• Guru: Passing Parameters To Python

  August 5, 2019 Mike Larsen

  Python scripts offer great benefits to developers, whether used standalone or in conjunction with RPG programs. As I’ve been exploring Python and recently I had a need to execute a Python script from an RPG program. In addition to executing the script, I also wanted to pass it parameters.

  One of the benefits of passing parameters is to give us the ability to soft-code programs or scripts. Soft-coding makes programs more flexible and re-usable, and helps to reduce maintenance.

  To illustrate how to do this, I’ve coded a very simple RPG program and an even simpler Python script. I’ll start …

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• Remain Breaks New Ground With ALM Suite

  July 15, 2019 Alex Woodie

  Coding season just ended for Remain Software, the Dutch application lifecycle management (ALM) vendor with a growing US presence. That means customers are sorting through a torrent of new functionality in its flagship TD/OMS product, including improved hooks to DevOps tools like Git and Jenkins, a new cross-platform cross-reference module, and a nifty API generator too.

  New stuff started emerging from Remain Software around the POWERUp conference in May, when IT Jungle sat down with company representatives to talk about development trends, current and upcoming releases of Remain’s software, and what customers are looking to get next.

  Arguably the biggest …

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• Guru: Finding Large Files With Python

  July 15, 2019 Mike Larsen

  It’s always a good idea to purge files that aren’t needed any longer. Chances are that you already have procedures in place to purge data from Db2 files and tables, but what about files that reside in the IFS? Do you have a good solution for keeping the IFS clean?

  Perhaps you have old order files stored in the IFS. If you work for a large company, these types of files can accumulate quickly. I’ve written processes in the past to remove files from the IFS using RPG, but I’d like to offer an alternative. I’m going to show how …

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• Eradani Bridges The Gap Between Legacy And Open Source

  July 8, 2019 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  In this publication, legacy is not a dirty word or even remotely pejorative. Rather, “legacy” is just a shorthand way of delineating between applications that encapsulate decades of the evolution of a business and the transactions it processes, and all of the other new stuff that this business is also doing and perhaps coding with newer tools and programming languages.

  A new company, called Eradani, has been founded by some experts in both the IBM i world and the open source world with the express purpose of building a technical bridge so these two different cultures can see a …

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• Guru: Getting Started With Python On IBM i

  June 10, 2019 Stephanie Rabbani

  Python is one of my favorite open-source languages. I’ve used it to build web applications, utilities, and diverse tools such as a web server monitor and an automated application testing suite. In this article, I’ll show you how to install Python on IBM i and create your first program.

  Why Python? For several reasons.

  • You can use Python to do some cool processing on your system. Graphical application development, games, data analysis, and web development are all Python’s strengths.
  • Coding in Python is easy, relatively speaking. The syntax is easy to learn, dropping the formal verbosity found in traditional

  …

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• Original Refocuses on IBM i Test Automation

  May 1, 2019 Alex Woodie

  Original Software never left the IBM i software market, though it might have seemed that way to some people. But thanks to a new website devoted to exploring issues, challenges, and solutions on the topic of IBM i test automation, the British software company is redoubling its efforts around the midrange platform.

  “We really never un-engaged with it, to be fair,” says Original Software COO George Wilson says of IBM i. “We’ve kind of widened the radar a bit. That was probably 15 years ago. We didn’t want to limit ourselves to the IBM midrange marketplace. What we’ve just done …

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• Guru: Creating Excel Spreadsheets With Python

  April 29, 2019 Mike Larsen

  Over the past several years, I’ve seen a growing demand to provide business data in Excel. Some shops are content to receive their data in .csv format and then manually apply formatting to make it presentable. Wouldn’t it be better if we could provide a spreadsheet that is already formatted?

  In my opinion, the answer is yes. Most recently, I’ve been using PHP to accomplish this task. PHP works great for me, but I always like to have different options from which to choose. This is important to me because some shops may not have PHP installed. Based on that …

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• Yes, IBM i Shops Have AI Options, Too

  April 8, 2019 Alex Woodie

  Companies of all shapes and sizes are encouraged to adopt artificial intelligence these days. Most of today’s AI tech, however, was developed to run in open systems and X86 environments. But there are a growing number of AI options from IBM and its partners for customers that want to keep their data resident on the Power Systems platform.

  There’s no denying there’s a lot of hype around AI today. One can scarcely turn on the TV or open a magazine or Web page without being inundated with claims of how leading organizations are using AI to gain a competitive edge, …

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• Four Hundred Monitor, March 4

  March 4, 2019 Jenny Thomas

  “Dear March, come in!” Readers of Emily Dickinson might recognize the first line of one of her many poems. Although it is unlikely she was thinking of the computing industry as she welcomed the new month, the sentiment is fitting as we already enter the last month of the first quarter of the year. 2019 has been a busy one for IBM as it continues to make headlines throughout the computing world, which will hopefully result in good numbers coming out of Q1. You can count on IT Jungle to be watching for that news, and in the meantime, you …

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• Settling In With IBM i For The Long Haul

  February 11, 2019 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  If nothing else, the IBM i platform has exhibited extraordinary longevity. One might even say legendary longevity, if you want to take its history all the way back to the System/3 minicomputer from 1969. This is the real starting point in the AS/400 family tree and this is when Big Blue, for very sound legal and technical and marketing reasons, decided to fork its products to address the unique needs of large enterprises (with the System/360 mainframe and its follow-ons) and small and medium businesses (starting with the System/3 and moving on through the System/34, System/32, System/38, and System/36 in …

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