The Summit in the Corral

Sorry we didn’t get to “chat” with you all last week ‑ we were so tied up running our RPG & DB2 Summit in Dallas that the blog fell by the wayside.

We thoroughly enjoyed the Summit. Getting together with more than 150 of our fellow IBM i aficionados is always invigorating, particularly when folks come up to you after one of your sessions and tell you that the information “more than paid for the whole event.” When we first arrived at the hotel though we did begin to wonder how things were going to turn out. This picture will give you a good idea why:

This is what we found in the ballroom one evening! This beautiful Texas Longhorn and about 99 friends were being auctioned off. Cattle in a hotel ballroom? Yup ‑ we were in Texas after all. But not just any cattle ‑ these were very expensive breeding stock. Top price paid for a bull was apparently just shy of $500,000 and the top cow went for about $340,000. Don’t think anyone is planning on turning them into burgers any time soon! We took a lot of photos of these beautiful creatures out in the rear parking lot (which had been turned into a stockyard) and will pass the link along in a future blog post once they have all been uploaded.

We had been assured that the cleanup on Sunday would remove all trace (including smells) of the cattle. We really had our doubts about that when we came downstairs for breakfast on Sunday morning! It seemed a little like eating breakfast in a barn ‑ not that Susan has ever done that, but she can now imagine what it might be like.

Turned out the hotel’s cleanup plans were based in part on the assumption that they would be able to have the rear doors open all day Sunday. The weather however had other ideas and the wind direction rendered that impossible. By the time our Monday Headstart sessions came around, there was certainly still an interesting aroma around the place. But the hotel moved us to rooms a little further from the problem so it was definitely tolerable. By the time the Summit proper started on Tuesday, the smell was all but eliminated and all went ahead as planned. By the end of the week, you’d never have known that the cattle had ever been there. But we still nicknamed our main meeting room as “the Corral” for the week in honor of the earlier inhabitants of the room.

Before we close, an update on a completely different note. Back in December, we blogged about “The Hour of Code.” In that piece, we mentioned that a version of the graphical programming language Scratch from MIT was used in the tutorial. This week we saw on KickStarter a new project established to fund ScratchJr ‑ a new version of Scratch aimed at children 5 - 7 years of age. If you think that is too young to be able to program then all we can say is “Watch the video.” The project has already met its funding goal for producing the iPad version. If they get enough additional funding they will be producing a version for Android and add features to allow the sharing of ScratchJr projects with friends and family. They will also be able to create additional resources for parents and teachers.

We think this is a fabulous project well worth our support. We encourage you, our readers, to also chip in a few dollars to support this effort. We need more kids who can think logically. ScratchJr can help achieve that.

 

 

It's a Good News Week!

Good news? Really? Looking at today's news, it is hard to believe there is any good news to be found. But this spring is indeed bringing a much needed batch of good news to the IBM i community.

What news? Well we are currently at the WMCPA annual conference and are absolutely delighted to see that attendance is at a much higher level than it has been in recent years. Not only that but they have set new records for vendor and sponsor participation.

From here we go directly to Dallas for our spring RPG & DB2 Summit. We are also seeing a significant increase in attendance for that event. Indeed, we ran out of space for exhibitors and even closed registration recently for fear that overcrowding could impact the comfortable, interactive feel of the event.

We are also hearing similar good news from organizers of other upcoming conferences like NEUGC and TUG TEC. From what we hear, COMMON's spring event is also seeing a similar resurgence in numbers.

This is good news for two reasons. First, it is indicative that the economy is turning around and companies are beginning to invest again. Second, and more importantly for us, it means they are investing in their IBM i assets! And that has to be good news for all of us.

But this is no time to breathe a sigh of relief and relax. This may be a limited-time opportunity. For now, IBM i shops seem to be investing in what they have and in finding out what they could be doing. But unless we "carpe diem" and get rapidly involved in modernizing our applications and development practices we may well miss the boat. If we do not respond to the needs of the business, we will find ourselves once again having to defend against other inferior "solutions." For inspiration, take a look at our previous blog post about surprising your users. 

So now is a good time to tell you the other piece of good news. The draft version of the new Application Modernization Redbooks publication is going to be available "any day now" -- Tim Rowe of IBM just told the audience at WMCPA so it must be true. He even had a printed copy with him; it is about the size of a large telephone directory and there's still a bit more content to come.

