Planet i

Well, IBM has announced IBM i 7.1. Ross Mauri IBM's GM for Power Systems has made a statement that this demonstrates IBM's commitment to the OS (formerly a platform and IBM division with its own General Manager).

Quite frankly if you look closely at the 7.1 offering the bulk of its enhancements are designed to leverage cross platform offerings from the storage group within IBM's STG organization. It also focuses heavily on running on blade servers with a mix of operating systems on blades in the chassis.

Have you read a single word about application development?  You do see a new offering from IBM Rational called "Power Tools" which integrate Java, C/C++ across all three Operating systems that run on Power machines (IBM i, AIX, Linux).

There should be a major message to everyone in this announcement which is that it is time to begin to abandon IBM i the operating system and move to either a Unix or Linux based environment. 

Lets face facts. IBM i is obsolete.  The bulk of the code in the OS and the overhead that keeps IBM i from reaching the performance levels of AIX and LINUX is the overhead devoted to managing 5250 based interactive jobs as well as a heavy mix of batch jobs.

Modern workloads are server based C++ or Java and leverage application server technology.  There is no longer a need for the telecommunications monitors like CICS or the built in support for 5250 in the IBM i.  You need a low profile OS that provides a high performance interface to the hardware that maximizes application performance.

While the embedded DB2 in IBM i certainly adds value to the OS when compared to DB2 on other platforms in terms of the astronomical costs of DB2 on those platforms; it still sadly lags behind other vendor databases in terms of performance and functionality such as Oracle, Sybase, Ingress, Microsoft SQL Server, and others, now including the free open source mySQL.

IBM i folks tend to fail to look objectively at the world around them.  I spent about 3 hours today learning PHP and mySQL to write my first PHP application using mySQL provided by Network Solutions (my hosting company) along with every other major hosting company.  What vendors even supports DB2? 

What about modern Cell phones like the iPhone, Blackberry, and others?  How do you support those with state of the art applications?  They utilize Java based applications. 

Look around at the industry.  Oracle's now completed acquisition of Sun Microsystems will have a huge impact on IBM Power Systems and the IBM i.  Oracle owns JD Edward now as well as PeopleSoft and other major business software packages.

Oracle had been a leading business partner driving IBM i and Power system sales for IBM.  I have no idea what the percentage will be but there will be a huge hole in IBM's revenue when Oracle moves people to their own Sun based hardware platform. 

What should you be doing right now?

If you have an inventory of RPG, Synon2e, and/or COBOL applications you better have a migration plan and be working that plan.  I certainly do not advocate pulling the plug on existing RPG applications, but you better darn well have a plan that moves you away from RPG and IBM i in the next 5 to 7 years. 

More important than the pending demise of IBM i is the need to provide modern systems and interfaces to modern devices like cell phones or specialized devices that are materializing throughout your business from the "cash register" to the loading doc and manufacturing facilities.

You need to analyze your existing systems, prioritize the modernization initiatives and not just migrate to a new language or OS but provide the ability to address real business problems and challenges.

It may be time to look at sending some current CIO's out for early retirement if they are focused on technology and not on the company's problems and bottom line.  There is way too much talk and argument about technology and programming languages and very little discussion about addressing the needs of the business in a rapidly changing world.

I am coming back into the market place and my focus is on IT as a service to the business it is supposed to support.  I am sick and tired of hearing arguments about technology or listening to a bunch of geeks with there heads in a "cloud"...

Lets put IT back on track and support the businesses that it was intended to support.  Lets make sure that the computer systems are running on machines that will survive the next 5 to 10 years, and lets get away from my platform or language is better than yours. 

Languages and Hardware have become irrelevant.  Platform neutral languages and even operating systems like Linux are emerging as clear leaders.  Proprietary operating systems are obsolete and no longer add value but rather introduce extreme risk to companies who cling to aging technology.

Sorry, but my view with no axe to grind.

Read the original at Bob Cancilla on IBM i.

