IBM Ships a Fix for Bugs in RDP 8.5

December 4, 2012 Alex Woodie

IBM last week issued a fixpack for Rational Developer for Power Systems (RDP) that addresses some of the shortcomings that developers have complained about with RDP version 8.5, a major new release of the IDE that was released earlier this year. In particular, Fixpack 1, or RDP version 8.5.1.

If the complaints that RDP users posted to the Midrange.com mailing list are any indication, RDP 8.5 was an exceptionally buggy release. Users posting to WDSCI-L (the product was formerly the WebSphere Developer Studio Client) complained about a number of problems with the integrated development environment (IDE).

One of the most cited problems was difficulty using the new Live Outline feature that IBM introduced with 8.5. Other problems include hanging on routine operations; the program endlessly trying to reconnect to unavailable wireless access points; save conflicts; validation errors; not being able to turn off certain resource-sucking features; and various other problems.

“Dear IBM _please_ test your products…,” wrote Jon Paris. “I have to say I’m very, very disappointed in this release. We seem to have gone back to the old unstable days of WDSC 7. I’ve had more things break in a week in RDP 8.5 that I had in a year with 8.0.3.”

At least five of the 50-plus IBM i-related fixes, or requests for enhancements (RFEs), in version 8.5.1 address various shortcomings in Live Outline features. Other aspects of the product that have been updated include Content Assist, Report Designer, the Remote Reconciler, and the new “hover” function introduced with 8.5. There were just a handful of RFEs for the AIX and Linux components of the product. There were also several new IBM i features added in 8.5.1.

The fixes were well-received by developers active on WDSCI-L. “Great stuff. Lots of huge improvements with this fixpack,” wrote one user.

To see the list of RFEs for 8.5.1, go to www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27024934.