OO ABAP + Performance

[Former Member]

Hi all…

I have recently started working in an organization as an ABAP programmer. Earlier, as part of my curriculum, I have designed a couple of systems using UML and coded the same in JAVA. Having worked on OO systems, I have a few questions to ask about ABAP and Web AS.

1) Does a company implementing SAP 6.0/ECC 6 have to decide in advance whether it will be coding its business logic/applications in JAVA or ABAP? Or Wes AS can process both languages once installed.

2) If a program is written in OO ABAP as well as in JAVA for a given business scenario (using the same OO (UML) structure) and executed on a Web AS, which one will perform better? Why?

3) Why is it that organizations, in spite of the visible benefits of OO programming, are unwilling to let go of procedural ABAP and adapt OO ABAP? Anyways, they don’t have to convert their existing code but just to begin any new development using OO concepts. Is it because programs written in ABAP are usually not that complex to be modeled in OO concepts or there are not many people who know both ABAP and OO concepts.

Regards,

Anoop Sahu

[Former Member]

Hi all…

I have recently started working in an organization as an ABAP programmer. Earlier, as part of my curriculum, I have designed a couple of systems using UML and coded the same in JAVA. Having worked on OO systems, I have a few questions to ask about ABAP and Web AS.

1) Does a company implementing SAP 6.0/ECC 6 have to decide in advance whether it will be coding its business logic/applications in JAVA or ABAP? Or Wes AS can process both languages once installed.

2) If a program is written in OO ABAP as well as in JAVA for a given business scenario (using the same OO (UML) structure) and executed on a Web AS, which one will perform better? Why?

3) Why is it that organizations, in spite of the visible benefits of OO programming, are unwilling to let go of procedural ABAP and adapt OO ABAP? Anyways, they don’t have to convert their existing code but just to begin any new development using OO concepts. Is it because programs written in ABAP are usually not that complex to be modeled in OO concepts or there are not many people who know both ABAP and OO concepts.

Regards,

Anoop Sahu

[RichHeilman]

1) If a company is implementing ECC, it is all written in ABAP. THe R/3(ECC) backend system is comprised entirely in ABAP, so there is no decision, if you want to develop an application in ECC(R/3), you use ABAP. If you want to develop a java based application to access the ECC backend, you may do so using tools like jCo and JCA, and the webdynpro java environment supplies tools for you to access the backend. You can not directly access the ABAP backend data/tables from a java application, you must use the data access tools mentioned. Of course you need the java add on, or a standalone java application server to do this.

3) A lot of shops are used to the procedural ABAP model and have not yet had a need to implement an application using OO concepts, there are advantages, but an application does not have to use it. In some cases, it is a better way to go, but really it is all about the design, using ABAP OO is really not worth it without a good design. It is advantagious for ABAPers to imbraced ABAP OO concepts as this will be the design paradigm of future developments in ECC. In order to understand how a standard program works, they will need to know OO concepts.

Regards,

Rich Heilman