So it is a good news week. Make the most of it -- go out and DO something!

Don't Just Sit There - Vote Now!

Don't worry - we're not going all political on you, tempting as that might be sometimes. However, there's more than one vote that warrants your attention over the next few days - and it is as important for those of us who live outside the USA as those of our readers who do.

So what are we talking about? COMMON Europe's Top Concerns voting is what. Even though the Europeans organize this effort, it is aimed at a worldwide audience. This is now the 7th year that COMMON Europe have organized this poll and the results to date have been interesting. The fact that some categories such as "Aggressive marketing of IBM i by IBM" get a high ranking should come as no surprise, although the fact that it ranked only in 6th place in 2011 might surprise some. What beat it out? Well "Satisfy internal customers" came in first, followed by "Keep the skills current for existing staff" and "Attract the younger generation to IBM i". We have to believe that the majority of the votes for "Keep the skills ..." came from the "existing staff" themselves because training budgets always seem to be the first thing to go when finances get tight so it seems unlikely that managers were voting this way. It was good to see "Attract the younger generation ..." be recognized as a major concern.

Why is this poll important? Well IBM talk a lot to large users, such as those represented by the LUG (Large User Group) and also spend a lot of time listening to ISVs. But it is much harder for them to get a feel for what matters to "ordinary" users. This survey helps to fill that gap and has the added advantage of being open to all IBM i users around the world. In fact, even IBMers get to vote!

On the Top Concerns web site (www.topconcerns.org), you can vote for this year's top concerns - and maybe even win an iPod for your trouble. There are only a few days left to get your votes in for this year. While you are there don't forget to check out the results of the previous year's polls. The categories and polling method have changed over the years but comparing the results from earlier years can be interesting.

So stop reading - and go vote now.

All done voting? Good - well done! Time for some words on education.

First - for our European/Scandinavian readers, we're headed your way and we'd love to see you. We're working with COMMON Luxembourg  on 9 Oct and COMMON Belgium on 11 Oct. Then we head to Stockholm for the annual Data3 conference 14 - 16 Oct. Lots of i developer topics will be covered. Check it out if you're in any of those areas and don't forget to say hi! Last year's Data3 event was fun and informative and also very successful, so we're hoping we'll see an even bigger audience there this year.

Second - we thought we'd pass on a recent recent discovery in the area of education resources. Coursera.org is a company that partners with top universities around the world to offer high-quality university level education free of charge. Yup - completely free.

One upcoming course that caught our eye is Rice University's Introduction to Python. It is aimed at non-programmers, so that even those of us who wrestle with OO should find it useful. The whole programming environment is browser based so there is no software to load. Our friend (and former RPG compiler writer) Hans Boldt has often proclaimed, in our blog comments and elsewhere, his love of the Python language so this is a good opportunity to check it out. Usage on IBM i seems to be growing if recent forum postings and pieces in the trade press are anything to go by. The IBM i home base for Python seems to be www.iseriespython.com. Check it out.

 

A Mixed Bunch

No one single theme this week - instead a range from industry news to a request for help.

First, the news.

Our good friend, and regular speaker at the RPG & DB2 Summit, Scott Klement announced last week that he was leaving his current job as IT Manager with Klement Sausage and taking up a position with application modernization vendor Profound Logic. Our first thought was that this was terrific news for both Scott and Profound. Our second was that all over the IBM i world there had to be countless ISVs kicking themselves in the backside over having missed out on the chance to hire Scott. We've always been impressed by Profound's offerings - now that Scott is on board we can't wait to see what they come up with next.

Talking of Summit, we'll be opening registration shortly for the Minneapolis event in October (23rd to 25th). We're really, really looking forward to this one as we're back at the Sofitel hotel and that has absolutely the best food we've ever had at a conference location. It also gives us the opportunity to visit Rochester while we're in the area and to catch up with some friends. We'll let you know when the updated website is open for business.

Just in case you aren't subscribed to IBM i EXTRA, we thought we'd mention that EXTRA recently published the first part of our newly revised "RSE Quick Start Guide" last week. As our followers know, we're RSE (aka, RDP) users and fans. We are often asked "how do I get started with RSE?" and the Guide is our attempt to answer that question. The full Guide isn't ready yet. We'll let you know when it is (hopefully in the next couple of weeks). Until then, take a look at part 1. 