Well, IBM has announced IBM i 7.1. Ross Mauri IBM's GM for Power Systems has made a statement that this demonstrates IBM's commitment to the OS (formerly a platform and IBM division with its own General Manager).

Quite frankly if you look closely at the 7.1 offering the bulk of its enhancements are designed to leverage cross platform offerings from the storage group within IBM's STG organization. It also focuses heavily on running on blade servers with a mix of operating systems on blades in the chassis.

Have you read a single word about application development?  You do see a new offering from IBM Rational called "Power Tools" which integrate Java, C/C++ across all three Operating systems that run on Power machines (IBM i, AIX, Linux).

There should be a major message to everyone in this announcement which is that it is time to begin to abandon IBM i the operating system and move to either a Unix or Linux based environment. 

Lets face facts. IBM i is obsolete.  The bulk of the code in the OS and the overhead that keeps IBM i from reaching the performance levels of AIX and LINUX is the overhead devoted to managing 5250 based interactive jobs as well as a heavy mix of batch jobs.

Modern workloads are server based C++ or Java and leverage application server technology.  There is no longer a need for the telecommunications monitors like CICS or the built in support for 5250 in the IBM i.  You need a low profile OS that provides a high performance interface to the hardware that maximizes application performance.

While the embedded DB2 in IBM i certainly adds value to the OS when compared to DB2 on other platforms in terms of the astronomical costs of DB2 on those platforms; it still sadly lags behind other vendor databases in terms of performance and functionality such as Oracle, Sybase, Ingress, Microsoft SQL Server, and others, now including the free open source mySQL.

IBM i folks tend to fail to look objectively at the world around them.  I spent about 3 hours today learning PHP and mySQL to write my first PHP application using mySQL provided by Network Solutions (my hosting company) along with every other major hosting company.  What vendors even supports DB2? 

What about modern Cell phones like the iPhone, Blackberry, and others?  How do you support those with state of the art applications?  They utilize Java based applications. 

Look around at the industry.  Oracle's now completed acquisition of Sun Microsystems will have a huge impact on IBM Power Systems and the IBM i.  Oracle owns JD Edward now as well as PeopleSoft and other major business software packages.

Oracle had been a leading business partner driving IBM i and Power system sales for IBM.  I have no idea what the percentage will be but there will be a huge hole in IBM's revenue when Oracle moves people to their own Sun based hardware platform. 

What should you be doing right now?

If you have an inventory of RPG, Synon2e, and/or COBOL applications you better have a migration plan and be working that plan.  I certainly do not advocate pulling the plug on existing RPG applications, but you better darn well have a plan that moves you away from RPG and IBM i in the next 5 to 7 years. 

More important than the pending demise of IBM i is the need to provide modern systems and interfaces to modern devices like cell phones or specialized devices that are materializing throughout your business from the "cash register" to the loading doc and manufacturing facilities.

You need to analyze your existing systems, prioritize the modernization initiatives and not just migrate to a new language or OS but provide the ability to address real business problems and challenges.

It may be time to look at sending some current CIO's out for early retirement if they are focused on technology and not on the company's problems and bottom line.  There is way too much talk and argument about technology and programming languages and very little discussion about addressing the needs of the business in a rapidly changing world.

I am coming back into the market place and my focus is on IT as a service to the business it is supposed to support.  I am sick and tired of hearing arguments about technology or listening to a bunch of geeks with there heads in a "cloud"...

Lets put IT back on track and support the businesses that it was intended to support.  Lets make sure that the computer systems are running on machines that will survive the next 5 to 10 years, and lets get away from my platform or language is better than yours. 

Languages and Hardware have become irrelevant.  Platform neutral languages and even operating systems like Linux are emerging as clear leaders.  Proprietary operating systems are obsolete and no longer add value but rather introduce extreme risk to companies who cling to aging technology.

Sorry, but my view with no axe to grind.

Read the original at Bob Cancilla on IBM i.

