It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of RSE (Remote System Explorer). When I’m talking to developers who still use SEU to edit their source code, I always nag them to give RSE a try. Assuming I manage to convince them to take a look at it, usually the next topic of discussion relates to whether that means they should load the RSE that’s in WDSC or the version that’s in RDi.

First, some background for any of you out there who may not be aware of what the quandary is about. RSE first appeared as one part WDSC

We have RPG programs that use SQL cursors to sequentially retrieve data. If a program cancels and I call it again, the program resumes processing a cursor where it left off. I have to sign off and back on in order to restart from the top. Why doesn’t the program start over from the beginning of the returned data set?

–Lynne

The behavior you’re witnessing comes from three contributing factors, Lynne. First, your program was compiled to close the cursor when the activation group is destroyed. Second, your program is running in the default activation group. Third, you are not

I’m performing a disaster recovery review for a client. The client backs up only i5/OS user libraries daily. He doesn’t back up program libraries, QUSRSYS, QGPL, or QSYS2. He doesn’t process the SAVSECDTA, SAVCFG, SAVDLO, or SAV commands daily or weekly, either. He’s adamant that he has enough libraries to perform a successful system recovery. And it gets worse. . . .

The user only does a complete system save if he loads cumulative PTFs or does a hardware upgrade. He didn’t perform a complete system save before the last hardware upgrade, and he used an old tape to perform