Rocket Seagull ‘100 Percent Committed’ to RPG Open Access

October 25, 2011 Alex Woodie

Rocket Software and its Seagull subsidiary are “100 percent committed” to using Rational Open Access: RPG Edition software to help customers modernize and extend their 5250 applications, a senior Rocket product manager told IT Jungle last week, putting to rest any question regarding the company’s support and future plans for using the IBM technology.

“Rocket Software is 100 percent committed to OA:RPG,” Sam Elias, Rocket vice president and general manager of application development, integration, and modernization, said via email last week. “As is our standard practice, we have not yet publicly announced the features for our next release of LegaSuite [currently scheduled for Q2 2012]. But since there has been some confusion about our support for OA:RPG, I can tell you that support for OA:RPG has been part of our LegaSuite 6 roadmap, is a part of our LegaSuite 6 roadmap, and will be included in our upcoming 6.1 release.”

The confusion stemmed from comments a Rocket product manager made to this newsletter regarding RPG Open Access during an interview regarding the recent release of LegaSuite version 6.0. The product manager said he didn’t hear many customers asking Seagull to incorporate the new technology, and said that if there was a big demand for it, “it would have been in the product a long time ago.”

As it turns out, RPG Open Access is still in Rocket’s plans for the flagship Seagull modernization software. The company made a big splash about supporting RPG Open Access last year, when it publicly announced its RPG Open Access plans and discussed those plans with the IBM i media.

Whatever the cause of the miscommunication, IT Jungle is glad to set the record straight. The book isn’t fully written yet on LegaSuite Release 6, and customers can count on RPG Open Access features being added in the months and years to come.