Keep RPG Code Current with Linoma Toolbox

Published: April 4, 2006

by Dan Burger

Applications grow old just like application programmers. Both require a certain amount of maintenance or production starts to slide. Although productivity tools are designed to improve applications, they also improve the developer. It all has to do with staying up to date and getting the most out of what you have. We are all familiar with the term application modernization. This is one form of addressing that topic.

Linoma Software's assortment of productivity tools, which it calls the RPG Toolbox, has received repeated updates in order to stay current with modern programming methods and syntax. The newest enhancements include a native iSeries command for modernizing either RPG III or RPG IV source code, which can be converted into either RPG IV fixed-format or /FREE form RPG. The benefits include writing applications faster and maintaining source code more effectively. Linoma uses free format RPG exclusively for in-house development and recommends it to its customers. Free format RPG escapes the fixed-column format of traditional RPG making it similar to the coding style of other languages such as Java and Visual Basic.

When using the RPG Toolbox, commands can be launched from an iSeries command line, PDM, or from WebSphere Development Studio client, and there are more than 40 configurable options.

More than 200 predefined source code snippets are included to help programmers build new applications faster. The new code is used for creating embedded SQL statements in RPG apps.

RPG Toolbox 3.50 is supported on AS/400 versions V4R2 through V5R4. Pricing is processor based from $995 to $1,995. It is available immediately. Trial software, product demos, and more information can be found here.