Merlin Development Framework Now Supports IBM i 7.3

July 12, 2022 Alex Woodie

Big Blue has decided to support IBM i version 7.3 with Merlin, the new application development framework that was introduced in May as part of the IBM i 7.5 launch. The decision should help widen the potential user base for Merlin, even while discouraging operating system upgrades.

Merlin is a new software package from IBM designed to enable IBM i developers to create new ILE programs from scratch or to modernize existing ones. The software, which is officially called Modernization Engine for Lifecycle Integration, is based on a mix of open source and proprietary tools from IBM, Red Hat, and ARCAD Software that are packaged up to run on the Power server via Red Hat OpenShift containers and accessed through a Web browser.

Specifically, Merlin uses Eclipse Theia, an open source version of Microsoft’s original VS Code, and Eclipse Che, which provides the workplace server that creates, manages, and orchestrates the IDE in a Kubernetes environment. Merlin also borrows several tools from ARCAD, including an RPG conversion tool, an impact analysis tool, a tool for integrating IBM i with Git, and build management software. IBM developed its own integration code to incorporate support for Jenkins, the software for CI/CD pipelines.

As a lightweight, browser-based integrated development environment (IDE), Merlin will provide an alternative to Rational Developer for i (RDi), a feature-rich Java-based IDE that has been IBM’s official development tool for many years. While there are many devotees to RDi, there are also many in the IBM i community who dislike the software. That has helped to drive demand for alternative solutions, such as Liam Allan’s open source Code for IBM i, which is also based on VS Code (Allan just joined IBM, by the way; stay tuned for more coverage of that move).

IBM hopes to use Merlin as a springboard to not only reach new users, but also to help them begin developing modern applications using modern methods. That means using a Web-based IDE like VS Code and using DevOps and CI/CD techniques, as personified with Git and Jenkins, all of which is enabled in Merlin. The fact that Merlin is deployed in a Docker container managed by Red Hat’s Kubernetes distribution is the frosting on the modern cake.

When IBM introduced IBM i 7.5 and 7.4 TR6 back in early May, Merlin was the top draw. Numerous IBM i experts highlighted Merlin as the number one new feature delivered with the spring announcement from IBM (Big Blue typically makes one big IBM i announcement in the spring and another in the fall). At COMMON’s POWERUp conference later in the month in New Orleans, Merlin was the topic of many conversations, not to mention the subject of many sessions.

IBM restricted Merlin to IBM i 7.4 and higher when it launched the product. This wasn’t surprising, as IBM didn’t initially release a TR for IBM i 7.3, which debuted in 2016 and which IBM has committed to officially support through the end of next year (although IBM did subsequently release IBM i 7.3 TR12, which it claims is not a TR, even though it has the TR name).

IBM i 7.3’s popularity has increased every year it’s been available, according to HelpSystems IBM i Marketplace surveys.

However, IBM evidentially had second thoughts about leaving 7.3 out of the ballgame with Merlin, as last week’s announcement shows. This is good news for IBM i shops, as it will open up an important new product for their use, and (hopefully) get them on the road to developing modern applications in the modern method.

It’s also good for IBM, as it will significantly expand the potential user base for the new product, which is not free. IBM i 7.3 remains by far the most widely used release of the operating system, with nearly twice the number of users as 7.4 in 2021, according to HelpSystems’ 2022 IBM i Marketplace Survey. That survey shows that 7.3 has been the most popular OS release for the past four years. In fact, deployments of 7.3 have increased every year since it became available in 2016, even while newer releases have been in the market.

But there’s also a potential downside to the move, which likely reflects why IBM initially decided to restrict Merlin to 7.4 and 7.5 in the beginning. While adding support for 7.3 nearly doubles the potential user base for Merlin, it also eliminates Merlin as a reason to upgrade from 7.3 to 7.4 or 7.5.

IBM is known to use such carrots as enticements to get its installed base moving forward. In this case, it backtracked, possibly because its original assumptions behind the willingness of 7.3 users to upgrade specifically to get Merlin was off the mark, or because the potential benefits to enabling modernization via Merlin was just too great to exclude the bulk of the user base on IBM i 7.3 – who, by the way, are still under mainstream support and who gain support for the new Power10 processors with the release of 7.3 TR12.

Or maybe it’s a mixture of both. In any case, the user base will likely be stronger for it, which is good for business and good for the IBM i community.

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