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Lack Of Awareness Plagues Free-Form RPG
August 10, 2015 Dan Burger
How could IBM be more successful with IBM i? How about this novel idea: product promotion. For all the money it spends on product development, IBM fails to expand the IBM i market because product awareness remains low. This discussion could go in a lot of different directions, but for today let’s make the focus free-form RPG. This is one of the top IBM i enhancements in recent memory. Why isn’t the IBM i community aware of it?
Beginning with IBM i 7.1, RPG IV coders gained the capability to do completely free-form programs. The benefit of free-form calcs had
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Robot Job Scheduler Gets a Fresh New Look
July 15, 2015 Alex Woodie
In the world of Web design, a user interface built with a “responsive design” is equally at home on a smartphone as a Windows PC. HelpSystems took responsive design to heart with the latest update to Robot SCHEDULE, which now features a Web-based user interface that will give customers deeper insight into how jobs are running on the IBM i server.
With the new interface, Robot SCHEDULE users will be able to see IBM i jobs as they’re running, and interact with them through a mobile device. If a problem crops up with a job, the interface will notify them
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Surround Tech Goes Up The Stack
June 17, 2015 Alex Woodie
Surround Technologies is a well-known provider of .NET-based tooling for modernizing IBM i applications. If you want to outfit your 5250 application with Web, Windows, or mobile clients using Microsoft technologies, its flagship Accelerator series can provide that. But with the latest version, Surround Tech is going up the stack by offering pre-built apps for things like document management, content management, and even human resources.
Modernizing legacy IBM i applications and moving from 5250 to modern Web and mobile apps is one thing, says Surround Tech CEO Lee Paul. But what IBM i shops need these days goes beyond application
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IBM i Multiple Language Support Generates Value Decisions
June 15, 2015 Dan Burger
IBM i support for multiple programming languages leads to freedom of choice, but that doesn’t necessarily make the choice easy. Many of the application development experts say picking a programming language depends on the goal in mind and, of course, which language skills the user possesses. But to say you can’t argue with that is an oversimplification. RPG is always going to be an IBM midrange programmer favorite no matter what. And then there’s the native versus non-native debate.
IT Jungle turned to several application development experts with deep experience and various opinions on programming language decisions.
For database access
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Technology Refresh Highlighted By Development Languages And Native Flash Storage
May 6, 2015 Dan Burger
IBM‘s latest round of technology refreshments for IBM i 7.1 and 7.2 were announced last week, so I asked Steve Will and Alison Butterill to pick what they expected to be the operating systems’ most appreciated and readily implemented enhancements. Their agreed upon choices came down to support for popular development languages Java 8 and Python, plus expanded support for the data interchange format JSON, and native flash storage, which replaces virtual attached storage.
Will, the chief scientist for IBM i, and Butterill, the IBM i program offering manager, have a great deal to say about what goes into
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BCD Cranks Up Its PHP Engine
May 6, 2015 Alex Woodie
It’s no secret that BCD Software likes PHP. The company, owned by Quadrant Software since February 2014, has supported the Web application programming language since it rolled out a special PHP version of WebSmart back in 2007. But with the recent launches of two new PHP bundles aimed at IBM i shops, as well as support for Zend‘s Z-Ray functionality, the company is taking its affinity for PHP to a whole new level.
BCD used last week’s COMMON conference as a springboard to launch two new software bundles that combine the WebSmart development tools and Zend’s PHP software for
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Pipelined User-Defined Table Functions In DB2 For i
May 5, 2015 Michael Sansoterra
Pipes are a fantastic invention as they are useful for conveying a substance in an efficient and well directed manner. Whether used for transporting sewage, carrying oil, or even bottling a duck (if you’re old enough to remember “The High and the Flighty” Foghorn Leghorn cartoon featuring the Ace Novelty company’s “Pipe Full of Fun Kit #7”); our world wouldn’t be the same without them.
Not to be left out, starting in IBM i 7.1 TR9 and IBM i 7.2 TR1, DB2 for i now offers a “PIPE” statement that is used to quickly populate rows in a user-defined table
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An Open Letter To IBM From A Developer
May 4, 2015 Garry Taylor
The only thing that I request from IBM, is the ability to develop software for their IBM i platform. Am I asking too much? I don’t think so. Allow me to elaborate. I have been developing on IBM i since 2008. In that time, I’ve used public systems, had the use of business partner’s machines, and way back in time I had my own 9401/150 developer system with all compilers installed. Recently though, I have been wishing to ramp up my efforts on IBM i, to develop more software, more seriously.
Now, on any other computer platform I can
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Infinite Success Is Modernization Via Migration
March 2, 2015 Dan Burger
“We see lots of interesting ways forward for IBM i applications,” says Infinite Corporation president and CEO Bruce Acacio. He’s talking about IBM midrange shops looking to modernize, but he’s specifically interested in shops that have decided to leave the IBM i platform behind and migrate their applications to Linux, Windows, or Unix systems. Infinite helped “just under 200” IBM i shops make that migration in 2014, Acacio says. He expects that number to reach 400 in 2015.
Decision makers have had modernization in mind for several years during which they’ve been in talks with Infinite about options and the
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HelpSystems, SoftLanding Partner To Upgrade TurnOver
February 16, 2015 Dan Burger
SoftLanding has collaborated with HelpSystems to obtain more modern cross-referencing and documentation tools for SoftLanding’s widely used change management tool, TurnOver. The partnership, which was announced last week, involves the integration of a more modern version of HelpSystems’ application development tool, called ABSTRACT, with the goal of enhancing software development capabilities for IBM midrange shops using TurnOver.
TurnOver (referred to as TurnOver for iSeries v100 edition in the company’s literature) supports repeatable procedures for developing and maintaining IBM i applications, including issue tracking, project management, development, and deployment. It is used by IBM i ISVs and development departments in IBM