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Installing CODE on Small PCs Dear Readers: Jon Paris and Susan Ganter of Partner400 recently helped me when I attempted to install the CODE source editor on a PC with only 128 megabytes of memory. Today I'm passing their sage wisdom along to you. 
--Ted When IBM bundled the compilers and workstation tools into the WDS/400 package, a great many RPG programmers breathed a sigh of relief. It no longer mattered that their MIS manager turned a deaf ear to their pleas to buy better development tools. They already owned them! Time to order the CDs or dig them out from the package that arrived with that shiny new iSeries box! Sadly, for many, this relief is short lived. The Eclipse-based WDSc [WebSphere Development Studio client] workbench requires a BIG PC. By that, we mean a minimum of a 512 Mb Pentium III system. And that really is the bare minimum for even marginally acceptable performance. We run it on 2-GHz Pentium IVs with 512 Mb, and there is still time to go make the coffee while the workbench loads. "But what about the CODE editor? That doesn't need that much horsepower does it?" we hear you ask. Good question. CODE is indeed a good fit for the smaller PC. The problem is that IBM does not currently offer a selective install. The result is that most people put the CD in the drive and give up when they do not see an option to just install CODE. So are you condemned to living with SEU until you can upgrade your PC? Not necessarily. Read on, and all will be revealed. If you have Windows XP or 2000 and a couple of gig of disk space available, you can go ahead and install the whole of WDSc. It will be a very long process. You can speed it up considerably by copying from the included DVD to a network drive and installing from there. If you have no DVD drive available, copy the complete content of all four CDs to a single subdirectory on the network drive and use that. There are a couple of duplicate files, but they can be ignored, as the contents are identical. This may seem illogical, but the install copies seemingly thousands of small files, and the overhead of reading the directory entries from the CD really slows the process down. With all the files in one place, you can answer the initial install questions and head for home, leaving the PC to get on with it. Once the install completes, and following any required reboot, you will be presented with a menu that offers the option to "complete the installation of CODE and VARPG." Take this option. (You may want to go get lunch while it runs.) Once it has completed, you can run CODE or VARPG from the Start menu, just like in the good old days. From Start, then Programs, select IBM WebSphere Studio. You will see two options, both of which say "Development Studio Client for iSeries." (Confusing, isn't it?) Take the one with the folder on it and the little arrow on the right-hand end (not the one with the purple flower on it). There you'll find all the options for CODE and VARPG. Of course, WDSc is still taking up a lot of disk space, but at least you can use CODE and VARPG. Of course, if you can beg, borrow, or steal some additional memory (and it is cheap these days), a boost up to 256 Mb or even 512 Mb will allow you to experiment with WDSc and perhaps convince your manager that an upgraded PC really would pay for itself. Jon Paris and Susan Gantner are cofounders of Partner400, an iSeries education and mentoring company. Together with Bob Cozzi, they recently organized the RPG World conference. The next conference will be held in November and includes sessions on both CODE and WDSc.
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