popular language that I was using at that time. Not sure if I am up to the challenge, but I am going to give it a shot.
Format: I decided to put this collaboration site up in blog format to give me more control on the content and format. This seems like the right format at this moment, however, there is a possibility of change if at some point I feel that another vehicle will deliver the message better. I already know that my solutions will not always be the most elegant, or the only solution for that matter. They might be downright clumsy, but they are a starting point. Comments will be left enabled (but moderated). I encourage you to comment if you think that there is a better/cleaner/faster/bigger/stronger/prettier solution or a way to improve mine. Other sites have been successful using this model. E.g. See this PHP documentation page to see how contributors add to the information available on the page.
Networking: This blog is meant to be for the good of the community. I am putting out a call to guest bloggers. If you want to post a solution, please write it up and send to me, and I will put it up as a guest post under your name. I would also like to reach out to all you LANSA developers and use this as a platform for networking. Please feel free to make contact with me if you have any questions or want to network.
Andy
LinkedIn
https://plus.google.com/+AndyBain
@jandybain