One question I field a lot is “Do I really need to know HTML in order to program in PHP?” In my opinion the answer is an unequivocal “YES!” And I can’t put enough exclamation points after that YES! As many who will read this are IBM i developers, I feel comfortable challenging you to think back to when you learned RPG and were first exposed to interactive programming. There is this funny little language called DDS (Data Definition Specifications) that was used to describe data, display formats and report formats. This odd language was so simple in its design and so obvious in its use. But it has started to fall away with the advent of SQL, report writers like Query Manager & DB2 Web Query and newer UI technologies such as PHP, RPG-CGI and others. Many in the RPG arena I have talked to don’t seem to think there was any effort expended in learning DDS. Seems a bit strange but I challenge you to consider, if you can, the number of hours you spent learning the nuances of DDS for interactive processing. And if you have trouble, think back to your first subfile program and the first time you struggled with a subfile issue.

Why is this so important to me? Well, you see, a good friend of mine was trying to learn PHP in my class and he got so frustrated he walked away. Not because he could not grasp the PHP but because he struggled with the application of PHP in the web presentation realm: i.e HTML. I feel that I let him down all the time he was struggling assuming he would just “pick it up”. I should have added more HTML content to the class or offered more assistance. There was a huge gap and he ultimately felt it was no longer worth the time or stress. I have spent a great deal of time reflecting up upon this issue and have decided to recommit as much energy as possible into encouraging IBM i developers to learn HTML as soon as possible.

So where do I go to learn HTML? There is an abundance of resources on the internet that are fabulous for learning HTML. Since there are far too many resources to discuss that cost absolutely nothing I prefer to give one example of each and allow you to spend a little time using Google to discover another. Better yet, add a comment to this article with your favorite place to find good info about general web development. First there are the free resources like W3schools.com, which is a great place to start. Their online list of tags and examples are well worth the time to review. Second there are books. My favorite is the Head First HTML with CSS and XHML. This book takes the knowledge you gain from the places like w3schools and applies the concepts in an actual application. Granted they are basic in nature but that is still a great start. Third are classes like the ones at the local community college. Moraine Valley Community College in Palos Hills, IL hosts a 16 week class on HTML and Java Script.

Wait Mike, you started talking about HTML and now your babbling on about CSS and Java Script! What gives? Yes, I realize I am all over the board, here. The first thing any IBM i developer must accept about the web programming realm is that this world is different than the world of RPG and COBOL. Suck it up and get used to it. I can’t change it for you and neither can IBM, Microsoft or Google. But we can make it a little easier to understand. So let’s reign it in with a few IBM i analogies that might help. HTML has to do with formatting. Think of the display attributes and subfiles you build using DDS. HTML controls the look and feel of your site. Now if you think about a good application that you built using DDS you probably got into the use of reference fields. In many cases this is where you set up standard sizes and attributes for many data elements in your display files. The field reference file, sometimes referred to as a Data Dictionary is somewhat akin to the Cascading Style Sheet or CSS. CSS is a super-charged version of the data dictionary and is used to maintain the consistency of website layout across multiple pages. So if you choose that your HTML table (something that looks a lot like a subfile) should always have a grey background, bold piping, heading in italics and every other bar alternating a green background then you would want to use a CSS. The CSS saves you the trouble of hard coding formatting on every page and lets you focus more on the application when working in PHP.

But what about Java Script, Mike? Yes, dear JavaScript. Well, it used to be that folks wanting to add special functionality to their web pages would occasionally use JavaScript. In fact, I remember the early wars where folks would disable JavaScript in hopes of making their browsers safe. As in many risks to humans today the benefits far outweigh the risks. Many of us are taking JavaScript for granted when surfing web pages like Google and others. The “magic” that auto completes search box entries is often times JavaScript! And, if you think you need to deliver that functionality for your users you are absolutely correct. Why? Because they are surfing Google, too and expect jst as much from you as they get form the hundred or so web developers at Google.

