• RPG Gets the ‘Splits’ with Latest TRs

  May 5, 2021 Alex Woodie

  The latest batch of Technology Refreshes (TRs) for IBM i 7.4 and 7.3 wasn’t a barnburner by any means. But the twice-yearly update brought a little bit of new stuff for everybody, including RPG programmers, who gain three new built-in functions, one of which is called %SPLIT.

  RPG remains the most popular language on the IBM i platform, with a solid 87 percent share, according to the recent HelpSystems Marketplace Report, nearly twice the share of Java and over four times the share of COBOL. Good old Report Program Generator, for what it’s worth, is the closest thing to the …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 23, Number 16

  April 19, 2021 Doug Bidwell

  This is what we refer to as Download Heaven here at the IBM i PTF Guide. There is a lot of stuff going on this week. So brace yourself. First, there are new cumulative PTF package updates, or Cumes, as well as the new Technology Refreshes for IBM i 7.3 and IBM i 7.4. There is also a new release of Access Client Solutions.

  Here is the rundown of PTF Groups by IBM i release level:

  PTF Groups 7.4:

  • Technology Refresh 4
  • Latest Cumulative PTF Package C1091740
  • SAP support required PTF list
  • IBM HTTP Server for i
  • IBM i

  …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 23, Number 15

  April 14, 2021 Doug Bidwell

  It’s Ketchup Day here at the IBM i PTF Guide, now that we are back in the groove and getting them back on the normal Wednesday track.

  There was a little bit going in this week, ahead of the launch of the Technology Refreshes for IBM i 7.3 and IBM i 7.4, which were unveiled this week and which The Four Hundred will be analyzing in detail over the coming weeks. Many parts of the software updates will be available starting April 16, but the Database Group for IBM i 7.3 and IBM i 7.4 and the Db2 Mirror …

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• IBM Completes Migration of Knowledge Center to IBM Documentation

  April 7, 2021 Alex Woodie

  For years, the IBM Knowledge Center has been the go-to place to get technical information about how things work in IBM i. Got a question about RPG opcodes or ALLOBJ authority? The Knowledge Center was the place for you. As part of its broader overhaul of its online resources and properties, IBM recently completed the migration of its Knowledge Center to the new site, called IBM Documentation.

  IBM i professionals can find all of the content they have grown accustomed to finding at the Knowledge Center on the new IBM Documentation site, which can be found at www.ibm.com/docs/en. There …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 23, Number 13

  March 31, 2021 Doug Bidwell

  There is a lot of stuff going on this week. First, there are patches for Db2 Web Query, but only for IBM i 7.3 and IBM i 7.4, and we have to wonder if this will eventually be backported to IBM i 7.2 and maybe even IBM i 7.1 given that release has been given extended extended support and is not available on Power9 in limited form in logical partitions.

  There are also three security issues affecting the IBM i platform, as follows:

  • Security Bulletin: IBM Java SDK and IBM Java Runtime for IBM i is affected by CVE-2020-14803 and

  …

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• IBM i 7.1 Extended Out To 2024 And Up To The IBM Cloud

  March 1, 2021 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  In case you have not figured it out, Big Blue has finally figured out that IBM i 7.1 is a wall that a lot of customers can’t get over. Which is something we have been saying for a long time. And to IBM’s credit, it is doing something about it. A bunch of things, as it turns out, and as part of the February 23 announcements last week, IBM did a few more things that will increase the long-term viability of this release.

  IBM i 7.1 went off regular support back on April 30, 2018, which was almost three years …

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• IBM i Software And Power Systems Upgrades Keep Rolling Forward

  January 18, 2021 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  During tough economic times, I am fond of reminding people – and especially myself as I try to remain calm in a recession or whatever the heck this is we are dealing with now during the coronavirus pandemic – that business, in the aggregate, never goes to zero. No matter how bad it gets, thus far in the modern era starting perhaps with the Renaissance and maybe even longer but certainly since the agricultural and industrial revolutions in the 1700s, people still need stuff and they need people to grow or make it.

  That doesn’t mean it is easy, however. …

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• The Ultimate Set Of Tools

  December 14, 2020 Rob McNelly

  Those of a certain age will certainly remember the moment in Fast Times At Ridgemont High when Jeff Spicoli got himself into a bind after he wrecked his friend’s car. Luckily, Spicoli’s dad was a TV repairman, and he had an ultimate set of tools. Spicoli knew that with those tools, he could fix it. That level of confidence is intoxicating, although in this case it was possibly misplaced.

  I have a friend that lives around the corner from me that actually does have the ultimate set of tools, and knows how to use them. For example, he recently rebuilt …

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• Big Blue Revives IBM i 7.1 With Power9 Support

  November 16, 2020 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  We don’t get surprises very often in the Power Systems market, and even fewer in the IBM i sub-market. But last week, we did get a surprise – and it was a pleasant one – as Big Blue decided that it was going to allow for IBM i 7.1, which has long since been removed from marketing and which was just recently given extended extended support through April 2023, to run on selected models of the Power Systems line using Power9 processors.

  That IBM would allow for this is remarkable, and it shows the economic and technical difficulties that many …

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• Big Blue Bolsters IBM i High Availability And Data Resiliency

  October 19, 2020 Alex Woodie

  High availability and data resiliency are critical topics in the minds of business owners these days, especially in light of the summer’s disasters, both natural and manmade. To that end, in the latest batch of Technology Refreshes, IBM has bolstered the services that provide high availability and data resilience in IBM i, PowerHA, and BRMS.

  Backup, Recovery, and Media Services (BRMS) is the licensed product that thousands of IBM i shops use to automate their backups and recoveries. Those backups usually involving tape, which was cited by 48 percent of IBM i shops in the 2020 IBM i Marketplace Survey …

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