How Old Is Your OS?

If your shop is at V5R4, then hopefully it comes as no surprise to you that regular software maintenance (SWMA) for V5R4 ends September 30 of this year. Lest you find yourself thinking, “But we need more time - why doesn’t IBM extend that deadline?” please note that this IS the extended deadline. V5R4 has been supported years longer than earlier releases for various reasons.

If you really can’t move to 6.1 (or 7.1) by September and must still have support, IBM announced last week the ability to purchase service extension for up to three years. Your support cost will be increased and over regular software maintenance. Hopefully this will help to serve as an incentive to move to a currently supported release (at last!). If you want more details about the extended support, take a look at the IBM announcement. Another document with some additional details is here, along with details for the service extension support for V5R3.

“V5R3?!?” we hear some of you saying. There are many reasons/excuses for not moving beyond V5R4 as we have explored before but surely anyone could have moved to at least V5R4 by now, right? Apparently not.

As a matter of fact, we recently talked with an ISV who has customers whose systems are still at V3R7! Not many fortunately, and the ISV’s software is not supported at that release. But they do know of a much larger number of customers who are at various release levels between V4R2 and V5R3.

Now, as surprised as we were to find evidence of V3R7, we’re sure this isn’t a record. We’re confident that some of our followers probably know of (perhaps even work at) shops earlier than V3R7. So there’s your challenge: In the comments below, let us know of the earliest active version of OS/400 (it was stilled called that in those earlier releases) that you know about.

 

 

 

Jekyll and Hyde

This is one of those blog posts where we're not quite sure of exactly why we're writing it - in all probability, it's out of a sense of frustration/despair/je ne sais quoi we suspect but perhaps if we get on with it you'll understand where we're coming from.

As we said in our previous post, last week we were in Montreal (which is why we had to include the French reference above!) and some of the folks we met there reminded us of the Jekyll and Hyde aspects of our favorite system. On the one hand, our old systems can run unchanged from way back in the S/36 and S/38 days (Dr. Jekyll) and, on the other hand, it can continue to run our old systems ... (Mr. Hyde). Nowhere is this dichotomy more apparent than in the S/36 compatibility arena.

Written in the old, old versions of RPG and/or COBOL many of these applications continue working to this day thanks to the S/36 Execution Environment (EE). But is that a good thing?

It seems to us that what was initially a good idea has ended up condemning many IBM i users to being second-class citizens at a point in history when they most need help. After all, typically the longer an application is in service, the harder it is to maintain - but there are few tools available to assist in this task. Sure in the early days of the (then) AS/400, there were all sorts of tools available to help you to migrate your S/36 applications to native mode - and from there, of course, you could easily move to the new ILE languages when they became available. At the time, for those who subscribed unthinkingly to the "If it ain't broke don't fix it" mantra, the S/36EE was very tempting. Why convert when it would keep on running just the way it was? But that was 23+ years ago and now the vast majority of those programs should probably be considered "broken" or at least need some significant modernization because without it they are easy prey to a Windows "solution." Trouble is that too few users made the move to justify the continued evolution of the early tools and most appear to have vanished and no new ones emerging.

Case in point - we were teaching RDp in Montreal and a student asked if it would help with their existing S/36 RPG. Simple answer - No. It can only treat RPG II as if it were RPG/400 (RPG III) and that means that frustration lurks around every corner as any attempt to use the built-in Help, etc., is likely to lead to the use of op-codes and other options not actually supported by the S/36EE compilers. Not only that but the very tools that would potentially be of the greatest help, namely the Outline view and Application Diagrammer, are of limited functionality (Outline) and non-existent (Diagrammer). Not to mention that Service Entry Points for debugging are not available without writing an ILE wrapper. Then there''s the screen designer and ...

If a user does decide to seek help to move forward then Googling "migrate s/36 application" will bring up three references to Applied Logic's NCS followed by a forum question that dates back to the year 2000! Not exactly a lot of help out there. We suspect that Databorough's X... tools may be able to handle the task too as they can certainly document S/36 applications - but it isn't shouted out on their website and hence Google doesn't pick it up.