The good news is that this is all achievable. But as the old Chinese proverb says, ‘The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step’. You too must realize that this can be learned but you have to start somewhere. So, what is Mike’s prescription? Here is a guidline and not a guarantee:
- Go to w3schools (or some portal) and start learning HTML (30 days)
o You can program HTML on your IBM i or your PC. You pick.
o The only way to learn this is by doing it
o If you are looking for examples of how to do something in HTML just go to a given web page that has it working and click “View?Page Source. In Firefox it is CTRL-U.
- Now you can start learning PHP. (60 days)
o Come to Zend for the PHP for RPG Programmers course
o But there are books
o And online portals to help with that too
- Get some CSS training (15 days)
o Again books and online tutorials are great.
o Don’t forget about your local community college
o Or maybe your local user group…
o Go to csszengarden.com for examples of the power of CSS!
- By now the JavaScript stuff will start making sense (30 days)
o Same as above
o No longer an option, thou shalt learn JavaScript!
Please understand that a lot of what is placed in this article applies to just about any web programming paradigm. PLEASE do not let some slick sales person sell you on how easy their “tool” is to learn and use and that you will never need to learn a given technology although you make a living developing in it. It is important to understand how the technology works for you to support it. Tools can help bridge the gap and accelerate the learning, in some cases. But you will need to learn these basic technologies to do web development regardless of your path.

Lastly, the only way to learn this stuff is to play. Get your hands dirty and “JUST DO IT!” The Matrix was a movie that showed how easy it is to learn things and until that becomes a reality you need to start at the beginning and work through it.

Good luck!

Read the original at Mike's IBM i PHP blog and more....

One question I field a lot is “Do I really need to know HTML in order to program in PHP?” In my opinion the answer is an unequivocal “YES!” And I can’t put enough exclamation points after that YES! As many who will read this are IBM i developers, I feel comfortable challenging you to think back to when you learned RPG and were first exposed to interactive programming. There is this funny little language called DDS (Data Definition Specifications) that was used to describe data, display formats and report formats. This odd language was so simple in its design and so obvious in its use. But it has started to fall away with the advent of SQL, report writers like Query Manager & DB2 Web Query and newer UI technologies such as PHP, RPG-CGI and others. Many in the RPG arena I have talked to don’t seem to think there was any effort expended in learning DDS. Seems a bit strange but I challenge you to consider, if you can, the number of hours you spent learning the nuances of DDS for interactive processing. And if you have trouble, think back to your first subfile program and the first time you struggled with a subfile issue.

Why is this so important to me? Well, you see, a good friend of mine was trying to learn PHP in my class and he got so frustrated he walked away. Not because he could not grasp the PHP but because he struggled with the application of PHP in the web presentation realm: i.e HTML. I feel that I let him down all the time he was struggling assuming he would just “pick it up”. I should have added more HTML content to the class or offered more assistance. There was a huge gap and he ultimately felt it was no longer worth the time or stress. I have spent a great deal of time reflecting up upon this issue and have decided to recommit as much energy as possible into encouraging IBM i developers to learn HTML as soon as possible.

So where do I go to learn HTML? There is an abundance of resources on the internet that are fabulous for learning HTML. Since there are far too many resources to discuss that cost absolutely nothing I prefer to give one example of each and allow you to spend a little time using Google to discover another. Better yet, add a comment to this article with your favorite place to find good info about general web development. First there are the free resources like W3schools.com, which is a great place to start. Their online list of tags and examples are well worth the time to review. Second there are books. My favorite is the Head First HTML with CSS and XHML. This book takes the knowledge you gain from the places like w3schools and applies the concepts in an actual application. Granted they are basic in nature but that is still a great start. Third are classes like the ones at the local community college. Moraine Valley Community College in Palos Hills, IL hosts a 16 week class on HTML and Java Script.

