• Guru: Finding Data In The Forest – Exploring Three-Part Naming In SQL

  June 22, 2026 Gregory Simmons

  Anyone who has spent time foraging for mushrooms knows that location matters. A chanterelle found in the Pacific Northwest is not the same as one discovered in the hardwood forests of the Midwest. Experienced foragers do not simply note what they found. They record exactly where they found it: the region, the forest, and the specific location. Context matters.

  The same is true in SQL. Most IBM i developers are comfortable with two-part naming. A reference like MUSHLIB.FORAGE_LOG identifies both the schema and the object. It tells SQL where to look within a single system, much like noting the forest …

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• Guru: Single Threading A Program Execution

  June 15, 2026 Chris Ringer

  A paceline in cycling is a formation where all the cyclists ride in a single file line and the lead bike is pulling the group along as everyone else is drafting behind. Eventually the lead bike will drift to the side and to the back of the line, and the next bike will take the lead for the group.

  If a spirited cyclist leaves the paceline and goes alone, all the aerodynamic benefits of drafting are lost.

  

  Likewise, at my organization, we have a CL job that is submitted hourly throughout the day every day. Normally the submitted job completes …

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• Guru: Where’s The Table?

  June 8, 2026 Ted Holt

  It began with an irritation. I considered it a simple request. “Which file did my SQL query read?” I was using the Run SQL Scripts tool to modify an SQL query with unqualified table names. And yet I knew of no ready way to determine the schema (library) name of any of the files. How was I to know which tables I had just queried?

  Let me back up a bit. My SQL client of choice is the Run SQL Scripts tool, which is part of IBM’s Access Client Solutions (ACS). It is not unusual for me to copy and …

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• Guru: SQL Sequences In RPG Let Db2 Handle The Counting

  June 1, 2026 Gregory Simmons

  There is something deeply satisfying about letting the database do the counting for you. In a world where we have spent decades hand-rolling identifiers, guarding them with locks, and hoping no job collides with another, SQL sequences feel like discovering a patch of mushrooms that quietly regenerate overnight. You stop worrying about scarcity and start focusing on what matters.

  In a procedure driven RPG system, this is exactly the kind of responsibility we want to isolate. Generating a new identifier is not business logic. It is not validation. It is not formatting. It is a single, well-defined action that deserves …

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• Guru: DateTime Rules Of Thumb

  May 18, 2026 Ted Holt

  I am not a great programmer. I am a decent programmer who has found ways to stay out of trouble. I use many little rules of thumb to keep me and the people I serve from being unpleasantly surprised at inopportune moments. Today I share rules of thumb regarding datetime data that have served me in my work.

  The first date field I used in an RPG program was a six-digit zoned-decimal value in MMDDYY format. This was part of a programming assignment for a class I was taking at the local vocational-technical center in days of yore. In my …

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• Guru: Load A Varying-Dimension Array With One SQL Fetch

  May 11, 2026 Ted Holt

  One thing I really like about working in different shops is the vast amount of source code I’m exposed to. But that’s not the best thing. The best thing is the people I meet and get to know. The more clients, the more teachers. Combine source code and people, and my life, personally and professionally, is enriched.

  Today I’m pleased to pass along an SQL technique I picked up from the IT shop of a manufacturer. The programmers use this technique to load subfiles from SQL cursors in RPG programs. It works in client-server applications as well. It combines a …

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• Guru: Cohesion First – What A Procedure Should Be Responsible For

  April 6, 2026 Gregory Simmons

  One of the easiest mistakes to make in procedure-driven RPG is assuming that small procedures are automatically well-designed procedures. They are not. Size and cohesion are related, but they are not the same thing. A cohesive procedure has a single, clear responsibility. It exists to answer one business question or perform one business action. When a procedure tries to do more than that, it stops being a reusable building block and starts becoming a liability.

  In procedural RPG, nothing enforces this discipline. There is no compiler warning when a procedure quietly takes on a second responsibility. There is no language …

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• Guru: IBM i Job Log Detective Brings Structure To Job Log Analysis In VS Code

  March 9, 2026 Gregory Simmons

  Remain Software has released a new Visual Studio Code extension called IBM i Job Log Detective, and it targets a pain point every IBM i developer understands: reading job logs efficiently.

  In addition to its marketplace availability, IBM i Job Log Detective is open source under the MIT license and can be found on GitHub at: https://github.com/RemainSoftware/jld

  There has never been anything wrong with IBM i job logs themselves. They are exhaustive, consistent, and remarkably detailed. When something fails, the job log contains the truth. The issue has always been consumption. Large QPJOBLOG files can run thousands of lines (or …

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• Guru: Managing The Lifecycle Of Your Service Programs – Updates Without Chaos

  February 23, 2026 Gregory Simmons

  You’ve written your service programs, organized your modules, picked your activation groups, and maybe even set up a tidy binding directory. Everything seems perfect – until someone needs to update a procedure that half the shop’s programs depend on. Suddenly, that tidy structure can feel like a trap. Welcome to the reality of service program lifecycle management.

  The key principle here is simple: change with care. Any update to a service program can ripple across every program bound to it. Without a strategy, you’ll find yourself fielding calls about broken reports, failed jobs, or, worst of all, subtle logic errors …

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• Guru: Are Binding Directories A Shortcut Or A Source Of Chaos?

  February 16, 2026 Gregory Simmons

  Ask any IBM i developer about binding directories, and you will usually get one of two reactions: A grateful nod or an eye roll. For some, binding directories are a lifesaver, making compile commands cleaner and projects easier to manage. For others, they are a ticking time bomb, introducing hidden dependencies that come back to haunt you months later.

  I have seen both sides. In fact, one of the worst compile-day disasters I’ve witnessed started with a well-meaning developer adding a single service program to a global binding directory. Suddenly, half the shop’s programs were linking against the wrong version …

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