Simon is doing a great job trying to identify what he has inherited, he is trying to stir the community to provide a SWOT analysis of Plex it self to see where we are and where we can go.
So I propose to be deliberately sweeping and confrontational to get people contributing and with the aim of outlining the potential paths for Plex to go (first sweeping statement, call it vision call it strategy, call mission, in essence how can plex help existing sites and attract new sites in the future)
Firstly please read https://communities.ca.com/web/ca-plex-ca-2e-global-user-community/message-board/-/message_boards/message/105029506?&#_19_message_105383400
Awesome post by Lorenz that summaries where we are at.
Now I see there being 3 options.
-
Consolidate
-
Reinvention
-
Continue as is
1. Consolidate - Upgrade the generators. Support proper ISERIES dev (ILE and DDL and SQL), Update C++ to use Visual studio 2015. I work with Java developers and at the moment they use Mongo and SOAPUI and MAVERIK. In essence this is big data, automated testing and wait for it MARVERIK allows auto generation of code to the code base for example when an interface changes, then a nightly build is triggered to build the code base and then automated testing is triggered...all ready for the developer to see the next morning....now we as plex developers are so so so very far from competing with this. It is embarrassing for me to remember I told them when i arrived a year ago that plex 'did java'. we don't. So consolidation means to upgrade the generators and integrated development environment because we are not integrated.
2. Reinvention - Obsydian was the Client Server tool, that vision is what got us here. But that architecture is gone. Why not become WEB Server tool or MOBILE Server tool. Make no bones about it that this is what we aim to do. As companies evolve they often make a 360 move why not Plex. Why don't we aim to be CLOUD tool or Big data tool, yes we used to be client server but now our focus has moved solely to ...
3. Continue as is - Not a bad option just need to be clear on it so sites can see if their strategies can be supported by plex
Something that was once a strength I believe has become a weakness wrongly or rightly. Consider this, Obsydian allowed one developer to do all, software houses considered this viable and looked for tools to do this. But today there are so many coding paradigms any tool that professes to be able to do this may not be telling the truth. I believe Plex falls into this trap. The strategy cant be to support ALL as this cant be done effectively. As I have traveled across countries and business doing plex I have noticed over time this one person doing all is hurting the actual code output. It is not as robust as my java partners. When people were asked at the conference who did automated testing there was only two hands raised (one was mine) out of a room of 20 plex people, maybe this Plex culture, Strategy on one person does all, is now not a strength but becoming a liability.
The Elevator Pitch post is a good one but I probably should delete my posting about conviction as i don't believe 'It does allow one developer to do .net, java, rpg. ' as this statement can not pass anyone with knowledge of the different languages. This is not about generation of code as this will always be bloated etc etc but about the generators being old, put simply. I always thought my friend Charles Wilt was being a bit unfair about the RPG generator and saying it did not really support modern RPG, but that was because I was not educated and was stuck in the nineties, he was right, I was wrong he had every right to say the generator was failing to provide the support he need for his site.
In conclusion if you don't contribute then we will miss this chance to help CA make your decision.
Rant maybe but want all those plex sites to contribute not just the usual suspects. If there are only a handful of posts etc Simon can not use it as compelling evidence when asking for budget which realistically Plex needs in large amounts.