Hi,

in theory you only really need RBD if all you are developing is a web application to run on WAS on the i. However, there's not a huge price difference by going for RDi for SOA and you'll gain the tools in RDi for working with the IBM i system.

This has great advantages in providing a simple interface to work with the file system, commands, data access and so on integrated right into your development environment.

For instance, take one common task in this kind of environment:

You get a SAVF containing code and data from your customer for installation on your test system. You've got to transfer this to your IBM i from your PC and then restore the contents. Using the standard tools is quite a laborious process with multiple steps involved.

In RDi, you can drag and drop from your PC to the remote system, right-click on the SAVF, restore the content and immediately start viewing it.

Funnily enough in the workshops and demos that we've been doing, this little part of the demo probably gets the most positive reaction even from hardened RPG developers

I'd certainly recommend getting RDi even if you're not an RPG developer (and I'm not!).

Andy