So what is the point of all this? Perhaps that we should reconsider whether what we have is really working - or merely continuing to run. Perhaps when IBM tells us that we should really be re-engineering our databases from DDS to DDL that we should resist the temptation to say "Why? It still works." Perhaps we should make a point of converting our RPG400 programs to RPGIV the next time we have to make even the smallest of changes. Perhaps we need to reconsider what we mean by "broken" lest even those of us not stuck in the S/36EE world find ourselves in the next "you can't get there from here" backwater.

 

 

The Beginning of The End?

No, we don't mean the Apocalypse--one person getting folks all wound up about that is more than enough, thank you very much. But the past week has seen two events that, in their own very different ways, may fall into the beginning of the end category.

Bye Bye V5R4

First, IBM announced the withdrawal from marketing of V5R4 effective May 27. While this doesn't affect anybody directly (unless they were planning to buy a copy after that date) it's normally a precursor to the withdrawal of support, which tends to follow 15 months later. It looks as if IBM has gone as far as it is going to go to accommodate issues with "naughty" software that won't make the move to IBM i 6.x and 7.x.

So it would appear that those of you who are still working on V5R4 systems have 15 months in which to get your systems upgraded or. ... Of course some users are on V5R3 and earlier systems and already (un)happily in this position. We still find it hard to understand why anyone would entrust their business to an unsupported version of the operating system, but it happens all of the time sadly. Hopefully this projected end of support will encourage the laggards to make the move. And while they are at it they will hopefully jump directly to 7.1 and reap the benefits of the latest features.

Apple Opens the Kimono

The second portentous event of the past week was the revelation by Apple that next week they would be announcing, among other things, a new cloud-based service, iCloud. It is not so much the announcement that is portentous (although it may well prove to be) but the fact that so much has been revealed in advance by the notoriously secretive Apple.

Although the rumor mill is invariably buzzing in advance of any major Apple event, such as next week's World Wide Developers conference, the company is always notoriously tight-lipped about the content of upcoming announcements. This week however, in addition to dropping hints on its own website, Apple clearly encouraged more informed press speculation on the upcoming announcements than is the norm. Witness the number of pieces in the mainstream media from The Wall Street Journal to Wired to--heck even CNN tore itself away from the ACOTW (Artificial Crisis Of The Week) for long enough to report on it.

Perhaps in this day of wikileaks, even Apple has decided that it might as well climb on the bandwagon and pre-announce its own new products rather than letting other people have all the fun!

Anyone noticed any other "signs"?

Open Source and i: Not an Oxymoron

You've probably read a lot lately (including from us) about taking advantage of cross-platform open-source applications written in PHP. You may or may not be aware of open-source software written specifically for IBM i and/or RPG audiences.

For some time now--in our writings in EXTRA and from time to time in this blog--we've featured open-source software we thought may interest our readers. It seems to us the quantity of such software out there now warrants a little more attention, so we’ve decided--for the next few months at least--to turn over one blog a month to open source. Hopefully you’ll find something of interest to you; if you do, then please let us know and we’ll try to dig a little deeper into those topics with the highest levels of interest. As the months progress we’ll also try to keep you informed of any new offerings that appear on the scene and of major updates in any of the more established offerings.

That said we'll start with a brief review of some of the biggest players in this arena in case you've missed them in the past.

No review of open source in the IBM i community would be complete without mention of our friend Scott Klement. Scott's offerings are among the most popular out there and for good reason. The software is beautifully written, rock solid and well supported. We’re convinced that either Scott never sleeps, or there’s two of him. It’s the only way to explain the amount of work he manages to do in a day.

Scott's offerings include: the HTTP API that allows RPG programs to easily consume Web services; the FTPAPI, which facilitates the automation of FTP file transfers and allows them to be controlled by an RPG program with full error handling--something that’s very difficult to do with batch FTP scripts; and his latest, the UNIX Command Tool. The UNIX Command Tool simplifies the process of running QShell and PASE commands, and processing their results, by implementing the interface as an RPG SPECIAL file. If you want to find out more go here. You'll find references to his many articles as well as the software and sample programs.

