Four Hundred Monitor, June 21
June 21, 2023 Jenny Thomas
Today is the official first day of summer. Depending where you live, it may not feel like it, or you may think summer is already in full swing. But summer isn’t measured by temperatures and sunshine, it is considered to be the first day of summer in astronomical terms, as today is the summer solstice. In terms of daylight, this day is 4 hours, 19 minutes longer than the December solstice. In most locations north of the equator, the longest day of the year is around this date. But before you head out to enjoy those extra daylight hours, catch up on all the latest from around the industry that this week’s issue of Monitor has to offer below.
Top Stories From Around The Jungle
(Newser) IBM has officially lost the patent crown.
(The New York Times) We are entering a new era in quantum computing.
(Hines) The work begins on new IBM’s new building in Austin’s “second downtown.”
(Insider) IBM leaders explain why marketeers need to embrace the future of ChatGPT.
(CIO Magazine) A dozen issues that might be faced by your organization.
Redbooks, White Papers, Blogs, Podcasts, and Other Resources
(Stayin’ Alive in Technology) Jacqueline Harper, one of the first black female programmers, tells her story during this podcast.
(CYBRA) Looking to improve your supply chain efficiency? This on-demand webinar from CYBRA and demonstrates how you can maximize outbound supply chain functions with minimal effort.
(IBM Tech Now) Get insights from the Definitive Guide to Ransomware in the latest IBM Tech Now episode.
(System i Developer) Our friends at SiD have revealed the next series of Summit Deep Dive Workshops for IBM i developers. Choose from 13 interactive, half-day online workshops with Paul Tuohy, Susan Gantner, Jon Paris, or Mike Pavlak. Cement new skills in SQL, RPG, open source on IBM i, APIs/web services, Db2 for i and more. The Series begins September 19 and runs through October 31.
(Manta Technologies) Another milestone for Manta, which is celebrating its 29th birthday. But you get the present. Save 20 percent on any course, series, or combination pack. Sale ends July 31.
Chats, Webinars, Seminars, Shows, and Other Happenings
June 21 – Webinar – Join a community celebration for the 35th anniversary of IBM i.
June 22 – Webinar – Save your seat for Fresche Solutions’ “Proven Modernization Strategies for IT and IBM i Applications” webinar. Learn about common opportunities for improving business processes, steps in developing comprehensive strategy and roadmap, and incremental strategies that take milestones into account and deliver value quickly.
June 22 – Webinar – Join ARCAD Software for a 30-minute webinar to see how to easily create coherent test datasets, small enough for rapid test cycles, but large enough to accurately reflect the variety of production data.
June 27 – Webinar – Join the M3 User Association Special Interest Group Webinar (free for members and first-time guest M3 users) and Maxava to explore significant changes in iSeries high availability and disaster recovery.
July 27-29 – Tustin, California – Join OCEAN for TechCon23, featuring keynote speaker IBM i chief architect Steve Will, plus a CIO summit, expert panel discussion, and outstanding tech and prof dev sessions.
July 18 – Online Workshop – RPG Free Form in a Nutshell. In this free online session, Susan Gantner will explain the syntax of RPG Free-Form code. After a brief refresher on free format logic, she will delve into more recent free-form declarations (i.e. the replacements for H, F, D and P specs) as well as the ability to use as many columns for your RPG logic as you need—starting in column 1 if you want!
September 19 – Online Workshop – Getting to a Modern Database on IBM i, a half day online workshop with Paul Tuohy, covers the design and definition of a modern database and the steps necessary to re-define an existing database with DDL — without having to make any program changes.
September 21 – Online Workshop – RDi Quick Start for PDM Fans, a half day online workshop with Susan Gantner, helps you get started (or re-started) quickly using RDi’s new PDM perspective. This simplified interface includes a table that allows you to “work with members” (or objects or libraries) in a form that looks and feels much like PDM — but with many cool added features.
September 26 – Online Workshop – Data Structures & Arrays for Today’s RPG Apps, a half day online workshop with Jon Paris, covers Nested Data Structures, Multi-Dimensional Arrays, Dynamic Arrays, Templates, Modern Indicator usage, Data Structure I/O, and more.
September 28 – Online Workshop – Intro to Open Source on IBM i, a half day online workshop with Mike Pavlak, introduces you to the fundamentals of using Open Source Software on IBM i. Mike will cover concepts and terminology, how to install and manage open source tools, and survey several open source projects and languages.
October 3 – Online Workshop – Foundations in SQL on IBM i, a half day online workshop with Paul Tuohy, covers SQL terminology and concepts, including basic syntax for Data Manipulation Language (DML) and Data Definition Language (DDL), as well as the many SQL functions and compare/contrast some of them with RPG built-in functions. We’ll look at accessing data from multiple tables using JOIN and UNION. We’ll look at the use of subselect (a SELECT within a SELECT) and the use of Common Table Expressions (CTE) to accomplish more complex data access.
October 5 – Online Workshop – RPG Procedures & SRVPGMs by Example, a half day online workshop with Susan Gantner, covers how and why to use ILE procedures, modules, service programs, binding directories, binder language, and activation groups.
October 10 – Online Workshop – Python for RPGers, a half day online workshop with Mike Pavlak, explores the implementation, syntax and application use cases of Python on IBM i.
October 9-11 – Virginia Beach, Virginia – Join COMMON for NAViGATE, which will feature more than 100 sessions presented by industry expert speakers, an expo of leading solution providers in the IBM i space, and limitless networking opportunities to connect with peers and experts to maximize your learning opportunities.
October 12 – Online Workshop – API Enable Your Application with Web Services, a half day online workshop with Jon Paris and Paul Tuohy, takes you step by step through the basics of creating and consuming web services using either RPG or SQL along with JSON or XML and HTTPAPI or IWS. Learn which approach is right for you.
October 17 – Online Workshop – A to Z of Embedded SQL in RPG, a half day online workshop with Paul Tuohy, takes you from the basics of a simple SELECT statement, to using a cursor, to using a paging cursor, to using SQL to maintain your data, to wrapping SQL functions as RPG subprocedures, to accessing the web with SQL, to the proper use of dynamic SQL… and much, much more.
October 19 – Online Workshop – Is Code for IBM i Right for You?, a half day online workshop with Susan Gantner and Jon Paris, introduces you to Code for IBM i, an open source extension to Microsoft’s Visual Code Studio. This new IDE supports developers working on IBM i applications that use languages like RPG, COBOL and CL as well as PHP, Node.js, Python and other open source languages.
October 24 – Online Workshop – PHP for RPGers, a half day online workshop with Mike Pavlak, focuses on the fundamentals of PHP. It moves on to exhibit a simple use case for an application and then decompose the application with a LOT of nifty tools and features.
October 26 – Online Workshop – Coding a Modern RPG Application, a half day online workshop with Paul Tuohy, takes you through the structure and code behind a modern RPG application, exploring the details of each of its many layers.
October 31 – Online Workshop – SQL Procedures, Functions and Triggers, a half day online workshop with Paul Tuohy, shows you how to use SQL to allow other languages (and platforms) to take advantage of existing IBM i code or to access SQL capabilities from RPG or COBOL applications.