Wait Mike, you started talking about HTML and now your babbling on about CSS and Java Script! What gives? Yes, I realize I am all over the board, here. The first thing any IBM i developer must accept about the web programming realm is that this world is different than the world of RPG and COBOL. Suck it up and get used to it. I can’t change it for you and neither can IBM, Microsoft or Google. But we can make it a little easier to understand. So let’s reign it in with a few IBM i analogies that might help. HTML has to do with formatting. Think of the display attributes and subfiles you build using DDS. HTML controls the look and feel of your site. Now if you think about a good application that you built using DDS you probably got into the use of reference fields. In many cases this is where you set up standard sizes and attributes for many data elements in your display files. The field reference file, sometimes referred to as a Data Dictionary is somewhat akin to the Cascading Style Sheet or CSS. CSS is a super-charged version of the data dictionary and is used to maintain the consistency of website layout across multiple pages. So if you choose that your HTML table (something that looks a lot like a subfile) should always have a grey background, bold piping, heading in italics and every other bar alternating a green background then you would want to use a CSS. The CSS saves you the trouble of hard coding formatting on every page and lets you focus more on the application when working in PHP.

But what about Java Script, Mike? Yes, dear JavaScript. Well, it used to be that folks wanting to add special functionality to their web pages would occasionally use JavaScript. In fact, I remember the early wars where folks would disable JavaScript in hopes of making their browsers safe. As in many risks to humans today the benefits far outweigh the risks. Many of us are taking JavaScript for granted when surfing web pages like Google and others. The “magic” that auto completes search box entries is often times JavaScript! And, if you think you need to deliver that functionality for your users you are absolutely correct. Why? Because they are surfing Google, too and expect jst as much from you as they get form the hundred or so web developers at Google.

The good news is that this is all achievable. But as the old Chinese proverb says, ‘The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step’. You too must realize that this can be learned but you have to start somewhere. So, what is Mike’s prescription? Here is a guidline and not a guarantee:
- Go to w3schools (or some portal) and start learning HTML (30 days)
o You can program HTML on your IBM i or your PC. You pick.
o The only way to learn this is by doing it
o If you are looking for examples of how to do something in HTML just go to a given web page that has it working and click “View?Page Source. In Firefox it is CTRL-U.
- Now you can start learning PHP. (60 days)
o Come to Zend for the PHP for RPG Programmers course
o But there are books
o And online portals to help with that too
- Get some CSS training (15 days)
o Again books and online tutorials are great.
o Don’t forget about your local community college
o Or maybe your local user group…
o Go to csszengarden.com for examples of the power of CSS!
- By now the JavaScript stuff will start making sense (30 days)
o Same as above
o No longer an option, thou shalt learn JavaScript!
Please understand that a lot of what is placed in this article applies to just about any web programming paradigm. PLEASE do not let some slick sales person sell you on how easy their “tool” is to learn and use and that you will never need to learn a given technology although you make a living developing in it. It is important to understand how the technology works for you to support it. Tools can help bridge the gap and accelerate the learning, in some cases. But you will need to learn these basic technologies to do web development regardless of your path.

Lastly, the only way to learn this stuff is to play. Get your hands dirty and “JUST DO IT!” The Matrix was a movie that showed how easy it is to learn things and until that becomes a reality you need to start at the beginning and work through it.

Good luck!

Read the original at Mike's IBM i PHP blog and more....

In an alternative universe:
IBM Toronto
Press Release
April 1, 2010
RPG, from its very inception, has been designed to be an easy to use programming language. Since business data is stored in files, RPG was designed to make reading and writing files easy. To that end, its creators made sure that the processing of files was made easy by its READ and READE and READP operation codes, using a Pascal-like DO loop. Doing subtotals has been accomplished by the programmer storing intermediate data in temporary user-defined fields, then comparing group identifiers with the new identifiers and outputting the results before proceeding. Proper cascading logic enables the user to track multiple group changes that may need to be done at the same time. CHAIN and READ make it possible to easily link related files.

Batch file processing used to be the way to process data; but eventually the report became less important and the screen more so. Now, as SQL is used more and more, with SELECTs and the use of a cursor, pseudo-batch processing has come more into vogue.