A Plea for Help 

We were discussing modernization options with a client the other day and were surprised to find that they were unaware of many of the current tools and options. Rather than try to build them a list of tools to review we hit the Web to try and find a single source that covered all** of the current tools and where they fit in the marketplace. We couldn't find one. In fact, the one we kept finding was our own series "From Green to Dream," which appeared back in 2003 and 2004.

We wrote two of the articles in that series. The first part was an overview of the considerations involved in choosing an application modernization approach. The second (Part 4 - Developing New Applications) dealt with the tools available in the marketplace to develop new applications.

It's hard to believe that it was nearly nine years ago that we wrote those articles, and of course a lot has changed in the intervening period. JavaScript libraries have simplify the job of building sophisticated Web interfaces. Open Access (and in particular its availability free-of-charge with the compiler) has spawned new tools and approaches. Refacing tools have become more and more sophisticated. Mobile apps have emerged as THE hot topic and show no sign of slowing down. And on and on.

So - we've decided it is time to revisit the topic and bring it up-to-date. And that is where you come in. If you work for an ISV that has a tool in this arena, or if you are a satisfied customer of such a vendor, then please let us know. Email us at [email protected] and give us the details of what you have to offer. Please note that we are fundamentally looking for tools for 5250 modernization, not office integration, etc. We may cover such tools in the future, but right now if it can't replace a 5250 we aren't interested in it.

 

** "All" - we know we'll miss some - it's inevitable. We had some really "grumpy" letters about tools that we had "missed" in those previous articles but we're going to try to make it as comprehensive approach as we can. Many of the best tools originate outside of North America and so it is harder for us to hear of them. Hopefully more overseas readers will see this and help us out in this regard.

 

 

 

 

New Champions; New Products

Last week's COMMON event was memorable in many ways--not the least of them being our rather
protracted trip home. The journey took more than 28 hours and left us with less than 20 hours before we left again for our next trip. Serves us right for wanting to go home and do the laundry at least!

One of the highlights of the week occurred during the conference's opening session when IBM announced the latest inductees into the ranks of IBM Champions for Power Systems. Three of our favorite IBM i friends--Scott Klement, Aaron Bartell and Jim Buck--were added to the list and we couldn't be happier. All of them have done so much to promote IBM i on Power and, in particular, to demonstrate just how far you can go with RPG. The page hasn't been updated yet, but eventually they should be appearing on the "Meet the Champions" page. Jon is hopeful Aaron might support his proposal that the champions be known as "Power Rangers." Susan, however, is less than thrilled with this idea.  

Not only was Scott named a "Champion" but he was also named this year's recipient of the Al Barsa Memorial Scholarship, which "honors an individual who exemplifies Al's commitment and dedication to the i community, is a mentor to others and is an advocate to the i community." We don't think you could write a better description of Scott if you tried--other than perhaps to add that he is also a terrific educator, dedicated father and train lover.

We're delighted to note that both Aaron and Scott will be speaking at our upcoming RPG & DB2 Summit in Minneapolis, so if you want to congratulate them both in person you could join us there.

New Products

We mentioned in a previous blog that we had had a sneak peek at a new product in the IBM i market that intrigued us and that we'd tell you more later. As it turns out there were such a wealth of new application-development products and major enhancements to existing ones announced during COMMON that we don't feel we can do them justice within this blog. Instead we are going to spend a little more time getting to know more about them and then we'll write a product roundup in a few weeks in IBM i EXTRA. If you want to be sure you don't miss it, you can subscribe on the IBM Systems Magazine website.

We will just briefly mention two that caught our eye. The first is the new Long Range product from Lansa. This product is targeted fair and square at the mobile market and is quite a departure for the company in that it not only supports use from Lansa, but also has an RPG version that allows you to write native mobile applications using RPG. The second involves Profound Logic's UI builder, which can now be used from other languages in addition to its role as providing the UI interface for Profound's RPG Open Access product. The initial roll-out demonstrates its use with PHP, which as regular readers know is a favorite of ours, but the company plans to document the tooling for use from any mainstream language on virtually any platform.

