Anatomy of a P-Field
by Dominic Lefevre

It may appear that text-based screens are dead, but looks can be deceiving. Text-based interfaces, or "green screens," are still very widely used, and not just on iSeries systems. What's more, text-based systems are not going away anytime soon, because they're effective and easy to develop. As long as we still have to write them, we might as well have a little fun, right? One of the ways to have fun writing green-screen programs is by using P-fields. READ MORE >

Use System Naming Convention and Library List with .NET Managed Provider
by Michael Sansoterra

The iSeries .NET managed provider, first released in iSeries Access V5R3, lacked the ability to specify a library list and the SQL naming convention in connection strings. We were stuck with the defaults. However, with the introduction of service pack SI15176, in early September, IBM has enhanced the provider to set the library list and naming convention in the connection string. READ MORE >

  Handling Oversized Numbers Gracefully
  Hey, Ted:

These MCH1210 errors are driving me nuts. We run packaged software and a lot of the database fields are bigger than we need them to be. I often use smaller fields on displays and reports in order to save room. Then one day, for some reason, a field has a bigger value than I expected and an EVAL command blows up with MCH1210 (the target for a numeric operation is too small to hold the result). Is there any way in all this new-fangled RPG stuff to tell the system to print hash marks and keep on trucking? READ MORE >

Four Hundred Stack Reader Feedback

Thanks for all the great feedback on the name change to IT Jungle . . . And in the "If It Were Only That Easy" Column: An IT Jungle Magazine? . . . Feedback on "As I See It: The Quiet Among Us" . . . Feedback on "OpenPowers Prove IBM Can Do Puppy i5s" . . . Feedback on "New TPC Benchmarks Are on the Horizon" . . . Feedback on "Tales of an iSeries Offshore Outsourcer" . . . Feedback on "As I See It: Where Has All the Training Gone?" . . . Feedback on "Using Member Filters in Remote Systems Explorer" . . . Feedback on "Using DRDA to Execute SQL Statements on Another iSeries" . . . Feedback on "Admin Alert: Hitting the Limits of the QNTC File System" . . . Feedback on "Command Authority and LOGCMD" . . . Feedback on "A Generic Command Choice Program" . . . Feedback on "Encapsulating File Access in a Service Program" . . . Feedback on "Listing Spool Files" . . . READ MORE >

T.L. Ashford
ProData Computer Svcs
WorksRight Software