With that in mind, we felt it was time to take a radical step to make batch processing more elegant. We have implemented in the latest release of RPGIV a new facility we have chosen to call “the RPG cycle”.

With the RPG cycle, by declaring a file (using new file descriptors in the F specifications) as “primary” or “secondary”, you no longer need to issue explicit READ instructions. The compiler assumes you want to read the file or files from beginning to end. If only one file (primary) is used, you don’t even have to tell the system what file is being referred to. If a secondary file is also used, you use numbered Boolean variables or flags to identify a calculation as being associated with a particular file.

We have also made it possible for the programmer to designate up to nine subgroups for totaling and other calculations associated with the subgroup. If a field designated as a subgroup identifier changes in value, the input data is held in buffers until calculations affecting that subgroup and all lower level subgroups have been completed in ascending level order (from 1 to 9). There is NO need to save data in “hold fields”; the system handles all of that. These field changes are known as “level breaks”, and the calculations associated with them are called “level break calculations”. The changes are referenced or indicated by Boolean variables L1 through L9 (L standing for level). “LR”, now used to designate end of file (Last record) will activate all previous calculations and output for all levels in ascending numerical order.

You can process files one after the other, or you can emulate SQL joins by associating related fields in the files with another Boolean variable called “matching record”, or MR.

You can still use READ and CHAIN to process files, without reference to the cycle; using the new features of the cycle is entirely optional. You can also, within the cycle, read other files using CHAIN and READ operations.

The beauty of the new process is that you don’t have to save the “level break” fields to process group totals. The system takes care of all the details. We have thus created a powerful, flexible system for batch file processing.

Early reports from beta testers indicate a high level of appreciation for, and excitement about, the possibilities of the new process.

Another new feature that has had programmers excited was enhancement of the printing functions of RPG. Now that PDF support has been implemented, the fact that printing is still important has been given more emphasis.

We have been rethinking the whole print process, in an attempt to make it easier. In particular, it was felt that page overflow could be handled more elegantly. With this in mind, a new concept called “fetch overflow” has been implemented.

Suppose you have heading output that depends upon your overflow indicators, defined as Boolean variables OA through OG, plus OV. With an appropriate entry in your output specifications, you no longer have to test for overflow in your calculations and write code to generate the output. The system checks whether overflow has occurred when the detail output is about to print. If it detects the overflow flag on, it outputs the heading lines designated to print at page overflow, then prints the detail line that triggered the process.

If you set on the overflow flag in your *INZSR subroutine, your first page headings will print the very first time a detail line set for “fetch overflow” is encountered. Page control then becomes almost completely automatic. You no longer have to use EXCEPT output to print headings.

Of course, you can still generate headings by testing for overflow manually, or you can count lines on the page. RPGIV retains flexibility in this area.

We are extremely proud of the innovations in this release, and we are confident that the user community will also be happy with them.

The IBM RPGIV Compiler Team

Update: April 15, 2010

Reaction to the upgrades has been enthusiastic, even exuberant. A typical response has been “We love it! It’s great! RPG READ and SQL DECLARE CURSOR are so 20^th century.”

Read the original at RPG and Programming.

My recent experience on the forum on Bob Cozzi’s RPGIV website underlined the fact that I am not in contention for the title of “World’s Best RPG Programmer”. I posed a question that involved the use of APIs and prototypes, and I submitted my sample code. I got my question answered, but not before it was made very clear to me that my abilities as to APIs and prototyping were considerably below cutting edge.

How do you get to be a good programmer? You have to be intelligent, which can mean you have to know when to be as stupid as the computer. You have to be intolerant of errors. And you have to be willing to learn from your mistakes, as you will make thousands of them.

But beyond these basic qualities and attitudes, other circumstances may determine how deeply you will get into the more arcane aspects of your chosen programming language that will allow you to be among the “best”.