We'd like to mention more but you'll just have to wait for the IBM i EXTRA article to appear. There are just too many to talk about. We certainly live in interesting times.

Believers in Anaheim

This week, we are in Anaheim for the gathering of the clans otherwise known as COMMON. In fact it is now the last session of the last day, which is how we get the time to write this (slightly) belated blog entry.

Before we talk about COMMON we'd like to take a minute or two to give a quick shout out (and a virtual pat on the back) to the folks at looksoftware who organized last week's iBelieve event. In our previous column, we mentioned that there was a good lineup of speakers and that the event was free. What we hadn't expected was just how altruistic an effort this was on the part of look. Apart from a few banners, there was zero in the way of advertising and there were no product-specific presentations. Add to that the fact that they provided an excellent lunch for all attendees and you can understand why we feel they deserve a pat on the back.

The idea behind the iBelieve event was to inspire IBM i users to fully exploit their systems and to help them gather the ammunition needed to defend the system within their organization. With presentations by Dr. Frank Soltis, Trevor Perry and other IBM i zealots, it certainly achieved that. Jon talked about the free software out there and ways to use it to make yourself a hero to your users; Susan talked about the application development tools and features that tend to be underutilized. More than 100 people attended and all we talked to were delighted with the event and quite effusive in their thanks to the organizers. It was great to be a part of such an innovative idea. 

We are delighted that looksoftware took this initiative, it seems to us that this is exactly the kind of event that some group such as iManifest should be organizing. Events to "Rally the troops and arm them" shouldn't be left to a single vendor to fund -- they are too important.

COMMON

Having been away for a couple of years, it was great to meet up with some old friends that we just don't get a chance to see anywhere other than at COMMON. And of course it is always nice to have the chance to present to a really good-sized crowd. Jon even managed to attend a couple of sessions, which made a pleasant change. 

The location of the event this time around was the Disneyland Hotel which was "interesting." We have never seen anywhere quite so clean -- but on the other hand have also never previously experienced a hotel where waiting on hold for more than 30 minutes to order room service appeared to be the norm. That was not the "Disney quality" experience that we expected. 

We also learned (albeit not quite soon enough) that if you're at a COMMON event where food is being served, make sure you get your food in the first 20-30 minutes. Because even if the event is going on for 2 or 3 hours, any kind of substantial food will be gone in the first few minutes. So we had more than one "meal" made up of chips and Mickey Mouse rice krispie treats. Not sure if this phenomenon was due to the food budget being set too low or mismanagement on the part of the hotel.

The other thing that insidiously worms its way into your brain at Disneyland is the constant "happy music" that is piped throughout the complex. It had never occurred to us before that you could actually be made quite crotchety by such a constant barrage of artificial happiness. 

Those kinds of details aside, however, it was a great conference and we thoroughly enjoyed meeting up with old friends and making new ones! 

 

 

Greetings from Sweden

This week's blog is coming to you from Gothenburg in Sweden. We are here, together with our System i Developer colleague, Paul Tuohy, appearing at ScanDev 2012 - the Scandinavian Developers' conference. This has been a very interesting experience for us as we are much more accustomed to appearing at IBM i focused events - not ones like this that are aimed at developers in general. There are more than 780 developers here, of which the IBM i folks account for around 10 percent. There are 10 concurrent tracks, ranging from .NET, to Mobile, to JavaScript and (of course) IBM i.  

Right now we are in the rather strange position of speaking to an audience of 40+ people in a steeply raked lecture theatre that can actually hold more than 1,000! The organizers had anticipated that most of the IBM i sessions would draw 20-30 attendees and so we had been scheduled in a room with a capacity of about 32. After our first four sessions overflowed the size of the room, they had to try and find us another spot. This was the only remaining room available in the convention center. It is a very strange feeling to move from speaking in a room where your audience are packed like sardines and sit within a few feet of you to one where you are on a stage raised over 5 feet in the air - looking out over a vast expanse of empty seats and where your nearest listener is some 30 feet away. But hey! We're professionals, we can cope with this.

This morning's general session was delivered by Mary Poppendieck on the topic "Software Doesn't Matter" - an interesting title for a session delivered to nearly 800 software developers. It was an excellent discussion on a new approach to development. 