Another young Turk in the IBM i open-source arena is Aaron Bartell. Aaron's most popular offerings include: RPGMAILv2, which simplifies the process of sending complex e-mails from an RPG program; RPG to Desktop, which allows you to launch any PC application from within an RPG program; and the RPG Chart Engine, which provides facilities to enable RPG programs to generate pie charts, bar graphs, etc. His latest project is RPGUI, which aims to simplify the task of interfacing RPG with modern user interfaces such as browsers. Aaron has been writing about RPGUI in IBM Systems Magazine, so we’ll just point you to the articles (here and here) to find out more.

Along similar lines, but more established than Aaron's RPGUI, is the powerExt Application Framework. Originally based on an underpinning of good old CGIDEV2, developer Henrik Rutzou has developed a very powerful tool set that interface RPG with the popular ExtJS library to allow the development of powerful Web 2.0 Ajax applications. You can find more details and a very impressive demonstration of the tool's capabilities here.

A discussion of open-source Web frameworks wouldn’t be complete without mention of Renaissance. Renaissance has been around for a couple of years and has garnered many fans, in part because it’s based on CGIDEV2 and can therefore be seen as a natural evolution for existing CGIDEV2 users.

Since we've mentioned CGIDEV2 a couple of times, we must include Giovanni Perotti's Easy400 Web site: the spiritual, if not legal, home of CGIDEV2. Giovanni's latest project is CGI_WRKDBF a Web-based utility that allows you to browse, and edit any database on your system. The site also features utilities to assist in securing your Web sites, sending e-mail from RPG programs and much more. You have to visit the site to appreciate the scope of the offerings.

Talking about WRKDBF--the original tool is no longer available free of charge, but on the green-screen front a new contender has recently appeared. The interestingly named FUtil. It seems to be gaining some momentum, so if you feel the need to stick with green screen, give it a try.

In the utility field Craig Rutledge has to win the award for the sheer scope of his offerings. They range from XML utilities to facilitate the transfer and installation of software distributed in source form, to utilities to convert fixed form RPG to /Free, and so much more. If you’ve ever wondered if anyone has written a utility based around a particular API look no further. Chances are that Craig has not only done it, but done it in style.

For those of you looking for a good 5250 emulator to run on a Mac, Jon has recently started using TN5250j, which produces a much better screen display than the Mochasoft emulator he had been using. It’s far more flexible in its screen and keyboard customization and has excellent scripting and printer support. There are some "challenges" in the key mapping for his MacBook Pro--it really wants you to use a mouse--but it’s a very powerful tool and since it’s Java based it will run just about anywhere.

One more new tool to mention before we wrap up: Larry Ducie has just released a beta version of XMLi, a suite of tools designed to simplify the process of building complex XML documents. Most of the time we use the CGIDEV2  templating system for this purpose, but it can be clumsy when complex documents with a lot of optional components need to be built. Larry has also included a templating tool in his offering and it has some very powerful capabilities including the capability to embed SQL in the template for data retrieval. We look forward to reviewing this tool in detail in the next few months.

As you can see, there’s a lot going on--and of course we also have access to the wide range of Java and PHP open-source software that’s out there.

If we’ve missed a personal favorite, please let us know and we'll add them to our list. To the best of our knowledge, all of the software mentioned here is still under active development, but if you find otherwise please let us know that too.

Have fun; there's a whole new world out there ...

Are You Well Red?

During recent classes and presentations, it has become obvious to us that many programmers out there are just not aware of the wealth of information available for free from IBM Redbooks. For example, we have met a large number of students in recent weeks who have not heard of, let alone read, the RPG classic "Who Knew You Could Do That With RPG IV." Well maybe "classic" is a bit of an overstatement but as two of the authors of this noble tome we trust you will forgive us a little parental pride. After all, with the exception of the System Handbook (and that doesn't count because it changes with each release so you need a new copy), it is the most frequently downloaded Redbooks publication in the history of the IBM i. How many downloads? Well as of today it has been downloaded more than 196,000 times since it was released. In fact it has been downloaded more than 13,000 times in the last 12 months alone--not bad for a 10-year-old book.

