• Get Your Git On, IBM i

  August 8, 2016 Alex Woodie

  Git has officially come to IBM i. Last week, IBM released a program temporary fix (PTF) that includes binaries for an IBM i version of the popular open source change management tool that was announced as part of IBM i 7.3 earlier this year. Along with Git, IBM also released a PTF for Orion, a new Web-based IDE that works with Git and can be used to code free-form RPG from a tablet. There’s been a lot of talk about Git in the IBM i community since it was first revealed to be coming to the platform with the launch

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• As I See It: Boob Job

  August 8, 2016 Victor Rozek

  It’s no secret that attractive people have an advantage when interviewing for a job. Studies show that appealing people are assumed to be more intelligent and better educated. They are believed to possess superior motivation and greater capability. If hired, they will almost certainly earn more money than their less attractive counterparts, and are more likely to be promoted. It’s a form of genetic favoritism, amplified by the preferences of the observer. And while a face may no longer launch a thousand ships, it sure can quick start a career. Although many forms of discrimination have either been legally banished

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• Youth, Talent, Creativity Ported To IBM i

  August 8, 2016 Dan Burger

  Liam Allan doesn’t tell stories about the AS/400s he has known. He’s never worked on an iSeries or even a System i. At just 19 years of age, his brief adventures in the IBM midrange, he knows only the IBM i. The 2016 COMMON conference gave him a stage. Two weeks ago, he started a new job with Profound Logic, an IBM i vendor with a knack for hiring high profile talent. Allan was pretty much an anonymous member of the IBM i community when we were all buying our 2016 calendars. But after he joined the Team Seiden

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• Big Blue Adds IBM i To EasyScale MSP Deal

  August 8, 2016 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Back in January, when IBM announced a new deal to help make it easier for managed service providers–what we used to call hosting companies and sometimes incorrectly call cloud builders even if they are not building truly cloudy infrastructure–to build out their gear based on Power Systems iron. We complained at the time that the deal was only available for AIX and Linux systems, and should be extended to those who want to build IBM i clouds. Lo and behold, IBM has listened and the EasyScale for MSP deal has now been extended to include the IBM i operating system,

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• IBM i Fundamental Strategy Unchanged, Always Changing

  August 8, 2016 Dan Burger

  The IBM i Strategy white paper, a document designed to explain how the platform is advancing in conjunction with long-term planning at IBM and how it takes into account the feedback from end users, has been revised. The modifications reflect changes that have occurred since the white paper was originally released approximately 18 months ago. Those changes include the release of IBM i 7.3, the IBM i roadmap as planned through 2028, and areas of investment that have yielded results. Naturally, the strategy has considerable consequence to the IBM i community and IBM corporate. The i business is large–150,000 companies

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• Using Lateral Correlation To Define Expressions In DB2 For i

  August 2, 2016 Michael Sansoterra

  The SQL implementation in DB2 for i is second to none. However, one irritating thing common to various SQL dialects is the need to repeat expressions in query. As SQL matured over the years, techniques such as nested table and common table expressions became available to, among other things, reduce repetitive expressions. This tip illustrates the use of the LATERAL correlation as another way to avoid repetition. The Problem Say you’re writing a report for a grocery wholesaler, where markup on food items is small and discounts are even smaller. Looking for orders that were not priced correctly, you’re tasked

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• Give Me Fewer (Not More!) Parameters, Please!

  August 2, 2016 Ted Holt

  Today’s musings fall into the “why would anybody want to do that?” category. “Why would anybody want to be president?” asks Barack Obama. “Why would anybody steal a groundhog?” asks Rita in Groundhog Day. My question is, “Why would anybody pass 16,382 parameters to a subprocedure?” There is a better way. I stand second to none in my admiration for parameters. The first system I learned to program, the IBM System/3 Model 12, allowed no parameter passing to RPG programs or OCL procedures. Cloning diminished–and life improved–when I started working on a S/34, which allowed OCL procedures to receive

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• CHAIN vs SELECT INTO

  August 2, 2016 Chuck Luttor

  The average RPG developer can quickly become proficient in replacing RPG database operation codes with their SQL equivalents when undertaking new programming. In each installment of this series, I will visit an op code or set of op codes in order to prove my contention. First up today is CHAIN. I remember the CHAIN op code from System/3 Model 6 and Model 10 disk days. (Yes, I have been around for a long, long time.) It has been used extensively by every RPG programmer since then. It is the basic op code for random access. In the “old days” it

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• Systems Monitoring Made Easier, Better, GUI-er

  July 25, 2016 Dan Burger

  With the introduction of its newest systems management software, HelpSystems is showing off what it can do by merging its traditional Robot line with an acquired product from the CCSS family of tools. Raise the curtain, please, on Robot Monitor 14, a feature enhanced version of what was formerly known as CCSS QSystem Monitor now integrated with the Robot IT operations management and infrastructure monitoring software stack. The new Robot Monitor specializes in keeping watch over system performance from a single, central dashboard. It provides real-time data on: job status and performance system configuration and performance IOP utilization resources communication

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• Mad Dog 21/21: Brexit, Pursued By A Bear Market

  July 25, 2016 Hesh Wiener

  In The Winter’s Tale, Antigonus is chased offstage to his death. Shakespeare’s stage direction is, “Exit, pursued by a bear.” This instruction is part of a quirky drama that begins in tragedy but ends with joy and redemption, a story chock full of surprises. Its boggled principals apparently feel the way Britons, Europeans, and indeed the rest of us do in the wake of Brexit, the indication that Britain’s voters want to leave the European Union. Brexit rattled the world’s financial markets. Most investors had not expected the turkeys to vote for Thanksgiving. A fortnight after Brexit, the

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