One of her key points is that the integration of design and the user experience into software development are critical - that at the end of the day it is the user's experience that determines whether the project was a success or a failure. This is a very different approach to the one that many of us in the IBM i world take - particularly in shops where the mantra is "I'll start coding and you go and ask the users what they want". 

A magazine distributed at the conference (called The Developer) features an article by Aral Balkan who made many of the same points. The article is about his idea that "The Age of Features is dead, Welcome to the age of user experience." 

In the article, Balkan seems to anticipate that those of us who develop business applications for our own companies (in contrast to those developing software products to sell) might balk at the idea of user experienced based development. 

The part of Balkan's article that particularly caught our eye was this:

" … I can hear you say: User experience isn't that important! I work in enterprise!

Oh. Yes. That. 

Well Mr. Enterprise, you're right! For now. Unfortunately, most enterprise companies operate in an economy of mediocrity where the actual quality of their products is not as important as the abilities of their sales and marketing teams to win over clueless managers. . . Wouldn't it be nicer if your software actually worked? . . . What if it went beyond just working  . . . to providing a beautiful, overpowering, delightful user experience. Heck, instead of dealing with support requests, you could spend your time dealing with satisfied - dare I say, happy - customers. How cool would that be?"

Ouch - that sounds a little too close for comfort.

So it would seem that the word about software design here at this conference is that it must be "user experience driven". This goes well beyond the "satisfied" users and demands "delighted" users. 

So, are your users delighted? 

Upcoming Travels and Products

Today marks the start of a two-week road trip that will take us to visit the great folks at WMCPA for their annual conference, and then directly to Fort Worth for the 11th (Wow - can it really be that many?) RPG & DB2 Summit. These kind of road trips are exhausting - but also highly rewarding in that we get to meet one-on-one with so many fellow iFanatics.

Summit will no doubt be exhausting. This will be the first one we have run without Skip Marchesani who has decided to retire (again). Skip will be there to help us out this time but there's nothing like a team member moving on to teach you just how much work they did. Thanks, Skip - we'll miss you.

There are two things though that we are particularly looking forward to in Fort Worth. First is the chance to catch up with our long-time friend Bob Tipton who is delivering our keynote presentation. If you haven't had a chance to read Bob's new book "Jump!: Get Unstuck" you need to grab a copy. In fact if you come to the Summit we'll even give you one! 

The second highlight is that the folks at CNX have chosen the Summit to announce the latest version of their Valence web tools. They gave us a sneak peak at the new Valence Nitro application builder that they will be featuring in the new announce. All we can say is WOW. This is a really interesting tool and you owe it to your shop to take a look at it once it is formally announced. We were so excited though that we asked the guys at CNX if they could give us a link to a "sneak peak" Web page to give our readers a brief preview. They have done just that and you can find out more right here. Page down and look for the section on Valence Nitro. We will be giving it a test drive as soon as we can sit still for 5 minutes. 

We can't say anything more at the moment, but last week we were given a brief open kimono on another new tool from a major vendor in the IBM i application development arena. We'll be getting more information toward the end of this month and hopefully they will allow us to share some details with you then. If the preliminary information is anything to go by then it too will be a game changer just as Nitro promises to be.

Seems to us that we have left the doldrums of the IBM i application development field and that some really exciting tooling is beginning to emerge. Perhaps it was spurred in part by the interest shown by users in the Open Access tools, or maybe the easy availability of high quality Open Source products like SugarCRM or osTicket - the latest to catch our eye. Whatever the reason the future is looking brighter than it has for a long time. Many excellent tools, more realistic price levels - there's some real excitement out there.

 

 

Looking Back at IBM i Application Development in 2011

It's that time of year when people traditionally look back over the past 12 months and attempt, perhaps, to extrapolate from that what might come to pass in the next 12. Problem is that if the past 12 months have taught us anything it is that we have no idea what may happen next! For a start we were convinced that long before now the IBM Rational would have realized the folly of its ways and removed the charges for RPG Open Access--no such luck. But at least there's a really strong rumor that we can expect to see that happen before the spring. Please, pretty please. We'd hate to be back here again next year bemoaning the fact that it didn't happen.

That said, time for a few words on some of the more interesting trends that have emerged over the year.

