• IBM i Startup Tackles “Awkward” Git Integration

  September 30, 2019 Alex Woodie

  If you have ever felt that working with Git on the IBM i platform was a little awkward and could be refined to fit your native IBM i development experience on RDi or SEU just a bit better, then you might be interested in learning about a new utility called iForGit that was recently released by IBM midrange veteran Richard Schoen and his new startup, MobiGoGo.

  Git came to the IBM i three years ago, and there’s no denying that it has been a hit. Since Linux developer Linus Torvalds released it nearly a decade-and-a-half ago, the open source …

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• PTC Completes Database Support In Implementer

  September 11, 2019 Alex Woodie

  As a change management tool, PTC’s Implementer is well-regarded among IBM i users for its ability to track development tasks and smooth out the promotion process. While the product has mostly been used to track source code in programming languages like RPG and Java, customers have increasingly been putting business logic into Db2 for i. With the recent launch of Implementer 12.3, PTC has wrapped up planned enhancements for the database.

  PTC‘s Implementer provides a full range of capabilities for managing development processes for IBM i shops. The software works closely with IBM‘s Rational Developer for i (RDi) …

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• IBM Bolsters RPG And COBOL Development

  May 13, 2019 Alex Woodie

  Amid the many and varied enhancements that IBM rolled out last month for its IBM i operating system was a collection of improvements for its core development tooling, including the Eclipse-based Rational Developer for i (RDi) as well as Rational Development Studio for i, which contains the RPG and COBOL compilers.

  Let’s start with the RPG and COBOL compilers in Rational Development Studio for i, since updates to these strategic pieces are more infrequent than the updates to RDi, which shares a common base with integrated development environments (IDEs) for other operating systems and therefore updated more frequently.

  The biggest …

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• Attention Synon Users: You Can Automate Your Move To RPG Free Form And DevOps

  April 3, 2019 Philippe Magne

  Depending on who you ask, there are about 1,000 IBM i shops that used the CA 2E (Synon) CASE tool to create their applications and are still using this tool to maintain those applications. This is not an easy task any more, and there is a much better way.

  After three years in development and very stringent testing with five early adopter Synon shops, ARCAD Software is rolling out what it calls Modernization as a Service, or MaaS for short, which seeks to completely automate the move from Synon generated code to modern RPG Free Form, SQL, and a complete …

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• Guru: Manage Filters in RDi

  March 11, 2019 Paul Tuohy

  The longer you have been using Rational Developer for i (RDi), the longer the list of filters you are trying to manage. Maybe you have started to get clever with the naming of filters and/or you spend a lot of time using drag and drop to try and keep your filters in some kind of order.

  The good news is that RDi does provide a means of grouping filters — Filter Pools.

  This is a (very) cut down example of filters in my Remote Systems view. Let’s see how we can use Filter Pools to make this list more manageable. …

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• One Repository To Rule The Source – And Object – Code

  February 4, 2019 Floyd Del Muro

  (Sponsored Content) The concept of a single repository for source is not necessarily a new one. When I interviewed with ARCAD back in 2011, I did so at the at the Rational conference called Innovate in Orlando. The research and development team and our chief technology officer were already in dialogue with IBM to resell ARCAD technology alongside its Rational development suite, adding power to Rational Team Concert that development organizations could effectively have a similar repository for IBM i and open source applications.

  At the time, RTC supported the open source world very well, just like Git …

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• Getting Progressive About Regression Testing

  October 22, 2018 Jeff Tickner

  (Sponsored Content) If you want to employ modern software development and testing techniques, you have to move on from simple unit testing by developers and implement regression testing in your quality assurance (QA) organization. This is perhaps the best way to take the risk out of continuous development – something that companies have to embrace if they are to remain competitive.

  The difference between regression testing and normal testing is that in the most common model, the developer has a request to fix a problem or to add a feature, and they make their changes and do unit …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Number 20, Volumes 31 and 32

  August 15, 2018 Doug Bidwell

  We have some catching up to do this week. Summer is winding down, the kids are going back to school, and it’s time to get things back in order in PTF Land. There actually wasn’t much to report with Volume 31 of our PTF Guide, mostly due to the announcements that were expected in time for Volume 32. Still, 31 brought us a fix pack for Rational Developer for i (9.6), as well as some new links on how to configure ObjectConnect, what system fixes are required for Domino, and the IBM i collaboration software compatibility guide.

  Here’s the defective …

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• PTC Refines Handling Of IBM i Database Logic

  July 18, 2018 Alex Woodie

  More organizations are moving business logic from RPG and COBOL programs into the DB2 for i database, which most community members agree is a good thing. The IBM i server’s core strength is its integrated a database, after all. However, when business logic moves into the database, it requires customers to rethink how they’re managing the code, which is a mantle that PTC has taken up with its Implementer software change management (SCM) tool.

  When it comes to application modernization, fancy HTML5 screens and mobile apps usually grab the spotlight. We’re often moved by the things we can see, and …

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• What HelpSystems Is Up To Now

  June 13, 2018 Alex Woodie

  Thanks to a slew of acquisitions, HelpSystems has become one the largest independent software vendors in the IBM i marketplace, with tools spanning operations, security, backup, high availability, forms management, and capacity planning. A company representative recent sat down with IT Jungle at the recent COMMON PowerUp conference to talk about what’s new.

  HelpSystems didn’t have a single major product launch at the COMMON conference in San Antonio, Texas, two weeks ago. Instead the company used the event to showcase multiple enhancements, and to talk about future products — such as a security information and event management (SIEM) solution and …

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