• Guru: What Is Constant Folding And Why Should I Care About It?

  October 18, 2021 Ted Holt

  Constant folding is a compiler-optimization technique, whereby the compiler replaces calculations that involve constants with the result values when possible. Constant folding is common in modern compilers, and according to the RPG reference, the RPG compiler uses this technique. (See the documentation of the %div and %rem functions, for example.)

  But you and I don’t write compilers. We write business applications. Why then should we care about constant folding? That’s a question worth pondering.

  Consider how I used to have to write RPG in the Dark Ages.

  C                     MOVE CUSTNR    CUSTSV  50
  

  Here I’m copying the customer account number to …

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• As I See It: The Management Challenge

  October 18, 2021 Victor Rozek

  Imagine coaching an athletic team under the following conditions: Some percentage of your players do not practice in your facility. You have minimal contact with them, and even less influence over how, when, and how long they practice. Building and maintaining team cohesion is almost impossible. There’s a chance some of your players may be unavailable at some point during the season, and your training facility could be closed for an unspecified period of time. Yet you are still expected to win.

  That’s roughly the situation in which managers find themselves. Some percentage of their employees probably still work from …

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• We Have The Whole World Of Cloud In Our Hands

  October 18, 2021 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Cloud is a consumption model more than anything else, but it is also an architecture. What that really means is that for a lot of customers, on premises cloud is a bit different from what are called “public” clouds, which we all know are as proprietary as any System/3X or AS/400 or IBM i on Power Systems ever was. There ain’t nothing at all public about it, and we are trying to break the habit of calling them that. The point is, the big clouds outside of your datacenter look like power utilities, with pricing based on both time and …

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• Sibley Highlights Power10’s Security and AI Capabilities

  October 13, 2021 Alex Woodie

  As the vice president and global offering management for Cognitive Systems at IBM, Steve Sibley often gets the honor of delivering the keynote address at the annual POWERUp conference. During his keynote at last week’s show, Sibley used the time to delve into the latest Power10 processor and its extensive list of new features, including some designed specifically to boost AI and security.

  “One of the real privileges I have as project manager for Power Systems to be able to take the key innovations our team is developing in Rochester and our different development labs around the world, and bring …

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• End of Life Looms for PHP 7.3

  October 13, 2021 Alex Woodie

  Organizations that are running PHP version 7.3 have just over a month to upgrade to a newer version and avoid losing bug fixes and security fixes when 7.3 hits the end of life (EOL) on December 6. The good news is that PHP version 7.4 and 8.0 are stable and will be supported for some time. The not-so-good news is it appears a large number of IBM i shops are still running older releases of the PHP language.

  According to an informal poll conducted by Seiden Group last month, about half of the IBM i shops that participated in a …

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• Rewriting IBM i RPG Software Is Almost Always A Bad Idea

  October 13, 2021 Roger Pence

  There are perils and pitfalls in attempting to rewrite your IBM i-AS/400 RPG applications. While there are some cases where such an attempt may be a good idea, you need to consider the big rewrite option carefully from every angle. It is often the worst step you can take.

  As you start to realize that your IBM i RPG software, at least in its current form, is nearing the end of its useful life, rewriting your RPG application is an obvious alternative. We implore you to give this option very serious consideration before you jump into it. Rewriting a large, …

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• Four Hundred Monitor, October 13

  October 13, 2021 Jenny Thomas

  Next week is your last opportunity to attend the final RPG & DB2 Summit. The live online Summit features training on RPG, SQL, ILE, RDi, and ACS, to name just a few topics. IBM’s Steve Will, chief architect of the IBM i, kicks off the festivities today with a discussion on next gen apps for our favorite platform. Will’s opening session is open to the entire IBM i ecosystem, and you can find out more about how to listen in, and get more info on the Summit, in the “Chats, Webinars, Seminars, Shows, and Other Happenings” section below. We hope …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 23, Number 41

  October 13, 2021 Doug Bidwell

  Big Blue has been on a High Impact/Pervasive PTF kick lately with the IBM i platform, hasn’t it? Between that and the ongoing security patches, you are all probably hopping out there. Unless you are one of the shops that doesn’t keep you IBM i system up to date, in which case we are, first, wondering why are you reading this sentence and, second, very glad that you are so we can remind you of what you already know. Mainly:

  That.

  You.

  Should.

  Keep.

  IBM i,

  Patches.

  Up.

  To.

  Date.

  Full stop.

  Having said that, here is the rundown of …

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• The Shape Of The IBM To Come

  October 11, 2021 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Big Blue is getting ready to spin off its managed services businesses, which represents about a third of its revenue stream and a big chunk of its employee base, into the separate company called Kyndryl and hopes to have this task done by the end of the year. Last week, IBM’s top brass had a virtual meeting with Wall Street to host its Investor Day, and IBM’s chief executive officer, Arvind Krishna, and the rest of the team unveiled a new segment and financial reporting structure that will be put into effect once the Kyndryl spinout is done.

  At that …

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• Thoroughly Modern: Talking IBM i System Management With Abacus

  October 11, 2021 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  If you want the members of your IT department to focus on the core applications that define, run, and improve your business, and they also have to manage your systems, and you have limited budgets to do it all, you have to learn to let go of something. There are only so many hours in a day, only so many days in a year, and only so many people to do the work. Something has to give, and you have to keep what brings the real value.

  Having an IBM i platform provides plenty of value to start, as IBM …

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