• Large Subprocedure Return Values: V7 Brings Relief

  November 17, 2010 Jon Paris

  In Subprocedure Return Values–Food for Thought, I discussed the performance implications of returning large variables from subprocedures. With IBM i 7.1, IBM has added new RPG compiler features that improve performance when passing large parameters. The conclusion of my previous tip was that you should use a conventional parameter–instead of returning a value–when large values such as result sets were involved. The downside of such a change of course is that you lose the ability to know exactly which field was changed by a procedure call. Seeing: GetCustomers( state: customerList ); in the code just doesn’t make what is

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• Find Hidden IFS Files

  November 17, 2010 Ted Holt

  Everybody knows that the Work with Links (WRKLNK) command lists all the files (including subdirectory entries) in an IFS directory, right? Well, to quote Ira Gershwin, it ain’t necessarily so. Your system may have IFS files that you don’t know about. One of the UNIX conventions that the IFS has inherited is that files whose names begin with a period (“dot”) are considered to be hidden. By default, their names are omitted in directory listings. Hidden files are commonly used for system files, configuration files, and temporary files. But there’s nothing to stop other people from beginning file names with

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• Why Did Passphrase Activation Take Out My ODBC Connection?

  November 17, 2010 Hey, Joe

  We just activated passphrase support on our i5/OS V5R4M5 system. After activation, one of my Web server ODBC connections stopped working and I have no clue how to reset it. How can I get it working again? –Keith After getting this email, I contacted Keith and ran through a few scenarios. Here’s how we solved this issue as well as another issue that was hiding right behind it. First, we found that Keith was using an embedded password for his ODBC connection, which resided on a Web server that was automatically updating i5/OS data. The password was set to “LETMEIN”

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• Two Tips Are Better Than One

  November 10, 2010 Patrick Botz

  In my two previous tips, I discussed the alternative PUBLIC authority technique and the re-adopted authority utility implemented via a Submit Job (SBMJOB) command exit point. Using these two ideas together provides an environment where everyone can continue to work normally while, at the same time, providing an environment where you can identify special cases requiring additional changes and can test all of your changes without affecting normal production usage. Let’s see how this works. If you recall, alternative PUBLIC authority involves setting up a group profile; we’ll call it ALTPUBLIC. After adding all of the production users (or all

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• Down with Assumptions! Up with Diagnostics!

  November 10, 2010 Ted Holt

  Even though assumptions have no place in proper programming, programmers sometimes infuse their code with assumptions. Such practice brings to mind something I once read: If builders built houses the way programmers write programs, the first woodpecker to come along would destroy civilization. I’ve written about the problem of assumptions before. Today is a good day to revisit the subject. Programmers who cut their teeth on native I/O (as did I) often depend on the system to alert them when something goes wrong. That is, they assume an I/O operation completed normally unless they hear differently. The bad way to

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• Admin Alert: Things to Think About When Changing Hardware Maintenance

  November 10, 2010 Joe Hertvik

  About the time your System i machine turns three years old, you might start thinking about more than a system upgrade. You may have to determine how to extend your hardware and software maintenance beyond IBM‘s standard maintenance period of three years, i.e., extending your maintenance contract. This week, let’s look at the pitfalls of extending hardware and software maintenance. The Need There are several reasons you may need to extend iSeries, System i, and Power i hardware and software maintenance past its initial three-year maintenance period: If you leased your machine for more than three years and your

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• An Introduction to Python on IBM i, Part 2

  November 3, 2010 Garry Taylor

  Note: All of the files needed for this article are available for in one download here. Welcome back to this introduction to Python on our beloved iSeries. In this second part of the series, you’ll learn how to use Python in something resembling a real world context. You’re going to integrate Python with perhaps the most quintessentially “i” part of IBM i, DB2. As with Part 1, all the Python scripts featured in this article are available for download here. Unless otherwise stated, all the Python scripts can be run like so: PYTHON25/PYTHON PROGRAM('/path/to/the/python/script.py') DB2 is a

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• How To Print a Pointer Value

  November 3, 2010 Ted Holt

  Over the past few months I’ve been working on more articles dealing with the use of pointers in RPG programs. While I was working on my demo programs, I ran into a little snag while verifying that everything was working correctly. Let me tell you what I ran into and how I got around it. I wanted to double-check the value of all the pointer variables. In the interactive green-screen debugger, which I was using, seeing the value of a pointer is no problem. Place the cursor on the pointer variable name and press F11, or use the EVAL command.

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• Admin Alert: Risk and the Power i Hardware Upgrade

  November 3, 2010 Joe Hertvik

  While upgrading Power i hardware is a hassle, the benefits in alleviating processing bottlenecks, providing new capabilities, and solving performance issues far outweigh the risks. Before an upgrade, however, management will want to consider any possible upgrade risks and how they can reduce your organization’s exposure to those risks. This issue, I’ll examine some common i/OS hardware upgrade risks and what you can do about them. Getting the Vocabulary Right In discussing risks, organizational requirements may require you to specify the following items when requesting monies for a new Power i hardware upgrade. Can you identify your upgrade risks and

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• DDS Design: The RD Power Way

  October 27, 2010 Susan Gantner

  As you may know already from reading some of my earlier tips, I’m a fan of RSE–the Remote System Explorer. I was a user and fan of RSE back in its earliest incarnation in WDSC, then I followed it into RDi (Rational Developer for IBM i), and I’m now using its latest incarnation as part of RD Power, a.k.a. RDP or RDPi (Rational Developer for Power Systems). One of the benefits of this latest upgrade to RD Power is the new DDS Designer. There was a “Technology Preview” version of the DDS screen designer in earlier RSE versions, but the

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