For one thing, your circumstances have to be such that you are exposed to advanced programming techniques. This will likely also be a function of your intellectual curiosity. But perhaps just as importantly, your circumstances have to be such that you will actually have a need for these techniques. You may never be in a position where you will need to access user spaces. While you may see some benefit to variable length fields, you may not see any burning need to start using them. And while much of the benefit of ILE is built around things like APIs and prototypes, it may well occur that your site simply does not need a wholesale conversion of code to make use of called procedures.

As it happened, my experience above came as a result of a need for them. Two-digit years are still used on my system. In calculating the maturity date of a 30-year loan written in 2010, I bumped up against the ILE default for two-digit date fields (1940 to 2039) and got an “invalid date” error when I attempted to generate 3/15/40 to represent 2040. To get around this, I decide to use an API I was aware of, CEESCEN, which allows you to float the 100 year range you want to use for the 100-year period in question. This is used in association with APIs CEEDAYS and CEEDATE to allow you to format dates in numerous different formats. (Google the API names for details.)

However, I was not familiar with how to set up the prototypes needed, and as a result I made some stupid mistakes that leaped out at the knowledgeable participants in the forum, especially Bob. But anyway, with some help, I got the prototypes and program calls to work.

But my learning things like these are in response to a specific need. I don’t have a burning need to learn all or even a substantial portion of the APIs available. I simply don’t need them. The fact is that I am getting paid to write production code, not specifically to “learn new things” . And the fact is also that I am not in a position where I can spend a lot of time outside the workplace learning new stuff, since family and other personal needs and circumstances have first claim on my time.

Other people, by reason of education, career choices, and the employers they happened to have, may have had open to them early in their careers opportunities to work on truly advanced concepts that I never was exposed to and likely never will be. Of course, their being smarter than me, not to mention better educated early on, would also make this more likely My task being to maintain and upgrade code that was from the 1980’s and 1990’s in style, if not always in vintage, I will likely be kept busy doing that for the balance of my career. I like to think I’m good, but I’ll never be the best.

Read the original at RPG and Programming.

This articles shows a basic example of how to code the display file to create single or multiple choice radio buttons.  The code sample starts with the display file (RADIOFM) and is followed by...

Visit site to read full content and more

Read the original at ile rpg programming: tips and techniques.

This articles shows a basic example of how to code the display file to create single or multiple choice radio buttons.  The code sample starts with the display file (RADIOFM) and is followed by...

Visit site to read full content and more

Read the original at ile rpg programming: tips and techniques.

At last there is a new release of this project. The main change is the switch to Eclipse 3.5.2 which enables me to make quicker release in the future due to the headless build scripts which has been much improved in Eclipse 3.5. Not much has change on a first look but there has been some changes in the background. The old workspace is not compatible with this release (at least not without some helping hand). All stuff concerning connections are now stored in the local project Remote Connections. The compile options and local history are now separately stored under the connections folder (each connection has its own folders). There is a new update site http://rpgnextgen.sourceforge.net/update/ for Eclipse 3.5.x based installations. But beware with the new Eclipse provisioning system you can even install the whole product (standalone version) of the editor. That will mess with your already existing Eclipse installation. Just select the RPG Next Gen Feature for installation (not the product). (Note: You have to disable Group items by category to see the feature). So have some fun and happy coding, Mihael.

Read the original at RPG Next Gen.

At last there is a new release of this project. The main change is the switch to Eclipse 3.5.2 which enables me to make quicker release in the future due to the headless build scripts which has been much improved in Eclipse 3.5. Not much has change on a first look but there has been some changes in the background. The old workspace is not compatible with this release (at least not without some helping hand). All stuff concerning connections are now stored in the local project Remote Connections. The compile options and local history are now separately stored under the connections folder (each connection has its own folders). There is a new update site http://rpgnextgen.sourceforge.net/update/ for Eclipse 3.5.x based installations. But beware with the new Eclipse provisioning system you can even install the whole product (standalone version) of the editor. That will mess with your already existing Eclipse installation. Just select the RPG Next Gen Feature for installation (not the product). (Note: You have to disable Group items by category to see the feature). So have some fun and happy coding, Mihael.

Read the original at RPG Next Gen.