Although it was first published in 1999 (V4R4), most of the material is as relevant today as it was when we wrote it. There are detailed chapters on writing subprocedures, ILE, various database features and using system APIs. All of which is still relevant, even if it isn't 100-percent up to date. The chapter on coding style has quite a few relevant points, but since the book pre-dates things like /Free format coding, a few obvious points are missing.

So, since we were thinking about Redbooks, we thought we'd make mention of a couple of other favorite "red things" that we think are worthy of your attention.

Since we've already mentioned "Who Knew ..." we'll start there. Those who have read it, often ask us if there will ever be an update to reflect recent additions to the system and the RPG language. The simple answer is probably not. IBM doesn't pay those involved in producing Redbooks, in fact in many cases recently it does not even pay expenses. As a result it is very difficult to get people to commit their time and money to produce something that will probably have zero fiscal benefit to them. That said, an effort was made some two years ago to provide updates to "Who Knew ..." and although the results never made it into an updated version of the book, two new Redpapers were published as a result of the effort:

• "RPG: Exception and Error Handling" provides a comprehensive overview of how to properly handle errors in RPG programs. Perhaps even more importantly, it provides a standard PSSR routine that can be simply added to any RPG program that will ensure that your end users will never have to see the two-line-screen-of-death again! Not only is this better for your end-users, but it will improve your ability to diagnose such errors as it ensures that a program dump is taken and, in the case of interactive programs, also captures the contents of the screen the user was viewing. If you haven't read this document yet take a look.
• "RPG: APIs" provides an introduction to the power that APIs add to your programming efforts.

A more recent Redbooks publication that has caught our attention is "Using IBM DB2 for i as a Storage Engine of MySQL." PHP is having a huge impact in the IBM i arena, and since MySQL is the primary database used by PHP applications, the storage engine is an important component in enabling us to link between our old and new universes. Why? Because by having MySQL use the DB2 storage engine you are able to write RPG programs that access the same databases that are being maintained by the PHP applications that you have deployed, such as SugarCRM, or MediaWiki, or ... While we have a few quibbles with the book--for example, we'd have liked to have seen a little more emphasis on access with native RPG I/O functions--the authors have done a nice job of identifying the issues and demonstrating how to handle them. Well worth a read if PHP is part of your current or future application set.

So--we've told you about a few of our favorite Redbooks publications. What are your favorites? We encourage all of our readers to submit their own "must read" list of Redbooks, or indeed any other no-cost publication.

An Old Baby

No, we're not talking about Benjamin Button. We were just at the iFidelity Conference in Manchester, England, last week. This event was an interesting cooperative effort between NiSUG (the Northern iSeries User Group), System i Network and IBM in the UK. At a time when similar events are suffering from significant audience drought, they attracted around 100 to an IBM i targeted event (note that that they didn't attempt to make it a "Power Systems" or combination i/AIX type of event). This in a much smaller city in the north of England, several hours travel time from London--where the big audiences would more normally be expected.

What does all this have to do with an old baby? The closing part of the event was a trip to the MOSI, the Museum of Science and Industry, where we had a private tour of an authentic working replica of "the Baby". This was the first stored program computer in history and was created right here in in Manchester.  It ran the first ever stored program in June of 1948 (no, it wasn't written in RPG!) and the replica was built to celebrate the 50th anniversary. Why it is called "Baby" is a bit of a mystery since the thing wouldn't fit into our living room at home. We watched as "Baby" printed out its name across the screen. Then we all waited with bated breath for it to come up with the right answer to a factorial math problem, which never happened until they simplified the problem somewhat. Apparently, it was not only the first stored program, but also the first program bug! For more details about the Baby, see www.computer50.org. Jon noted that the running of the first program coincides closely with his conception, but he's not sure if there's any significance to that!

