Open Source Is Alive and Well in OS/400 Land

by Alex Woodie

Despite its proprietary nature and reclusive status, the iSeries has a bright future when it comes to open- source application development.

Even without Linux or PASE, however, there is still plenty of open-source application development taking place on the iSeries, using OS/400's practically native development language, RPG, as well as Java and C. There is also a good deal of OS/400 freeware and shareware trading hands over the Internet, spanning the spectrum from utilities to ERP modules to blackjack games.

Tools, Tools, Everywhere Tools

But most (though, certainly, not all) of the iSeries-based freeware and open-source development taking place today involves OS/400 utilities of some kind.

There are several good places to look for iSeries freeware and open-source development projects.

For example, Netshare400.com rents time on AS/400 and iSeries machines over the Internet, and posts links to RPG, CL, COBOL, and DDS source code on its home page.

Freeas400software.com has several links to other iSeries freeware sites, including downloads for the free Landmark inventory- management and purchase-order-management applications.

RPG programmer and author Brad Stone's Web site, BVSTools.com has various freeware and shareware utilities for AS/400 and iSeries.

Open Source/400 provides some links but doesn't look like it's been updated recently.

IGNITe/400 also has begun an open- source project, with SoftLanding Systems, to develop tools for managing WebSphere.

There are many other good tools available, like DBG/400, a free database utility developed by Martin Rowe, a programmer for an English furniture manufacturer. There's an AS/400 Telnet applet written in Java available from Modern Minds. There's WRKDBF (which stands for "Work with Database File"), an AS/400 file editor developed Bill Reger for Levitz Furniture Corporation.

The Open-Source Ethos

In the OS/400 world, open-source development and freeware often go hand in hand. Open-source proponents say the applications and tools they develop and give away are often better than their commercial counterparts, for several reasons. Primarily, they cite the fact people who write open-source software are involved in running a business on a daily basis and have a better understanding of the real- world requirements of the tools they use.

David Morris, an AS/400 programmer from Montana and one of the editors of Guild Companies' twice- weekly newsletter Midrange Guru, OS/400 Edition, made available for download the pre-alpha version of a new open-source developer's utility called the iSeries Toolkit (at SourceForge.net). The iSeries Toolkit includes several RPG IV and Java utilities that support dynamic SQL, messaging, Integrated File System, user spaces, user indexes, dynamic native file access, XML, and source generation.

"I started the iSeries Toolkit project after being exposed to several other open-source projects," Morris said. "My exposure came while writing a shop-floor package to manage a manufacturing facility. My colleagues and I ended up using open-source development tools."

For Morris, open-source development provided functionality that was equal to what could be bought and got the development process working much more quickly. "Instead of writing proposals that focused on return-on-investment for various products, we were able to focus on whether the open-source tool would allow us to do the job," he said. "We had a very tight timeline for our first project and were able to get working more quickly. Later, we recognized that there was a large community using these tools, and that the support for these tools--either contract or free--exceeds what most vendors provide."

Another open-source proponent, Craig Rutledge, has also made public a collection of OS/400 utilities that he developed at work. Rutledge maintains that providing open-source has improved and refined the functionality of his 43 utilities.

Like Morris, Rutledge found the online iSeries community to be a satisfying resource for developing and using open-source software. In fact, Rutledge's primary goal for making his 43 utilities public was to get feedback from users in order to improve his software. "I bang the software really hard before it is ever released," says Rutledge. "But if someone does find a problem, I appreciate them taking the time to let me know about it."

If you ask Rutledge, the suggestions are the fun part. He uses community feedback not only to determine what functionality to add to his existing tools but also to generate ideas for new ones.

Where in the World Is WyattERP?

In 1999, a group of RPG programmers got together to forge an open-source ERP suite that anyone could download, alter, and implement, called WyattERP. Led by James Kilgore, president of Progressive Data Systems, WyattERP was loosely based on the RPG coding done for the PDS ERP suite, providing a basic ERP shell program with most of the industry-specific components removed.

Unlike some open-source projects, WyattERP also came with a business model. At some point, the plan for WyattERP was to generate a revenue stream for installations and other services. As of yet, that hasn't happened. After coming on with a bang in 1999 and garnering media attention in 2000, WyattERP was scarcely heard from in 2001.

WyattERP is still moving forward, albeit at a slower pace than before, says Kilgore. Several WyattERP modules are available for download from Kilgore's Web page, including modules for accounts receivable, accounts payable, sales analysis, and general ledger.

At least 12 companies have downloaded portions of WyattERP and are privately providing feedback to Kilgore, who would prefer that they post their remarks to the WyattERP mailing list, hosted by MIDRANGE dot COM. But Kilgore is thankful for their feedback nonetheless. "They've been kind enough to let me use them as guinea pigs to tests WyattERP."

Kilgore and his team are closing in on finishing the payroll component of WyattERP and have also received many requests to have the order-entry module completed. But, right now, there's no sense of urgency to round out the suite of applications. "This is open-source development," says Kilgore. "You'll have it when we get to it."

In the meantime, will the availability of open-source Linux applications on the iSeries remove the need for WyattERP?

"No," says Kilgore. "Linux is an operating system that's best suited for Web-facing applications--storefront applications. Whereas traditional RPG is for back-end accounting applications."

There have been attempts to write open-source accounting applications in Linux, to no avail, says Kilgore. "You still can't beat writing accounting apps in RPG," he says. "RPG is, in my opinion, the best language for writing accounting applications."