-
Open Source IBM i Build Tool Now Supports VS Code
July 24, 2024 Alex Woodie
A new release of the open source iBuild tool now supports VS Code, the developer of the tool recently announced. The new release also now fully supports ILE, which is critical to the future of the IBM i platform, the iBuild creator says.
iBuild is a free build tool that automates the task of running all of a developer’s RPG source code through the IBM compilers. It’s been in active development for about eight years and can be downloaded from sourceforge.net/projects/ibuild.
What makes iBuild unique is that it puts instructions on how to build objects into the header of …
Read more -
Rocket DevOps Gets Update for Free Format RPG, VS Code, and DORA
April 24, 2024 Alex Woodie
The latest release of Rocket’s change management tool for IBM i brings several new capabilities, including improved support for VS Code and Free Form RPG. Rocket DevOps version 10.3.1 also brings better code testing capabilities and will help companies comply with new regulations, such as the EU’s Digital Operations Resilience Act (DORA).
Rocket Software added support for the browser-based development environment VS Code last fall with the launch of Rocket DevOps version 10.2.2. Customers will find the new release of Rocket DevOps improves on that initial VS Code support, says Puneet Kohli, the president of the Rocket’s Application Modernization Business …
Read more -
Guru: Getting Started With The Code 4 i Extension Within VS Code
January 22, 2024 Gregory Simmons
The Code for IBM i extension is growing in popularity and has certainly become my favorite source code editor. This article is not an attempt to convince you to drop RDi and switch to VS Code. Rather, I aim to share with you a few of my favorite settings and features in VS Code.
Join In The Discussion
Can’t figure out how to do something? Have a suggestion for a new enhancement? I am continually impressed with the speed at which I get responses when I post something. The team of coders and contributors to the Code for IBM i …
Read more -
IBM Releases Db2 For i Extensions For VS Code
October 9, 2023 Alex Woodie
Interested in developing new ILE applications in VS Code that utilize the Db2 for i database? Then you’re in luck, because IBM recently created and released vscode-db2i, an open source database extension for Code for IBM i, the uber popular development environment that enables ILE programming in VS Code.
It is tough to overstate the popularity of Code for IBM i, which Liam Allan created and released just over two years ago. The open source plug-in provides ILE functionality for Microsoft’s VS Code, enabling programmers to write and edit RPG, COBOL, C, and CL code in the lightweight, browser-based …
Read more -
Rocket DevOps Now Supports VS Code
September 25, 2023 Alex Woodie
IBM i developers who prefer to code within VS Code can now get all the goodness of automated change management and CI/CD with Rocket Software’s DevOps offering, which now supports the popular browser-based development environment, among other new features.
VS Code, which is short for Visual Studio Code, has rocketed to popularity in the IBM i community over the past couple of years. That popularity is due in large part to Code for IBM i, the Liam Allan-developed plug-in that brings ILE language support to Microsoft’s open source IDE.
Allan, who is known to despise IBM’s full-fledged Java-based IDE, …
Read more -
Google Introduces VS Code-Based IDE, Project IDX
August 9, 2023 Alex Woodie
Google this week took the covers off Project IDX, a new integrated development environment (IDE) based on Microsoft’s Visual Studio Code that’s designed to assist developers in creating full-stack, multiplatform applications with pre-built integrations to AI models.
Google’s new Project IDX, which is based on VS Code (via Code OSS), is a browser-based IDE that allows developers to create Web and mobile applications. Currently in preview, it’s designed to work with languages like JavaScript and Dart via Web application frameworks, such as Angular, Flutter, React, and Vue.js. Support for Python and Go languages is in the works, the company …
Read more -
Midrange Dynamics Hooks Change Management Into VS Code
May 10, 2023 Alex Woodie
Developers using VS Code to create native IBM i applications can now use Midrange Dynamics’s change management (CM) software to properly track their work. Midrange Dynamics North America (MDNA) announced at the recent POWERUp conference in Denver, Colorado. MDNA says Midrange Dynamics will also support Merlin in the future.
Demand for VS Code is currently booming among the IBM i installed base, who have been clamoring for a speedier alternative to IBM’s sluggish fat client, Rational Developer for i (RDi), for a long time. Thanks to Liam Allan and his Code for IBM i extensions, which enables ILE languages in …
Read more -
VS Code Is The Full Stack IDE For IBM i
March 15, 2023 Jeff Tickner
Back in January, we talked a bit about the rise of the VS Code integrated development environment that was open sourced by Microsoft back in 2015 and that has been increasingly adopted by developers on all kinds of platforms, not just Windows Server. This week, we want to talk about the new features we are exposing in VS Code for users of the application development tooling available from ARCAD Software.
First of all, we have brought the cross reference information in our ARCAD Observer tool into VS Code in a way that developers can access the object-level and field-level …
Read more -
IBM i Debugger Comes to VS Code
February 15, 2023 Alex Woodie
At long last, IBM i developers can now debug their code in a development environment other than Rational Developer for IBM i or Merlin. The news came last week, when Liam Allan announced that the ILE debugging feature is now available in Code for IBM i, his third-party, IBM i-centric plug-in for Visual Studio Code.
“Debugging ILE COBOL and RPGLE inside @code like it’s any other day!” Allan tweeted from his @Notesofbarry Twitter account. “I’m pumped for this release #ibmi.”
Indeed, this day has been a long time in coming. Allan, who has not been shy about sharing his dislike …
Read more -
Realizing The Promise Of Cross Platform Development With VS Code
January 25, 2023 Jeff Tickner
An integrated development environment is like a tractor or a truck, or indeed any other kind of tool. There are farmers who want a tractor from John Deere or Ford or Massey-Ferguson, contractors who want a Ford or Dodge or GMC truck, and carpenters and electricians who use Dewalt or Milwaukee Electric or Makita cordless tools.
No matter the choice of tools, ultimately these blue collar workers are going to farm and build things, and the choice of tool should not interfere with that effort. White collar – or far more likely no collar T shirt – programmers are no …
Read more