V5R3 CL Enhancements on V5R2

Hey Ted:

I have heard that the V5R3 CL compiler enhancements would be moved to OS/400 V5R2. I have searched V5R2 PTF cover letters for more information, but without success. Do you have a PTF number for the V5R3 CL enhancements in V5R2?

--Bob

You can use the V5R3 compiler enhancements under V5R2, but you can't compile them under V5R2. I checked with Guy Vig of IBM, who spoke about the V5R3 compiler enhancements at the recent COMMON conference. Here's his reply.

There is a zero percent probability that IBM will ship updates to any pre-V5R3 release of the CL compiler to allow programs using the new feature to compile on a pre-V5R3 iSeries system. I hope Bob didn't get confused about this at my COMMON presentation. I try to make it clear that we will allow the customer to compile on V5R3 using the new CL enhancements (except multiple files) and specify TGTRLS(*PRV) or TGTRLS(V5R2M0), and take that program back to a V5R2 system, but we do not support using any of the new CL compiler enhancements and compiling on a V5R2 system. The whole idea was to get CL application developers that support multiple systems that are a mix of V5R2 and V5R3 systems (or partitions) to start using the new compiler features (e.g., integer variables, loops, longer character variables) sooner than later.

I wrote about the V5R3 CL compiler enhancements for this newsletter in two articles.

• "V5R3 CL Programming Enhancements, Part 1"
  
  
• "V5R3 CL Programming Enhancements, Part 2"

--Ted