-
It’s Time For An Application Healthcheck
January 25, 2021 Andrew Ireland
When you get to a certain age – or, perhaps more generously, to a certain level of maturity – it is a good idea to have a health checkup at least once a year to see how your body is holding up and what can be done to deal with any problems that have arisen.
IBM i applications have the same issues as people, as does all software running on any platform – although software is a bit different in that it can be replaced, renewed, rewritten, refurbished or simply left to rot in its swamp of technical debt.
Every …
Read more -
2021 Predictions for IBM i: Part Two
January 20, 2021 Alex Woodie
The response from the first batch of IBM i prediction we ran last week was superb. Here’s hoping that the community finds the second batch of predictions equally as worthwhile.
Chris Wey, the president of the Power Business Unit at Rocket Software, wonders if crystal balls have any power left following the events of last year. “After an unpredictable 2020, the very notion of predictions is called into question,” Wey says. “Still, as an optimist, I believe we will see some incredibly positive outcomes of the past year’s turmoil in the coming year in our space.
“First, Power systems …
Read more -
Guru: Fall Brings New RPG Features, Part 3
January 18, 2021 Jon Paris
In my previous tips (see Related Stories below), I covered the new BIFs and op-code options added with this release. This time I’m going to discuss a couple of new compiler options that focus on the conversion of character data to numeric.
While you may not have needed these capabilities to date, it is highly likely that you will in the near future. Why? Because of the rapid growth in the use of web services in the IBM i world. I don’t think I have talked to a single client in the last 12 months who was not already providing …
Read more -
ARCAD Plugs IBM i DevOps Suite Into Microsoft Azure
January 18, 2021 Alex Woodie
IBM i developers can now leverage a collection of DevOps tools on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform, courtesy of a new integration announced in December 2020 by ARCAD Software.
Azure DevOps is an end-to-end DevOps environment that provides a range of project management services for developers who are building software to deploy on Azure or other platforms.
Microsoft ostensibly introduced the software as a service (SaaS) offering back in October 2018. But in reality, Azure DevOps is the latest name of a product that can trace its lineage back to 2006, when Microsoft launched Visual Studio Team System.
Through its …
Read more -
Four Hundred Monitor, January 13
January 13, 2021 Jenny Thomas
Despite the fact that much of the world is still shuttered as we desperately look forward to a time beyond the pandemic, we must forge ahead with our initiatives and projects in the new year. But where should you concentrate your focus to succeed in 2021? We don’t have a crystal ball, but we do have Alex Woodie, who talked with leaders in the IBM i community to get their predictions of what the trends will be in the coming months. One thing it’s probably safe to predict is anything “virtual” is going to be a hot topic, as we …
Read more -
Four Hundred Monitor, November 18
November 18, 2020 Jenny Thomas
The effects of the coronavirus have forced people around the world to slow down. We have had to learn to go without and be patient due to delays in pretty much everything due to Covid. But the cloud slows down for no person, or virus, and it seems like the race to cloud supremacy is actually heating up, even as nations around the world head into a second round of lockdowns. IBM has no intention of pumping the brakes on its hybrid cloud aspirations, as you’ll notice while perusing our Top Stories this week. And if you are locked down, …
Read more -
Four Hundred Monitor, November 4
November 4, 2020 Jenny Thomas
IT Jungle readers are familiar with the writing style of our fearless leader, and editor in chief, Timothy Prickett Morgan. Next week, on November 10, you can actually hear him in action as he moderates a live discussion panel for Eradani with IBM i users who share their success stories. Tim is an entertaining host so it’s worth your time to listen in. You can find the listing below in our Chats, Webinars, Seminars, Shows, and Other Happenings section. Also, COMMON members don’t miss out Top Story below for info on the appreciation celebration planned for next week.
Top Stories
… Read more -
Four Hundred Monitor, October 28
October 28, 2020 Jenny Thomas
It can be argued that this whole year has been a horror story, but with Halloween right around the corner, COMMON is getting into the spirit with an online event featuring IBM i horror stories – and how to avoid them – in conjunction with HelpSystems. It’s happening tomorrow so check out the details in the first link of our Top Stories below if you’re interested. It’s interesting to see how quickly we’ve all adapted to virtual meetings, which is evident in our growing “Chats, Webinars, Seminars, Shows, and Other Happenings” section below. Check it out for the latest learning …
Read more -
Choosing The Language To Transform Your Applications
October 19, 2020 Michael Killian
Most of our customers are comfortable with RPG since it is the predominant language on the IBM i, and most are familiar with Java and .NET since those languages have been around for two to three decades. But many are not as familiar with Node.js.
There are a lot of great resources available regarding Node.js, so I thought amalgamating that information into one concise article for ease of reference might be a better use of your time. There are so many resources out there to give context and meaning to Node.js, so I have put together a list of the …
Read more -
Creating Web Services APIs Can Be Easy On IBM i
September 16, 2020 Andrew Ireland
Many IBM i customers are taking a hard look at how they can bring their heritage applications, along with all the significant business value they contain, into a modern world. There are a number of different approaches to do that, and in reality, these methods work together and complement each other. There is no one single route, but rather a combination of approaches that leads to the best results at the lowest cost and the least grief.
The average IBM i customer has something in the order of five million lines of code that embody their mission critical applications. Companies …
Read more