Even if the historical significance of the computer, which has been lovingly replicated using (almost) all authentic parts from the period were to escape some members of the audience, the passion of the volunteers manning the exhibit was worthy of our rapt attention. This was followed by some excellent snacks and beer and wine (ah, conferences held in Europe have some very different side benefits!)

Of course, the visit to see Baby was only the wrap-up to a one-day event that was jam-packed with sessions, beginning with Jon's keynote on Modernizing Applications and continuing with parallel tracks of technical and "strategic" (i.e., more management-oriented) sessions on DB for i, RPG, PHP for RPGers and other topics that kept all the attendees interested from beginning to the final Q&A session at the end.

So, education is not dead yet <at the risk of evoking recitations from Monty Python's Holy Grail>, at least not in northern England. NiSUG seems to have quite a good program going. Perhaps they can even get the attention of some Londoners looking for solid technical educational events in the future. There are certainly other good options closer to home, but NiSUG may be worth the drive or train trip north if this event was typical of the kinds of offerings they have.

Local user groups in other geographies take note--maybe offering good, solid technical education close to home is a way to get through the current economic slump. It takes a ton of work, but it can be great for the community.

We still firmly believe the current economic situation may well be the best opportunity to save the day for IBM i. Education on how to do that is a good first step.

IBM i Community Potpourri

This week's blog entry is a little bit of a potpourri although the theme in general is user groups and IBM i community-related activities.

Our Local Toronto LUG

Last week we were scheduled to appear at the Toronto User Group's (TUG) meeting. Since this is our local group, we welcome the opportunity to speak to the members, but our travel schedule makes it very difficult to match our stays at home with TUG's meetings. This time around we had been able to plan a little further in advance and were delighted to see that well over 100 people had signed up to attend the event. Since  many people typically sign up at the last moment, things looked good for a big crowd. Come the day of the event though and things looked very different. The snow had started early in the morning and showed no signs of abating as the day progressed. In fact we were half expecting a phone call cancelling the event, but apparently the organizers had more faith in their member's abilities to fight their way through the snow than we did. So eventually we set off in a still-raging snowstorm and slowly made our way to the other side of town.

When we first arrived we thought that our fears had been realized as only about 20 people were there. As we set up for the first presentation, however, more and more people arrived. By the time we reached the midpoint of the evening there must have been close to 100 people there. We were both amazed and thrilled and we really enjoyed our time with the group. This will sound self-serving, but we're going to say it anyway! We feel that this just helps emphasize a point that we have often made in the past: "If you build it they will come." In other words, if a User group offers the kind of sessions and speakers to their members that they really want to see, they will come to meetings--even braving severe weather conditions that would have made any sane person hunker down by the fire with a mug of hot chocolate (or something stronger). In recent times there has been a lot of discussion about how to make user groups more relevant and we're convinced that part of the answer is to make the meeting content more relevant. Of course modern topics like WebSphere, PHP, Java, Domino, .Net, EGL, etc. should be offered, but not at the expense of topics like RPG, CL and DB2 that form the bread-and-butter content of most members' working days.

YiPs and a Special Poll

Still on the subject of user groups, we would like to introduce those of you who have not yet met them to the Young i Professionals or YiPs as they're more commonly known. This group, which was originally formed at COMMON, is dedicated to the promotion of IBM i among younger IT professionals. Check out the group's Web site to find out more. You can check out their open source projects and test drive the trial version of the PHP based SugarCRM package that they have up and running on IBM i. This is the first of a number of open-source software packages that the group intends to make available to demonstrate how IBM i can utilize open-source software. Don’t worry-–there is no check to verify that you really are a “young” i professional. They let Jon join their ranks, so clearly “young at heart” counts!

This week there’s a poll on the YiPs site that we encourage all of our readers to participate in. It's on a subject that's near and dear to our hearts--education and more specifically, in these tough economic times, your company's plans for education spending. Right now there aren’t a huge number of responses, and we’d like to know the results on a larger population. So please check it out and provide your input. 

