Four Hundred Monitor, June 28
June 28, 2017 Dan Burger
Jack Woehr duly notes IBM i open source proponents who are porting useful, popular open source to the i platform. But he also points to another path, one that he describes as object-disoriented. He can call it anything he wants, because he’s the one who blazed the trail. Woehr’s trail is generally a Java interpreter and specifically an interpretive form of JTOpen that makes it easier to encapsulate legacy IBM i as-is and offload the Web dev to the people who do Web dev best.
The quality of the products being produced in the open source community and the inclusiveness of the community makes it a force to be reckoned with.
Top Stories From Outside The Jungle
(Open Your i) What would you call a programming language created specifically for IBM i tasks? If I told you the language runtime is now an open-source project, would that change your answer? If this is the first time you’ve heard of Ublu, it’s time for you to be properly introduced.
(Computer Business Review) Open source software is growing exponentially in popularity – so much so that it is threatening to kill proprietary software by 2020. Or maybe even before. So, what contributed to open source’s strong hold on developers?
(CIO) Enterprise cloud adopters say they have been surprised by some of the lesser-documented challenges migrating to the cloud brings, such as the difficulty in changing traditional mindsets, the lack of visibility into the new infrastructure, the cost of data transfers, governance issues and how licensing agreements need to be revised or new ones negotiated.
(iCan) It’s important to take advice. It doesn’t matter if you run a small business in Fargo or a large one in Armonk. The IBM i advisory council members get insight into the platform roadmap and give IBM feedback on what it’s doing and what it’s not. There were three advisory council meetings in June. I’m sure there were some interesting discussions and I wish we could tell you about them. But there’s this thing called a nondisclosure agreement that keeps all discussions confidential.
(InformationWeek) When all the departments in an organization are connected, they can learn a lot from each other. That’s a core principle of DevOps. Systems thinking that includes experimentation/learning, and feedback should become second nature. Simple analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats help all department gain a greater self-awareness of their impact on how their business performs.
Redbooks, White Papers, and Other Resources
(Connectria) This recorded webinar on IBM i trends and directions presented by IBM i Chief Architect Steve Will discusses the strategy for IBM i on Power Systems, the IBM i roadmap, IBM i growth, and the IBM i place in cloud computing.
(IBM) The details of building cognitive applications with visual recognition are covered in volume three of a seven-piece collection of IBM Redbooks titled Building Cognitive Applications with IBM Watson Services. The series includes getting started, conversation services, visual recognition, natural languages classifier; language translators; speech-to-text and text-to-speech; and natural language understanding.
(Remain Software) This report examines how business changes influence IT and how application functionality can keep up with changing business systems. It also reveals the challenges faced by software development teams, how they relate to the competitiveness of your organization and what can be done to reduce the cost of IT.
(Seiden Group) This handout from Alan Seiden’s presentation titled “PHP for Batch Tasks on IBM i” includes tips for improving Web application performance. It focuses on front-end performance including topics such as request-response protocol, caching, creating favicons, the “KeepAlive” setting, compression to decrease file size, and tips for JavaScript and cascading style sheets.
(S4i Systems) Better Object Builder is a free and open source build system for the IBM i platform that is used to build native “QSYS” objects. It compiles objects that need recompiling (i.e. new or changed source code) and understands the relationships between objects—so, if an item changes, then it and everything depending on it will be rebuilt.
(TL Ashford) This paper examines three approaches to automated data collection integration with IBM System i. It identifies the integration traps commonly experienced by business and examines a better approach using native IBM i labeling software specifically designed for the IBM i architecture.
Chats, Webinars, Seminars, Shows, and Other Happenings
June 28 – Webinar – IBM i shops are beginning to hear and see the benefits of Node.js. In this online session, hosted by Profound Logic, the emphasis is on jumpstarting Node.js development, integrating new or converted Node.js applications with existing RPG applications, integrating disparate development environments, and adding Watson and Node Package Manager capabilities. The webinar begins at 10:30 a.m. Pacific Time.
July 20-22 — Costa Mesa, California – The OCEAN Tech Conference is featuring more than 45 sessions and more than 20 speakers over three days. Topics include SQL and DB2, systems management, RPG, RDi, open source, cloud and professional development. Standard sessions and a vendor expo take place on Thursday and Friday. Workshops and hands-on labs are scheduled Saturday. The list of presenters includes: Ted Holt, Scott Forstie, Jesse Gorzinski, Scott Klement, Alan Seiden, Charles Guarino, Aaron Bartell, and Mike Pavlak. The conference location is National University located at 3390 Harbor Boulevard near Orange County Airport.
September 19 — Schaumburg, Illinois – The 2017 Omni Technical Conference and Expo features IBM i on Power Systems education on important topics such as advanced RPG, DB2, SQL, application development, Web development, application modernization, security, modern toolsets, and systems administration. The conference will be held at the IBM Schaumburg offices.
October 2-4 — St. Louis, Missouri – The COMMON Fall Conference features technical sessions, workshops, certifications, networking opportunities, and a vendor expo. The session grid and speaker lineup has yet to be posted, but you can expect a mix of fundamental skills and new technologies. An early registration discount is available and hotel reservations can be made.
October 17-19 — Minneapolis, Minnesota – The twice-a-year, spring and fall, RPG & DB2 Summit returns to the upper Midwest for its next technical conference with an agenda that expands to cover new topics such as Python for RPGers, how to bring the power of Watson to RPG applications, and SQL aggregation. It also incorporates sessions that will introduce hidden gems in DB2 for i as well as anticipated Q4 2017 updates to the database. In addition to the three-day Summit, an optional fourth day of hands-on workshops October 16, provides intensive education into four technology areas — SQL, RSE/RDi, Service Programs or PHP. Workshop attendees choose one topic for the “deep dive.” An early registration discount is available through August 31.
