• Realizing The Promise Of Cross Platform Development With VS Code

  January 25, 2023 Jeff Tickner

  An integrated development environment is like a tractor or a truck, or indeed any other kind of tool. There are farmers who want a tractor from John Deere or Ford or Massey-Ferguson, contractors who want a Ford or Dodge or GMC truck, and carpenters and electricians who use Dewalt or Milwaukee Electric or Makita cordless tools.

  No matter the choice of tools, ultimately these blue collar workers are going to farm and build things, and the choice of tool should not interfere with that effort. White collar – or far more likely no collar T shirt – programmers are no …

  Read more

• 2023 IBM i Predictions, Part 1

  January 16, 2023 Alex Woodie

  What will happen in the IBM i world in 2023? Your guess is as good as ours, which is why we have corralled some of the most respected names in the industry to gaze into their crystal balls and give their prognostication for the year to come.

  Donnie MacColl, the senior director of technical support and GDPR data protection officer at Fortra (formerly HelpSystems), kicks off this year’s batch of predictions with an expectation of more automation, thanks to a lack of skilled employees.

  “Automated operations will accelerate along with migration to the cloud,” MacColl tells us. “Automation is key …

  Read more

• Top 5 New IBM i Features to Check Out Now That Fall TRs Are GA

  December 7, 2022 Alex Woodie

  All of the new features that IBM unveiled earlier this fall with the Technology Refreshes for IBM i 7.4 and 7.5 (as well as another stealth “non-TR” TR for 7.3) are now generally available. Some of them shipped before December 2, but pretty much all of them are now GA. With so much enterprise computing goodness ready to download, what will you adopt first?

  We know it’s not Christmas yet. But with so many new features, it can be hard to figure out what to do first. While everybody has their own computing priorities, we have our own ideas for …

  Read more

• 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 …

  Read more

• IBM Looking To Open Up Debugging On IBM i

  June 8, 2022 Alex Woodie

  Things are moving quickly now in the IBM i development world, particularly when it comes to lightweight, Web-based IDEs, such as IBM’s new Merlin. However, the need to debug programs and the lack of a debugger for these IDEs is causing a bit of a roadblock to developer productivity with these newer IDEs. That’s why IBM is seeking a way to get IBM i debugging capabilities into more people’s hands.

  The official IBM i Debugger product is bundled as a JAR file with IBM Toolbox for Java, and is directly integrated with Rational Developer for i (RDi), IBM’s flagship …

  Read more

• Evading the Big Blue Name Police

  June 8, 2022 Alex Woodie

  The name “Merlin” conjures up an image of a magical place where wizards cast spells against evil spirits and fairies fly through the air. In other words, the exact opposite of the button-down image of business computing that IBM tries its best to exude. That’s what makes the story of how the newest member of the IBM i product lineup got its name so unlikely.

  Twenty-two months ago, the folks at the IBM Rochester had an idea for a new product that would help to modernize development and operations processes on IBM i. In addition to Web-based IDE based on …

  Read more

• More IBM i Merlin Details Emerge at POWERUp

  June 1, 2022 Alex Woodie

  We are getting a more complete picture of IBM i Merlin, the DevOps offering that IBM introduced last month with the launch of IBM i 7.5. Among the most interesting revelations at COMMON’s annual POWERUp conference last week is that Merlin will be a vehicle for delivering a range of functionality to the platform in the future, not necessarily limited to app dev.

  IBM i Modernization Engine for Lifecycle Integration, or Merlin, is a new offering from IBM. The software, as it exists in its first incarnation, enables users to develop IBM i application in ILE languages through an …

  Read more

• IBM i 7.3 TR12: The Non-TR Tech Refresh

  May 16, 2022 Alex Woodie

  The launches of IBM i version 7.5 and 7.4 Technology Refresh 6 a few of weeks ago garnered a lot of attention from the IBM i community, thanks to the new capabilities they bring to the platform. But IBM is also bringing some of the same enhancements to IBM i 7.3. And while it is bundling the PTFs that deliver the enhancements for version 7.3 in a package labeled TR12, it is not an official TR, IBM officials say.

  IBM plans to release IBM i 7.3 TR12 on May 24, according to IBM i TR page for version 7.3 on …

  Read more

• IBM Merlin Brings New Approach to Developing on IBM i

  May 4, 2022 Alex Woodie

  IBM is rolling out a new application development framework dubbed Merlin as part of its release of IBM i version 7.5. Designed primarily as a lightweight alternative to RDi and running in containers, Merlin could provide a guide for how IBM sources and distributes development tools going forward.

  Merlin is a new Licensed Program Product (LPP) offering from IBM designed to enable IBM i developers to create new ILE programs from scratch, or to modernize existing ones. The software, which is officially called Modernization Engine for Lifecycle Integration, is based on a mix of open source and proprietary tools from …

  Read more

• mrc Fills Reporting Gap in Product Lineup

  April 27, 2022 Alex Woodie

  Finding the right reporting tool can make you feel like Goldilocks searching for the right bed or bowl of porridge. Some of the reporting tools are too technical and hard to use, while others are too simplistic and don’t offer enough functionality. Chicago-based software developer mrc thinks it has found just the right combination of functionality and ease of use with its new Report Designer.

  m-Power is a low-code development platform that supports IBM i and other Java platforms. While the software is not a full-blown integrated development environment (IDE), it can provide the capability to quickly generate Web interfaces, …

  Read more

Previous Articles