Check Out Some New 'How-to' Videos

As most of you know, we are part of the System i Developer (SiD) consortium, which, among other things, runs the RPG and DB2 Summit conferences twice a year. As part of our efforts we have begun to host some how-to videos on the SID Web Site. Right now there are just a few and they are all focused on configuring the Apache web server--something we often get asked about when we teach Web programming topics at conferences. We will be adding more videos in the future--specifically tips and techniques for the Remote Systems Explorer in WDSC and RDi. In the meantime, we invite you to check out the videos that we have, and more specifically to provide feedback on what you would like to see in the future. The approach we're taking here is somewhat similar to the Jing videos that we discussed in a previous edition of IBM Systems Magazine's IBM i EXTRA e-newsletter. In other words, simple straightforward no-frills narrated video demonstrations of how to do a particular task. We're not trying to win any Oscars, just to impart information in a simple graphic manner. Please check out the videos and feel free to comment on them and offer suggestions on topics you’d like to see in the future. If you want to be sure that you get advised of any new videos that we add to the web site, be sure to sign up for the “SiD email alerts” mailing list.

Simpler Times

Jon turns 60 this week--and he gratefully thanks in advance those few of you reading this who can't believe he can possibly be that old. Since one tends to reminisce at such times, we got to thinking about the "advances" that have taken place over the time we've been involved in IT, and in some cases to ponder the value of the technologies that now pervade our everyday lives.

Let's take as a starting point the fact that the very first real midrange computer system that Jon worked on had "massive" 1.6 Mb hard drives. Yes we do mean Mb. By the way, it was also limited to two twin drives so a total of 6.4Mb of disk storage was directly accessible at any one time. These days a cell phone with that little storage would be unthinkable--how could it possible be of any use to anyone with so little memory?** 

And yet, this ridiculously small system handled all of the accounting, payroll and inventory for a company employing some 400+ people who sold its products all over the country.

So, let's pick on cell phones for a moment or two since they seem symptomatic of the whole genre.  For instance, are we the only people who really don't feel they need their cell phone to contain a camera, MP3 player, fancy ring tones, silly games, Web browsers or e-mail!? Is civilization really being advanced by the fact that we can all be reached 24 hours a day seven days a week via multiple media?  We survived before we could do that. In fact we did quite nicely, thank you. Some of humankind's greatest achievements came about without the benefit of the cell phone--putting a man on the moon for example.  And let's not even mention things works of art like the Mona Lisa and Shakespearen plays!

Perhaps as teachers we tend to be more sensitive to the disruptive nature of cell phones (and don't even get us started on crackberries and iPhones!). We can't remember the last time we did a training class or conference session that wasn't disrupted by at least one cell phone going off. And of course there's always someone who feels the need to answer right away. If we're lucky they leave the room to do it, although not usually without starting the conversation before they are out of the door.

In the "good old days" if someone couldn't be reached instantly, we survived. Someone else stepped up to the plate and life continued. Or more commonly, the problem was recognized for the minor irritation it really was and was forgotten or shelved until later. Were we all so much less efficient because of that?  Or did we perhaps use our brains a bit more and accept more responsibility for what went on in our lives and workplaces?

Before we get any farther into "old-fart" territory, perhaps we should call a halt to this before it becomes a real tirade. But we would invite all of you to think more about the technology you use, and how important it really is in the greater scheme of things. 

Is a "rich UI" truly essential to the well being of your company? Do Facebook or LinkedIn really contribute to the overall wealth and happiness of the human race? Or are they just another way to waste time? Is there real ROI in these new technologies? Or are we simply following along like lemmings? (Yes, we do know that it's not really true they go leaping off cliffs, but you know what we mean.) We invite your comments and suggestions.

