• A Fresche Start For Mike Pavlak

  August 7, 2017 Alex Woodie

  If you’ve ever dealt with PHP on IBM i, it would be tough to avoid hearing about Mike Pavlak, who worked directly for Zend Technology, which is the PHP company. But after nine years with the firm, Pavlak is now teaming up with Fresche Solutions, where he aims to work directly with IBM i clients on a wide range of open source and modernization projects.

  Pavlak has been a familiar face on the IBM i speaking circuit for just as long as PHP has been supported on the platform. His technological acumen and positive demeanor have been instrumental in helping …

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• Guru: The PHP Path To Victory, Part 2

  August 7, 2017 Chris Ringer

  Part 1 of this article discussed the path a PHP request takes on its way to your backend RPG program through the magic of an external SQL stored procedure. You may need to review the SQL, PHP, and RPG code there before continuing here. If you have not yet downloaded the code to your IBM i (found in Part 1), now would be a good time to do that.

  Part 2 will give you the confidence to troubleshoot those times when something unexpected occurs in this PHP environment. And if you are a developer for large company, the responsibility of …

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• BCD Presto Mobilizes Green Screen To Web App Dev

  May 24, 2017 Dan Burger

  Not every green-screen RPG application needs to be modernized. Some need it more than others. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. The same can be said for desktop apps. They don’t all have to be capable of rendering on mobile devices, but some need it more than others. Now BCD Software is helping in the decision making process by bringing responsive development capabilities to its version 7 release of Presto.

  Presto, of course, is BCD’s most popular modernization tool, while responsive design is the capability to design Web pages that display on any device desktop or mobile with a single …

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• Going Rogue with Open Source Support on IBM i

  May 17, 2017 Alex Woodie

  The number of IBM i shops adopting open source software (OSS) is on the uptick as companies strive to innovate more with fewer resources. However, the prospect of obtaining technical support for OSS tech looms as a major barrier to adoption. One potential option comes through custom support packages from Rogue Wave Software.

  While Rogue Wave Software isn’t strictly an OSS company, it’s no stranger to the paradigm either. Even before it its 2016 acquisition of Zend, which built a PHP business for IBM i shops, the company was quite active on the open source front. Considering that 70 percent …

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• Open Source On IBM i: Let It Grow

  May 15, 2017 Dan Burger

  The evaluation of open source software is nowhere near conclusive when it comes to enterprise grade application development. Decisions remain in the exploratory phases. Roadmaps are incomplete. Most are without clear routes to a destination. Some are without destinations. However, it would be wrong to assume roads are not being built.

  There is no way that the future of application development – on IBM i or anywhere else – can handle everything that is coming down the pike without open source. That’s not a mandate to jump on a band wagon. It’s an awareness wake-up call. The IBM i community …

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• Getting Offensive With The Legacy Label

  April 24, 2017 Dan Burger

  It’s not that we don’t care about CIOs with concerns. But what concerns us more are solutions to those concerns. It’s just a matter of fact that we hear a lot more about problems than we do about solutions. Members of the IBM i community share many of the same concerns, although each has their individual fingerprints.

  To start off down the problem-solving path, it’s not a bad idea to talk about common concerns with colleagues and experts. That’s the path we’re on today as we talk with Alan Seiden, a PHP on IBM i consultant, open source advocate, …

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• Native Open Source: Why It’s Time for IBM i

  April 19, 2017 Alex Woodie

  When you think about open source software for IBM i, chances are good you envision PHP applications or Ruby code or even Node.js, all of which were adapted from other platforms to run on IBM i. But there’s a new movement afoot to spur more development of open source software that runs natively on IBM i.

  Make no mistake about it: getting PHP, Ruby, Python, Node.js and the others to run on IBM i is a good move by IBM. The work Big Blue has done to bring these technologies to IBM i – much of which is delivered …

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• RPG Investment Advice For Long Term Goals

  March 13, 2017 Dan Burger

  RPG programming remains a hugely important skill in the IBM Power Systems niche where the IBM i lives. It shares that space with other languages such as Java, PHP, a few fourth-generation options and a host of open source options. More than once in its long life, RPG has been declared dead.

  Like an untended plant, some IBM i shops have let RPG die. It lingers on with little or no nourishment in other organizations. But it’s also doing very well as a modern language when in the hands of skilled programmers. Who are the skilled programmers and what are …

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• Guru: The PHP Path To Victory, Part 1

  March 6, 2017 Chris Ringer

  If you read my two previous PHP articles, you may be tempted to make the leap to use PHP on your IBM i. But you may also have reservations because how in the world will you technically support those apps post implementation?

  This article discusses the path a PHP request takes as it travels through various subsystems up to your RPG code and how to do basic troubleshooting if something goes wrong.

  Tag Team Match

  Often greatness is achieved with the help of someone else. Michael Jordan had Scottie Pippen. Babe Ruth had Lou Gehrig. And Abbott had Costello. In …

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