While the changes in data definition introduced by the new free-form RPG support are great, I have to admit that it was probably the free-form file specifications that raised the biggest cheer from me. Let me tell you why.

I have always hated F-specs. Those nasty little single column codes drove me crazy. I could never remember what went where. I know I’m not the only one. All of the programmers we have taught RPG to over the last few years have also had similar problems coming to grips with with F-specs.

I am reminded of this almost every time

In our RPG programs we protect input operations (CHAIN, READ, etc.) with an error-handling routine that notifies users of record locks. That is, the RecLock subroutine sends a break message to the locking user and displays a window with lock information to the requesting user. This logic is not working in one of our programs, and we can’t determine why. Can you help?

–Kent

I’m glad Kent wrote with this problem. It gives me an opportunity to write about a topic that has been on my mind for some time.

But first, here’s a trivia question for you to think

After receiving reader email about my recent tip on how to port IBM i user profiles from one partition to another, I found there were two items that deserved more explanation and correction: 1) Restoring user profiles for multiple users; and 2) related parameters and objects that a restored profile needs. Here are some corrections and additional information that fill in the gaps that were missing from my previous article.

Correcting How To Use RSTAUT For Multiple Restored User Profiles

Reader David Miller asked me to clarify what I meant when I said the following about restoring private authorities for