** In fact the actual computer itself only had (in IBM i terms) 24Kb and that had to contain the operating system as well as the executing user program. In fact, within that 24Kb, also ran a spooling system, so that programs didn't have to wait on the printer. When the drives were later upgraded to a pair of 40Mb units, and another 24Kb of memory added, the system also supported eight online data entry terminals and a couple of remote terminals for on-line inventory checks!  (For more of Jon's reminiscences of times gone by check out http://ibmsystemsmag.blogs.com/idevelop/2007/09/of-80-column-pu.html.)

That Was 2008

Even without the ongoing financial crisis, 2008 was quite an "interesting" year from the IBM i perspective. So we thought for our first blog entry of 2009 we'd take a quick look back at some of the significant events in our world as we have seen them during the past year. 

1) Passages:

In 2008 we lost a number of major characters from the i world. By far the biggest impact in the user community was the passing in April of our dear friend, Al Barsa, who died while at the Nashville COMMON conference. We wrote about Al here, so we won't repeat ourselves. In October Tom Jarosh, an early General Manager of the AS/400 division also passed away. Regardless of whether you agreed with the direction in which Tom took the platform, there is no doubt that he had a major impact on our world. More recently, a member of the team who initially envisioned the AS/400 system and the father of a number of the early compilers, Dick Bains, passed away. You can read more in our blog entry. 

The end of 2008 was also the end of an era as it brought with it the retirement of "Doctor Frank"--Dr. Frank Soltis, IBM Chief Scientist and father of the System/38 (and of course the AS/400 and its successors). Sad as we are to see Frank go. After 40 years at IBM he certainly deserves a break!  And of course we're hoping that he won't disappear completely from our world. We still hope to see Dr. Frank on the conference circuit.

2) Convergence:

As far as the hardware is concerned, the i and p platforms have been moving closer and closer together for years and we all knew it was inevitable that they would eventually converge completely. Well--for good or ill--this year it happened. One of the good aspects is that there is no longer a price premium on the hardware. You now pay the same for disk and memory as your p brethren. Other touted benefits such as greater marketing exposure seem to have had a short shelf-life. Unfortuantely, the problems with parts of IBM walking into i shops to try to persuade them to move to AIX or Linux, which we had hoped might end with the convergence, continue on unabated. We have met the enemy ...

3) More new names:

With convergence came new names. Since the hardware is now a commodity item, and the latest POWER processor hardware is POWER6, clearly i5/OS made no sense. Sadly the name "i/OS" was already in use, so we are now simply IBM i, which doesn't work too well with Google! But then many Web sites (including IBM's in places) still refer to AS/400, System i, iSeries or System i5 so don't let anyone make you feel guilty about doing the same!

Along with the new OS name came a change in the way versions are identified. The new release is not known as V6R1 but simply as 6.1.

6.1 is also the first release since V3R6 and the introduction of the RISC hardware to require that all programs be converted. This has caused a little consternation for some users who discovered that vendor packages were not 6.1. ready, but most of these issues seem to have been resolved now. The payback for this conversion is that in the future your programs will always fully be able to exploit your hardware and not be constrained by the lowest-common-denominator approach formerly used.  

4) Tools Re-Packaging:

With the advent of 6.1, the AD tools formerly combined under the ADTS banner (compilers, PDM, SEU, and the workstation-based tools) were repackaged. The compilers, green-screen tools and workstation tools were broken out into separate products. We understand IBM needs to derive more revenue to fund future tool development, but feel that IBM has "punished" those customers who have moved their development forward and embraced RPG IV and the workstation tools.

While existing customers get entitlement to the compiler packages, the pricing for those purchasing new systems seems backwards. Those who need only the new RPG IV compiler must pay a higher price than those who choose to stay in the past with RPG/400. Of course many of those who pay the premium for the ILE compilers are also forced to purchase the legacy compilers as well because IBM has yet to persuade a number of big ISVs to make the simple transition to RPG IV. You don't need to consult the oracle to know who we're talking about here.

