FHG Archives - Page 2 of 144

Beyond Hello With Node.js

November 1, 2016 Aaron Bartell

In Why Node.js? we discussed Node.js and how to get up to speed with “hello world” from a program, the Node.js REPL (Read, Eval, Print, and Loop), and a web application. Now we will build on that knowledge by actually creating an application to show your team.

A gent by the name of Rainer Ross recently posted a link to the IBM i Professionals LinkedIn group declaring the benefits of the new Webix framework. (Webix.com is freemium software. There are free versions and paid versions. Please adhere to the licensing.) Because of my comments on his post I received an

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A Style Guide for Modern RPG and ILE, Part 2

October 18, 2016 Paul Tuohy

One of the basic principles of programming is that coding conventions (guidelines and standards) improve the readability of source code and make software maintenance easier. Coding conventions provide the foundation for developing applications that are easy to maintain and modify. This article completes the style guide to coding RPG programs using free-form RPG in an ILE environment started in A Style Guide For Modern RPG And ILE, Part 1.

Older Functions

When using free-form RPG (and nothing but free-form RPG), a lot of the old RPG “functionality” is no longer available (e.g., operation codes such as MOVE, MOVEL, GOTO,

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Replacing Source in The Twenty-First Century

October 18, 2016 Ted Holt

In Searching Source in The Twenty-First Century, I introduced the use of regular expressions for searching within a source member. Searching is great, but sometimes you need to replace what the system finds with something else. Here’s how to replace text when using regular expressions.

Let’s begin with a source member.

Notice that there are nine constants named Stat10 through Stat90. Let’s replace Stat with Status_. Obviously we can’t replace Stat with Status everywhere it’s found. That would be disastrous!

Instead, let’s use a regular expression to find the instances where Stat is followed by a digit.

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SQL PL Conditional Structures

October 18, 2016 Ted Holt

Recently I gave a brief introduction to the SQL Procedures Language, or SQL PL, a procedural language that works with the DB2 family of database management systems. Today I present the conditional structures, IF and CASE. If you so choose, you will master them in minutes.

But first, I need to clear up one matter. In my previous article, I referred to SQL PL as a proprietary language. Mike Cain, of the DB2 for i Center of Excellence, emailed to correct my error. Mike pointed out that SQL PL is based on SQL/Persistent Stored Modules (SQL/PSM), which is an

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A Style Guide For Modern RPG And ILE, Part 1

October 4, 2016 Paul Tuohy

One of the basic principles of programming is that coding conventions (guidelines and standards) improve the readability of source code and make software maintenance easier. Coding conventions provide the foundation for developing applications that are easy to maintain and modify. This article and an article to follow are a style guide to coding RPG programs using free-form RPG in an ILE environment.

When developing guidelines and standards, one of the major challenges is to determine what is a standard and what is a guideline. For example, code indentation would be a standard, but whether the code is indented by two,

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What’s In A Save File?

October 4, 2016 Ted Holt

Note: The code accompanying this article is available for download here.

Juliet wondered, “What’s in a name?” Ted wondered, “What’s in a save file?” The Display Save File (DSPSAVF) command would show me only so much, so I wrote a utility to give me more information. Maybe it will be helpful to you.

It’s common for me to exchange save files with other IBM i professionals. One problem I often run into is that someone (who might be me) cannot restore a save file to their system because the save file was created for a more recent release of

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Searching Source In The Twenty-First Century

October 4, 2016 Ted Holt

I love it when IBM gives me a way for me to do something I couldn’t do before. When I think of the tools I had to work with three decades ago, I could almost weep. Recently I had to search a source member for a string of characters, and I was overjoyed that LPEX gave me what SEU couldn’t.

To set the stage for my requirement, I should mention that as a matter of practice, I qualify data structures in my RPG programs. For me to omit the qualified keyword, I have to have a reason.

dcl-ds  Status       qualified;

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RPG Talks To Watson

September 27, 2016 Paul Tuohy

Note: The code accompanying this article is available for download here.

Yes, RPG can talk to Watson. No special software required, nothing to install, nothing to configure. You just need to be on V7R1, have the ability to use embedded SQL and write just a few lines of code–none of which are complicated. To see how it works, all you have to do is copy/paste the display file and RPG code in this article, compile and call.

On the off chance that you don’t know what Watson is, Watson is the IBM computer that, in 2011, competed

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A Brief Introduction To The SQL Procedures Language

September 27, 2016 Ted Holt

The SQL Procedures Language, or SQL PL, is a proprietary procedural language that IBM designed to work with the DB2 family of database management systems. I believe that it’s a good idea for anyone who works with DB2 to learn SQL PL. If you know RPG, CL, or COBOL, you’ll find it easy to learn.

SQL PL is available for all the DB2s. Knowledge of SQL PL that you acquire by working with DB2 for i applies in large part to the mainframe and LUW (Linux-Unix-Windows) versions. You can use SQL PL to create stored procedures, functions, and triggers. You

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How To Replace MOVE And MOVEL With Subprocedures

September 27, 2016 Ted Holt

Note: The code accompanying this article is available for download here.

Google “what shall we do about” and you’ll find a lot of issues that people are concerned about. Now that RPG has gone fully free-form, the question of concern for RPG programmers is “what shall we do about MOVE and MOVEL?” Faithful reader Mark sent me a solution he used in his shop and gave me permission to pass it along in case it may be of help to you.

I can think of two ways to replace MOVE and MOVEL with free-form code. The first is to

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