• Guru: Global Variables in Modules

  December 13, 2021 Ted Holt

  When I first learned to program computers (RPG II, COBOL 74), the only kind of variables I knew of were global variables. Any statement within a program was able to use any variable.  It was not until I started my computer science degree that I found out about local variables, which are known to only part of a program. Since that time, it has been my practice to use local variables as much as possible and global variables only when necessary.

  Ideally an RPG program, service program, module, or subprocedure would have no global variables at all, but I don’t …

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• New OpenLegacy Product Creates ‘Tech-Agnostic’ Services

  November 17, 2021 Alex Woodie

  OpenLegacy recently announced OpenLegacy Hub, or OL Hub, a new offering designed to help customers create technology agnostic digital services from existing legacy applications and infrastructure. The offering supports IBM i and z/OS assets, among other platforms that are commonly grouped under the “legacy” banner.

  Since it appeared on the midrange scene back in 2015, OpenLegacy has been looking to help IBM i and mainframe customers extend their existing systems in new and profitable ways. Led by tech veterans from IBM and Software AG, the Israeli company created a development environment that could analyze legacy programs, such as 5250 …

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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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• Transferring Low Code Benefits Into The IBM i

  September 22, 2021 Eugene King

  As with fashion, there are trends in the IT industry and history tends to repeat itself in several exciting ways.  Development languages come into fashion, run their course, and then become obsolete. Then, they may be revamped with the addition of new criteria and frameworks.

  The low-code movement is not new but another iteration on traditional programming. Let’s do a brief history review.

  At first, computer programming involved specific machine code associated with a particular processor architecture.  Eventually, the language was slightly abstracted to facilitate second-generation assembler code, which was partially portable across architectures.

  The third-generation programming languages, also called …

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• The IBM i Job Environment, It’s a Changin’

  September 15, 2021 Alex Woodie

  The IBM i job market ain’t what it used to be. Change is a constant in this world, but the rate of professional change during the current pandemic is of particular interest at the moment. From new technologies and enlarging salary requirements to work-from-home and pending retirements, you could say we’re experiencing a period of punctuated equilibrium when it comes to working in the IBM i ecosystem.

  Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, companies across many industries have adopted work-from-home mandates. IBM i shops, like all others who can, have moved strongly in that direction. Many have still not …

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• When Cloud Meets DevOps on IBM i

  April 7, 2021 Alex Woodie

  We’re witnessing multiple macro trends play out in the IT industry, with the rise of cloud computing and managed services being one of the most compelling storylines in 2021. How software is developed is changing too, with DevOps tools and agile methodologies rapidly becoming the norm. When these two trends converge in our little neck of the woods, it can leave IBM i customers wondering where to go. With their recently formed partnership, ARCAD Software and Connectria have mapped out one path.

  A decade ago, companies were still unsure of the cloud. They would dabble with adding development, test, and …

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• Unit Testing Automation Hits Shift Left Instead of Ctrl-Alt-Delete Cash

  March 3, 2021 Nick Blamey

  In this time of the coronavirus pandemic, with its dual pressures of the uncertainty of the economy at a small and global scale and the fever pitch need to rapidly modernize applications, it is hard to know where to start. Given this scale of change, as a supplier of application modernization tools that are derived from both a strong IBM i heritage and the youth and strength of open source, you might think that ARCAD Software would be most interested in selling customers its entire toolbox.

  Not necessarily – the answer all depends on your starting point. There is an …

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• SoftLanding Adds Support for Source Stream Files

  February 3, 2021 Alex Woodie

  IBM i shops developing in a mix of open source and native languages can now manage all of their development projects together in a new release of SoftLanding Systems’ TURNOVER software. The big change that enables that open source support is how SoftLanding adapted its change management software to support stream files on the IFS. The company also took the opportunity to add a new Web interface and rebrand its entire TURNOVER suite of products.

  First, let’s clear up the name changes. TURNOVER Lifecycle Manager is the new name of the change management software that used to go by TURNOVER …

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• COVID-19: A Great Time for Application Modernization

  February 1, 2021 Alex Woodie

  If your IT department has been waiting for the right time to start your digital transformation, then you’re in luck: With hundreds of millions of folks around the world stuck in their homes and largely limited to interacting via the Internet, the COVID-19 pandemic and economic lockdown represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build new digital channels to reach them.

  COVID-19 is taking a brutal toll on our country in terms of lost lives and lost livelihoods. There’s no upside to that, no way to spin that into a positive. But for IBM i shops that, for whatever reason, have resisted …

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• 2021 Predictions for IBM i: Part Two

  January 20, 2021 Alex Woodie

  The response from the first batch of IBM i prediction we ran last week was superb. Here’s hoping that the community finds the second batch of predictions equally as worthwhile.

  Chris Wey, the president of the Power Business Unit at Rocket Software, wonders if crystal balls have any power left following the events of last year. “After an unpredictable 2020, the very notion of predictions is called into question,” Wey says. “Still, as an optimist, I believe we will see some incredibly positive outcomes of the past year’s turmoil in the coming year in our space.

  “First, Power systems …

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