We're still hopeful that in 2009 IBM will offer a better deal for the early adopters of the workstation tools. Those who adopted the tools in WDSC get no entitlement for either of the follow-on products. Yet they could go backwards and use PDM and SEU with their entitled licenses of ADTS. What kind of sense is that? Sure, there's a discount they can get on RDi if they agree to give up their entitled ADTS licenses. Of course, to do that means accepting the"functionality gaps" that are likely to remain for some time to come. Of course, one could just continue to use WDSC, which is what the pricing policy seems to be encouraging this group of developers to do.   

5) And PHP kept growing and growing and ...

We're hoping to hear shortly that Zend's agreement with IBM to supply PHP to the platform will be extended--hopefully for at least another three years. The major developments on the PHP front this year concerned the introduction of Zend Bridge and the announcement of a DB2 Storage Engine for MySQL. 

Zend Bridge, which we covered here, has been a huge hit with those looking to modernize and extend their existing green-screen applications. The DB2 Storage Engine offers the prospect of extending open-souce gems such as SugarCRM with additional reporting and processing courtesy of native RPG programs. As of today rumor has it that IBM's work on the "engine" is done, the product is out of beta, and we are awaiting the integration components from the MySQL team. We're really looking forward to playing with this stuff when it GAs.

That's enough from us--what about you? What were the high and low points of 2008 in your part of the i world?

Analyze This: Are YOU Prepared for the Future of i?

Perhaps IBM have not done as good a job of publicizing the steps necessary to prepare for the arrival of V6.1 (or V6R1 if you prefer). Perhaps we have become too used to OS upgrades being a (relatively) trivial task. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps ... but there's a light at the end of the tunnel that leads to V6!

Whatever the reason, it seems to us that far too many i shops have not performed their "due diligence" and checked to determine what impact the new release may have on them. Recent discussions at user group meetings, with customers, and on Internet lists indicate that this is a widespread phenomenon. If it were only end users who were ignoring the oncoming train that would be one thing, but of even greater concern are the number of ISVs that don't seem to have their V6 act in gear. Reports of software packages that aren't yet "V6 ready" seem to occur with monotonous regularity. Of even greater concern are reports of ISVs demanding ridiculous amounts of money to "upgrade" a customer to a "V6 ready" version.

For these and many other reasons, if you have yet to run the ANZOBJCVN command on your V5R3 and V5R4 systems then run--don't walk--to the IBM Redpaper, Getting Ready for i5/OS V6R1. Or if you would rather simply act than read, then check if your system already has the required PTFs (for V5R3 look for SI28425 and for V5R4 SI28415) and run the command.

We won't go into all the technical details of the V6 change here--you can read all that in the referenced Redpaper--but just to give you an idea of a few of the things that you need to think about:

1. Any programs on your system that were compiled prior to V5R1 and that have had observability removed, MUST be recompiled before you attempt to move to V6.
2. Most vendor software has observability removed, so be sure that the version you're using is V6 compatible. Based on many of the discussions we've seen on Internet lists DO NOT simply rely on what the vendor says. Make sure you run the command and confirm for yourself.
3. If you've fallen behind on releases from your ISV, remember that you may need to factor in additional time to re-apply your customizations to a new version.
4. Some widely used utility software has been "modified" so that it can utilize system state. These programs will NOT convert--you'll have to either obtain a V6 capable version or find a replacement product.
5. If you need to upgrade/replace some of your software, be sure that you allow plenty of time to negotiate the cost of the upgrade with your ISV. Many customers are reporting that the initial offer from the ISV is (to use one of the more polite words) "ridiculous." Negotiate and, if that fails, ensure that you have allowed enough time to shop for a replacement.
6. The ISV that you purchased your software from may have gone out of business or been acquired--if you haven't maintained a current maintenance agreement you'll need time to investigate your options.

So the lesson is don't delay--analyze today! Your analysis may indicate that you're going to need additional monies in your budget beyond what you've allowed for that sexy new blade server you have your heart set on!

Before we go, we would be remiss if we didn't point out that there are many good ISVs that are prepared for V6 and have very reasonable upgrade terms. But the word on the Internet lists is that many are not yet ready and/or do not offer "reasonable" terms. It's time to check which category your vendors are in!