One of the more interesting parts of last week’s IBM i announcements (if easily overlooked) was the introduction of the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) to the platform. As IBM‘s product manager for the IBM i explained last week, the addition of GCC essentially opens the door to bringing a wide range of open source packaged applications to the IBM i environment, and provides a key building block for IBM moving forward.

During his October 5 webcast on the COMMON Europe website (which you can view below), IBM i product manager Tim Rowe discussed the importance of open source software

One of the most compelling new features that IBM added to the DB2 for i database in recent memory is support for JavaScript Object Notation (JSON), which has become the de facto standard interchange format for Web data. John Eberhard, a software engineer in IBM’s Rochester lab, recently led IT Jungle through some of the major capabilities that the new JSON data store can provide to all you IBM i shops out there.

IBM shipped a technology preview of the new JSON store earlier this year with updates to IBM i 7.1 and 7.2. Unfortunately, the JSON store did not

Anyone following the evolution of Web services has seen the RESTful architecture gaining ground quickly on the traditional favorite SOAP architecture. Web development and particularly Web-based mobile development has welcomed REST. To keep up with demand, Krengel Technology has introduced version 3.2 of its RPG-XML Suite, which delivers new Web service capabilities to IBM i customers.

Krengel developed the RPG-XML Suite for RPG developers who, as the Krengel website notes, “have lived through creating Web services in RPG and Java without a well-packaged development toolset.”

Web service basics: An RPG program calls a Web service that resides on another machine.

Bob Cozzi has done a lot with the IBM midrange server platform–probably more than most, including founding the platforms’ first publication and presiding over its largest user group at one point. But Cozzi may have top it all with his latest creation: A handy little database utility called SQL Query File that he developed and sells through his software company, CozTools.

SQL Query File is a green-screen tool designed to let IBM i professionals quickly and easily query their DB2 for i database using standard SQL, right from the command line. You can cut the SQL you previously used

LANSA Delivers LongRange Support for Windows 10

IBM i shops that have Windows 10 devices in their mobile sites may want to check out LongRange, the LANSA development tool for IBM i customers. Last week LANSA announced that LongRange is the first IBM i-centric mobile development tool to support the creation of Windows apps that run on tablets and regular PCs.

Steve Gapp, president of LANSA Americas, says the new Windows support marks a turning point for LongRange, which the Downers Grove, Illinois, company unveiled back in 2012 to streamline development of native mobile applications (as opposed to Web apps)