Free and Almost Free
Of particular note is the increase in the number of vendors in the iBM i space who now offer their products (or at least a base version of them) for free. Still others have abandoned the notion of charging for the software itself and instead simply charge for maintenance. This is a trend we expect to see continue, and indeed grow, over the coming months. We've already heard rumors of at least one vendor that's considering offering a free "community edition" of its product. If indeed that comes to pass it has the potential to significantly shake up at least one segment of the market. 

Mobile
Mobile this, mobile that. Some days we think we may scream if we hear the word just one more time. Luckily this is a trend that makes sense. Sure lots of folks are jumping on the bandwagon, but it does make perfect sense in many cases. In particular the availability of GPS capability in most mobile devices makes tracking the whereabouts of folks such as delivery drivers affordable for even the more modest-sized business. Knowing who is where and therefore being able to re-route them to make an emergency pick-up (for example) can increase efficiency and improve customer relations. We'll be having a mobile focus again this spring at the RPG & DB2 Summit, and we're hoping this time we'll have a chance to attend a few of the sessions ourselves. Now that we have both iOS devices (iPad and iPod touch) and an Android phone we’re more and more interested in what can be done with these little devils.

Upgrading Applications and Skills
This is a long overdue trend in our opinion. Admittedly as our business involves consulting and training on modernization topics we have a vested interest, but we're seeing more and more of clients looking to enhance the skills of their development teams and make the most of the application inventory they already have. An increasing demand exists to make IBM i data available to applications on other platforms. This is a welcome trend, because two or three years ago all we were seeing was folks busily exporting data from the IBM i, manipulating it on some other box and then re-importing it. Having the i remain at the heart of the process is good to see. This kind of updating makes sense in these tight economic times. Why not make the most of what you have--both in terms of personnel and applications.

We're still not seeing as many people actively modernizing their code base as we'd like. We still see far too much of the "if it ain't broke ..." mentality but perhaps in time. It has always been a mystery to us that rather than invest $x in re-engineering their software, management will pay $y (where y is typically 20 percent or so of x) over and over and over again. And for each iteration the cost of y rises and rises. Admittedly it's tough to quantify the cost/benefit of re-engineering. All we know is that, of those we have worked with, every single one wishes wish they'd done it sooner!

Did we miss some trends you've spotted? Let us know. In the meantime, we wish all of our readers a healthy and wealthy New Year.

Homeward Bound

This week's post is short as we had to finish it between flights on our way back from Stockholm to Toronto. We both feel wiped out and in need of a rest (although we have visitors arriving on Saturday so we won't get one). The last 10 days have been a great experience, but exhausting at the same time. Five days teaching to a North American audience is hard enough but to French and Swedish audiences for whom English isn't their first language, it is even harder. The Swedes in particular have excellent English skills, but you still have to pay more attention than usual to the words you use lest you stray too far into North American vernacular and leave the audience with blank stares on their faces.

Despite the tiredness it was a great trip and the audience at the Data3 event in Sweden was the largest they have had in many years. Close to 200 attendees as far as we can tell and the hotel and facilities were excellent. The numbers were all the more amazing when you consider that the organizing group consisted primarily of four people--four very hard working people! It shows that there still is a demand for education in RPG development skills--an area that sadly IBM still seems to neglect. The one comment we kept hearing over and over again was, "Why can't we have more of this kind of education?" Since we love Sweden we certainly have every intention of doing our best to fulfill that need and hope to return next year.

From what we can tell the RPG developers in Europe are facing all of the the same challenges as those in North America, and the shortage of younger IBM i developers is an ongoing problem for many of them. We have talked about this gap in the past, and really do believe IBM and the user group community should be working to address it. Seems to us that far more IBM i sites are in danger of being replaced these days due to a skills shortage than due to any perception of the platform being old. We know  young Java, C# and PHP programmers can be successfully introduced to IBM i and RPG (the modern free-form kind, of course) and not only learn it but like it. We have taught several such groups ourselves and find it hard to understand why some management would prefer to consider a platform switch than attempt to train their own resources. This really is an area in which a group like COMMON could step in a work with IBM to develop the programmers of tomorrow. Perhaps training IBM i people would be a better first step than a certification program, which may be a bit of the cart before the horse. Have you trained newbies in your shop? If you have we'd love to hear about your experiences in the Comments section.

Gotta go catch a plane--more next week.