• Guru: RPG Sorting and Searching, A 7.2 Update

  September 5, 2018 Susan Gantner

  Author’s Note: This is the second update I’ve done to a tip I originally wrote back in 2008. In 2010, I updated the code to use SORTA with array data structures. Here in 2018 I’m updating it once more — this time to use free-form declarations in place of the D specs, including a more obvious way to code the nested data structure used in some of the examples and references to more recent tips for handling very large arrays. The 2010 version was entitled “. . . A 7.1 Update.” I’ve renamed this one as “. . . A …

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• Guru: An Introduction to Processing XML With RPG, Part 3

  September 5, 2018 Jon Paris

  Author’s Note: In part 1 and part 2 of this XML series, I introduced you to the basics of using RPG’s XML support. In this tip we begin to explore some of the challenges that you may face when processing commercial XML documents, and the support XML-INTO offers to handle them. In particular we will be reviewing how to ignore parts of the document through the use of the path= %XML option. We will also review how to handle XML documents that make use of namespaces and how to handle XML element names that include characters that are not valid …

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• Guru: Handling Constraint Violations In RPG

  September 5, 2018 Paul Tuohy

  Author’s Note: The contents of this article were originally published as two separate articles – Handling Constraint Violations in RPG and Handling Constraints Revisited. The content of the article has been updated for free form RPG and some of the coding enhancements that have been introduced, into RPG, since 2009.

  Constraints have been around for a long time but apparently have not quite made it into every programmer’s tool kit. This is partly explained by the fact that implementing constraints in an existing application can be tricky, but it doesn’t explain why constraints are not used extensively in new …

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• Guru: Three Little Words That Simplify Debugging

  August 29, 2018 Susan Gantner

  Author’s Note: The original version of this tip first appeared in March 2007. That was three renames ago for the toolset we now know as RDi. (It was WDSC then). Although RDi has seen many significant enhancements in the intervening years, not much about starting a debug session has changed. But the number of RPGers now using RDi for editing their code has grown dramatically, and many recent converts still struggle with getting a debug session started. So I think this tip bears repeating — with some name changes, updated images and relevant functional updates here and there.

  I had …

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• Guru: An Introduction to Processing XML With RPG, Part 2

  August 29, 2018 Jon Paris

  In the first part of this series for Guru Classic, I introduced you to the basics of using RPG’s XML-INTO op-code. In that tip I showed how the provision of a count provided by RPG in the PSDS can be used to determine how many of a repeating element were processed.

  However, as I noted at the time, this can only be used when handling a repeating outer element. But what if there is a repeating element within each of those outer elements? In this second part of the series we will be studying how to handle those situations. …

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• Guru: Getting the Message, Part 2

  August 29, 2018 Paul Tuohy

  Author’s Note: This article was originally published in October 2009. Since then, I have worked on many modernization projects with many clients and, in every one of those projects, we have used some form of the contents of this (and the following) article. The content of the article has been updated for free-form RPG and some of the coding enhancements that have been introduced, into RPG, since 2009. The original articles also showed examples of direct calls to RPG subprocedures from PHP. Given that we now have many languages (Node.js, Python etc.) that interact with RPG, I changed the mechanism …

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• Guru: Refactoring RPG – GOTO

  August 27, 2018 Ted Holt

  When I first learned COBOL, I coded loops the way all the programmers in my shop did — with GO TO. Paragraph names were labels, not routines. Then I took a class in COBOL and learned structured programming. I’ve never looked back. I wish other people felt the same way, because I don’t like to work on GOTO-laden programs.

  Injudicious use of branching — in RPG that would be the GOTO and CABxx op codes — is a major reason I refactor. GOTO plays havoc with program “logic”, a word I hesitate to use in this context. The minute someone …

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• Visual LANSA Goes Low-Code With High Tech Update

  August 15, 2018 Alex Woodie

  As one of the original advocates of fourth-generation language (4GLs), LANSA knows a thing or two about the value of abstraction layers. While the hype around 4GLs has long since passed, LANSA continues to build on its foundation with new features aimed at keeping customers ahead of the technology curve. That work is on display with the recent update to its “low-code” environment, Visual LANSA version 14 SP2.

  Visual LANSA is LANSA‘s flagship integrated development environment (IDE) for creating modern graphical applications. The IDE employs numerous techniques to minimize the amount of Rapid Development and Maintenance Language (RDML, its …

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• CIO Summit Brings Execs Up To Speed On IBM i

  August 6, 2018 Alex Woodie

  The IBM i server is mystery to many. Not only does it run on abnormal hardware – at least compared to “standards-based” X86 computers – but its programming languages, user interfaces, and administrative tasks can seem otherworldly to the uninitiated. For Alan Seiden, the organizer of an IBM i-focused executive get-together known as the CIO Summit, dispelling the platform’s mystery represents something of a personal challenge.

  The next CIO Summit is in about two months, and Seiden, who’s a well-known PHP on IBM i expert as well as the founder and principle of the Seiden Group, is looking forward …

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• Guru: A Bevy of BIFs – %Dec to the Rescue

  August 1, 2018 Susan Gantner

  Author’s Note: This tip was first published back in 2009. I’ve updated the code examples here to use free format declarations. In addition I’ve added the potential use of %ScanRpl, which didn’t exist at the original publication date.

  More and more in RPG applications these days, it seems we need to process data that comes from “the dark side.” Translation: from a non-i system. This data could be coming from a browser screen via an RPG CGI program, from a CSV (comma-separated values) flat file, from an XML or JSON document, or myriad other ways. One thing these dark sources …

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