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Shaking The IBM i Magic Eight Ball For 2026

January 26, 2026 Alex Woodie

After one more trip around the Sun, the IBM i community is back at it for another turn. What will become of our favorite box in 2026, let alone the people who work on it? That is not easy to say. As the great ballplayer/philosopher Yogi Berra once said: “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” But we try anyway.

We kick off 2026 IBM i predictions with some targeted insight from Bill Langston, director of marketing, New Generation Software:

“I feel like 2026 will be a quiet year with the most adventurous IBM i customers …
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2025 IBM i Predictions, Part Three

January 27, 2025 Alex Woodie

What will happen this year in the little neck of the IT wood that we call the IBM i community? It’s hard to say for sure, but one thing is certain: It sure a lot of fun guessing what might happen or what could happen! And who knows? Some of these predictions may actually come true.

After 20 years with IBM i software vendor PKS Software, Heidi Schmidt has seen a thing or two in the midrange. There have been many ups and downs over the years, and a wide array of names. But Schmidt is bullish that the …
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ASNA Generates First-Class C# from RPG with Encore

August 2, 2023 Alex Woodie

ASNA this summer unveiled a new version of Monarch, its flagship offering for migrating RPG applications to .NET Core. The big new deliverable with Monarch 11 is the introduction of Encore RPG, which enables IBM i shops to convert their RPG directly into usable C# source code. The new product will help IBM i shops with aging RPG programmers make the gradual transition to C#, ASNA says.

ASNA originally launched Monarch way back in 2004 as a mechanism for converting RPG code into a language supported in Microsoft’s .NET Framework (Microsoft replaced the .NET Framework with .NET Core back in …
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Momentum Builds For Code For IBM i

November 7, 2022 Alex Woodie

Energy and excitement are building in the IBM i development community thanks to Code for IBM i, the VS Code extension that enables users to write and edit RPG and COBOL code in a Web browser. Spearheaded by Liam Allan, who now works for IBM, the lightweight alternative to RDi is approaching critical mass among IBM i developers desperate for something new.

For many years, IBM i shops had few options available to them when it comes to developing ILE applications for IBM i. IBM’s default recommendation was Rational Developer for i, the Java-based integrated development environment (IDE) that …
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IBM i Community Predictions For 2022, Part 1

January 10, 2022 Alex Woodie

While the month and year ostensibly are just values in the date field, when the calendar flips over from December to January, things feel different. There’s a greater sense of hope and optimism for what the new year will bring. Coming off another calamitous year filled with COVID-19, perhaps it’s we need that even more so this year.

It has become an IT Jungle tradition to ask members of the IBM i community at the start of the year for their predictions. This year is no different, and so we’ll kick off the first part of our (most likely) two-part …
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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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The IBM i And Its RPG Decade Of Crisis

September 29, 2021 Roger Pence

Your business desperately needs your IBM i RPG applications to deliver your unique business value to your customers and business partners. RPG programming is a disappearing skill; by 2030 the typical RPG programmer will be 80 years old. Your RPG-dependent business is at risk with the disappearance of RPG programming talent.

The IBM i runs many businesses today and its RPG applications perform unique and mission-critical processes. These businesses can’t get along without them. Alas, the teams that built these applications are rapidly nearing retirement. There aren’t younger RPG programmers in the pipeline. RPG programming is a disappearing skill. Despite …
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Shaking The IBM i Magic Eight Ball For 2026

2025 IBM i Predictions, Part Three

ASNA Generates First-Class C# from RPG with Encore

Momentum Builds For Code For IBM i

IBM i Community Predictions For 2022, Part 1

Rewriting IBM i RPG Software Is Almost Always A Bad Idea

The IBM i And Its RPG Decade Of Crisis

Content archive

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