• Is It Time To Rename RPG?

  August 24, 2020 Alex Woodie

  Should IBM rename RPG, and if so, what should the new name be? It’s an interesting idea, and one that was recently floated by a member of the IBM i community, who submitted an official request for enhancement (RFE) on the matter. The crux of the argument is that full free-format RPG is such a dramatic departure from fixed-format RPG that it deserves a new name. But will IBM, which owns the language, go along with the change?

  Report Program Generator, or RPG, debuted way back in 1959, at the dawn of the computer age, as a way to replicate …

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• ARCAD Hooks Cross-Reference Tool into LPEX Editor

  August 19, 2020 Alex Woodie

  IBM i developers won’t have to leave the comfort of RDi and the LPEX editor to engage in application cross-referencing tasks, thanks to the recent integration between the ARCAD Observer cross-referencing software with LPEX.

  According to ARCAD Software, the new LPEX integration will bring “massive productivity benefits” to IBM i developers in the form of context-sensitive “where used” impact analysis, as well as dependency information, all delivered directly from within the LPEX editor.

  LPEX integration is a new feature delivered in late June in ARCAD Observer version 12.1. The company, which has offices in France, New Hampshire and Chicago …

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• Guru: RDi V9.6, Part 9 – RDi Helps with Refactoring Code into Procedures

  July 6, 2020 Susan Gantner

  I’m guessing that you have some RPG code in your shop that’s desperately in need of some refactoring. I have yet to visit an RPG one that wasn’t in that position. If by chance you don’t know what I mean by “refactoring” or why you may need it, I highly recommend that you read Ted Holt’s excellent series of Guru tips on refactoring RPG. I’ve included links to those tips in the Related Stories section below.

  I was inspired to go back and review the entire series after I attended Ted’s session Refactoring RPG: What, Why & How at an …

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• Welcome To The ‘Riehl’ World: Live, Hands-On IBM i Training

  May 18, 2020 Alex Woodie

  IBM i shops don’t have a ton of options available when it comes to online IBM i education these days. If you’re in the market to improve your skills, one of the outfits that should be on your shortlist is The 400 School, which is one of the few places left that offers hands-on IBM i education, according to the company’s founder and president, Dan Riehl.

  Riehl has had the kind of IBM midrange career that younger folks arriving on the platform today can only dream of. He has founded companies, written books, worked as a security consultant and …

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• Guru: RDi V9.6, Part 8 – Better Ways To Copy Members, Manage LIBLs, and Find Preferences

  May 18, 2020 Susan Gantner

  If my crystal ball had told me just how many RDi V9.6 fix packs there would be and, more importantly, how many great new features would be added, I might have thought differently about starting a numbered series! Looks like I may well make it into double digits. But I’m not complaining. RDi has always been a great tool, and the pace of significant new functionality added since late 2017, when V9.6 first appeared, has reached new heights.

  This tip covers some of the features added in V9.6.0.7. Yes, I still have some catching up to do since 9.6.0.8 recently …

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• Guru: RDi V9.6 Part 7 – Zoom in, Know Where You Are, Refactor Constants and More

  May 11, 2020 Susan Gantner

  RDi enhancements just keep coming. Since my last installment in this series on V9.6 there have been more fix packs and quite a few new features. Here in part 7 I’ll cover refactoring character constants, two ways for RDi to indicate “you are here”, and a small but really useful way to zoom in on your code. Plus a small bonus item for those who do their compiles in batch.

  You Are Here!

  Two new features were added in 9.6.0.6 that act a bit like those “you are here” indications on maps. When editing RPG code, it tells you if …

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• ILEditor 2 Gives IBM i Shops A New Development Option

  May 6, 2020 Alex Woodie

  Liam Allan recently unveiled ILEditor 2, a new integrated development environment (IDE) for IBM i. The new IDE sports a fresher look and better performance compared to the first version of ILEditor, as well as an extensible plug-in system, which should also deliver better code coverage.

  For many years, members of the IBM i community have expressed frustration by the high price, size, and performance of Rational Developer for i (RDi), which is IBM’s flagship development tool for the IBM i community. While the IDE’s performance has improved in recent years, members of the community still bemoan the …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 22, Number 18

  May 6, 2020 Doug Bidwell

  Hello good people of IBM i Land. This week, there are updates for Rational Developer for i Version 9.6.0.8, for all releases of IBM i. This has been an on again/off again dance with IBM, and we are not sure why Big Blue posted it a few weeks ago, then unposted it, and then reposted it. However, the updates for RDi are for real – and available this week!

  Aside from that, it has been a pretty quiet week for PTFs in Lake Bugsbegone up in lovely Minnesota, the Land of Lakes, with no new groups for the two current …

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• Here’s What’s In the Latest IBM i Technology Refreshes

  April 15, 2020 Alex Woodie

  As expected, IBM today officially unveiled its spring Technology Refreshes for IBM i. Among the goodies that will become available for IBM i 7.4 TR2 or IBM i 7.3 TR8 (or both) are enhancements to Db2 Mirror, a new approach to tape library virtualization, improvements to open source, and new features and functionality around Db2, RPG, RDi, and security, too.

  Months ago, IBM execs circled April 14 on their calendars as the day for the big IBM 7.4 TR2 and IBM i 7.3 TR8 reveal, with the idea that the following week’s POWERUp conference in Atlanta, Georgia (now canceled, but …

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• imPower Technologies Embraces Switch to Online Learning

  April 8, 2020 Alex Woodie

  Traditional schools around the world are in turmoil as a result of the COVID-19 lockdown and the sudden switch to online learning. For Jim Buck and his new IBM i training venture, imPower Technologies, the sudden popularity of virtual education validates the work he and his colleagues have done to build an Internet-based IBM i education operation.

  “We’ve been preparing for this unknowingly for years now,” imPower Technologies Chief Operating Officer Michelle Lyons says. “Had we known, we couldn’t have prepared better.”

  Buck and Lyons started building imPower Technologies nearly three years ago to provide an online vehicle to deliver …

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