• Four Hundred Monitor, December 16

  December 16, 2020 Jenny Thomas

  The holidays are almost here, and our hope for you is they are filled with cheer. The news this year has not always been great, but it’s been our pleasure to keep you up to date. There’s been surprises when we had no clue, like when IBM was split in two. And our editors are always first out of the gate with the news that is top rate. With this last edition of Monitor we bid adieu, on January 4 we will be seeing you. And now for us 2020 is done, let’s hope for better in 2021.

  Top Stories

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 22, Number 50

  December 16, 2020 Doug Bidwell

  Here we go again. Last week, we had new defective PTFs for IBM i 7.2, IBM i 7.3, and IBM i 7.4, and this week there is yet another new defective PTF for IBM i 7.4. Also, there is an update for IBM i Access Client Solutions V1.1.8.6.

  Here is the rundown of PTF Groups by IBM i release level:

  PTF Groups 7.4:

  • MQ for IBM i – v9.0.0/v9.1.0/V9.2.0
  • Temporary Storage PTFs

  PTF Groups 7.3:

  • MQ for IBM i – v7.1.0/v8.0.0/V9.0.0/V9.1/V9.2
  • Temporary Storage PTFs

  PTF Groups 7.2:

  • IBM MQ for IBM i – V7.1.0/V8.0.0/V9.0.0/V9.1.0
  • Temporary Storage PTFs

  PTF Groups 7.1: …

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• Some Confusion Around IBM i 7.1 And IBM i 7.2 Support

  December 14, 2020 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  In the wake of writing last week’s discussion about how Big Blue would be supporting the IBM i operating system, database, and systems software stack out to 2032 and beyond, I discovered some anomalies in the documentation that IBM has put out regarding extended support for specific IBM i releases.

  For many customers, getting beyond IBM i 7.1 is impossible for various reasons, which we have discussed in the past. Some of the reasons are technical – customers have lost their source code and they can’t tweak it to run on more modern releases of hardware and software, or their …

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• X Marks The Spot For CYBRA’s Forms Software

  December 14, 2020 Alex Woodie

  When it comes to creating forms and labels on the IBM i server, CYBRA’s MarkMagic is one of the most frequently used products in the market, and is used by the biggest companies in consumer goods and retail. With the latest release of MarkMagic X, the company is finding new and creative ways to get additional functionality into the hands of its users.

  MarkMagic X, which is also called version 10, introduces a host of new features that have been requested by CYBRA’s sizable installed base. With over 30 years in business, CYBRA has amassed 2,700 customers, including nine …

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• Guru: Success Requires Many Teachers

  December 14, 2020 Ted Holt

  I am not a “super programmer”- if such a thing even exists. I am not a genius, nor am I a guru. I’m not an expert. Whatever success I have had as a computer programmer these years, I attribute to a very few causes. I would like to end this year by writing about two of them.

  Number 1: I have learned, often the hard way, how to keep myself out of trouble. My code is dull and bland and boring, and I like it that way. I strive to make my code straightforward, honest, and so easy to understand …

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• The Ultimate Set Of Tools

  December 14, 2020 Rob McNelly

  Those of a certain age will certainly remember the moment in Fast Times At Ridgemont High when Jeff Spicoli got himself into a bind after he wrecked his friend’s car. Luckily, Spicoli’s dad was a TV repairman, and he had an ultimate set of tools. Spicoli knew that with those tools, he could fix it. That level of confidence is intoxicating, although in this case it was possibly misplaced.

  I have a friend that lives around the corner from me that actually does have the ultimate set of tools, and knows how to use them. For example, he recently rebuilt …

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• Chipping Away At X86 Hegemony In the Datacenter

  December 14, 2020 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Here at The Four Hundred, we have a saying: Anything that makes Power Systems stronger makes IBM i last longer. And part of making IBM i stronger, oddly enough, means just getting behind the idea of diversity of compute in the datacenter and that specifically means countering the notion that the X86 processor (and specifically the Intel Xeon SP implementation of it, but not exclusively because we now have AMD Epyc processors that are viable) is necessarily the only processor in the future of the datacenter.

  We have always held this opinion, as you well know, and have …

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• VS Code Provides Another Coding Option for IBM i

  December 9, 2020 Alex Woodie

  IBM i shops that are looking for an alternative to IBM’s Rational Developer for IBM i (RDi) may want to check out a lightweight code editor from Microsoft called Visual Studio Code (VS Code). Thanks to extensions for IBM i languages developed by the opensource community, VS Code can support native development in RPG, CL, and SQL.

  First released by Microsoft in 2015, VS Code provides a basic environment for writing and editing code. It features debugging, syntax highlighting, intelligent code completion, snippets, and code refactoring, as well as embedded Git. It runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac, and while …

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• New Release Of ACS Now Available

  December 9, 2020 Alex Woodie

  IBM delivered a new release of Access Client Solutions (ACS) last week, right on schedule. With ACS version 1.1.8.6, users will find a host of new features designed to accelerate their productivity across a range of uses.

  ACS is the Java-based utility that has become one of the most used (and useful) ways that administrators, programmers, and engineers can interact with the IBM i server. The software, which is free to IBM i customers on maintenance, features a 5250 emulator, 5250 printer emulation, data transfer capabilities, IFS file viewing, spool file management, and a virtual console for LAN and HMC …

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• COMMON Launches Focus, A Live Educational Series

  December 9, 2020 Alex Woodie

  COMMON yesterday kicked off the latest virtual event during this social distanced year of COVID-19. Focus is a series of half-day workshops on IBM i topics that is taking place through December 17. It’s a live event, which is good, but best of all, it’s free — as long as you are a current COMMON member.

  Focus consists of 18 half-day sessions across eight topic areas that are taking place this week (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday) and the same days next week. The sessions, which kick off each day at 1 p.m. CT, are presented live by real live IBM …

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