Tempus Fugit, Don't It?

This week's blog was inspired by a recent trip into the depths of our basement where we came upon ... wait for it ... a brand new boxed set of PC DOS diskettes. How they came to be in our basement, and why they had never been opened remain a mystery, as do much of the rest of the basement's content -- but we digress.

Anyway, after having disposed of the disks in the circular filing cabinet (aka garbage can for the uninitiated) we got to thinking about how far things have come in the years since we entered the computing field. When we first started, punch cards were still the primary input medium for most systems. In fact Jon still recalls the actual hole positions for different characters so well that at one time he had a nasty tendency to use them when creating things like Wi-Fi passwords "because it is easy to remember" -- a sentiment which was not shared by Susan and as a result is no longer used in our household.

But old as we may be, punch cards were around long before we got started in IT. Their initial use for data entry was in conjunction with the U.S. Census of 1890, but they had been in use for controlling looms and similar equipment way back in the early 1700s. They remained a major means of data entry until well into the 1970s.

For a relatively short period of time, starting in the mid-1960s, dedicated data-entry systems such as those produced by Mohawk Data Systems and Canada's CCL strove to replace the lowly punch card by providing direct to disk/tape data-entry systems. IBM's entry into this arena was the 3740 range introduced in 1973 and built in good old Rochester, MN. But good as some of these systems were, for smaller companies the cost benefit was just not there. Perhaps that explains IBM's decision to give the humble punch card one last hurrah in the form of the 96-column card. Introduced with the System 3 in 1969, we've never quite understood why IBM ever thought those silly little things were a good idea. Thankfully, although they still carried over into the S/38 line, they soon died a well-deserved death.

The real end of the punch card's lengthy reign came with the introduction of (relatively) low-cost data-entry terminals such as the 5250 line (1977). And this is the point in time at which things really started to speed up.

No sooner had the IBM PC been introduced in 1981 than "real" 5250s began to be replaced by emulators running on PCs. We then began what in retrospect appears to be the inevitable rise of the browser as a means of data entry. Close on the heels of the rise of the browser came the age of the smartphone and tablets and then, after many false starts, the use of voice recognition for data entry.

All that seems to be left is for the "thought keyboard" to be introduced and that will finally signal the end of any tactile involvement in the data-entry process. Whether that is a good idea or not we leave to the reader to decide, but it does seem to be the inevitable end-point in the game.

As with all things in our modern world, it is the speed with which these changes have occurred that leaves us breathless when we look back.

Try drawing up a few such timelines yourself. For example, the transition from jungle drums, to telegraph, to phones, to cell phones to .... Or disk storage (the latest Mac Books for example don't offer a conventional hard drive as a base option - they are all SSD based), or memory (from core to transistor, to ...), or ....

 

Modernize? ... Schmodernize!!

What with our involvement in the upcoming IBM Modernization Redbooks publication, we've been paying even more attention than usual to the topic of application modernization. So when we saw this piece from fellow writer Alex Woodie highlighting a study on CIO's attitudes towards green screens we were intrigued.

This study was undertaken on behalf of Micro Focus who has long been a force in the COBOL world. In recent years, the company has focussed much of its attention on providing tooling for mainframe COBOL shops. In that regard they are not dissimilar from many of the modernization tool vendors in the IBM i space. Mainframes, COBOL and 3270s provide a very direct comparison with IBM i, RPG and 5250s, so we thought it would be interesting to see how the kinds of questions asked and the responses received matched our perceptions. Given that nearly 600 respondents from around the world completed the study, the survey size is certainly large enough to potentially provide some valuable insights.

Of course there are differences between the two platforms. Our externally described files, screens and reports mean that the maintenance burden is typically a little smaller than in a mainframe shop. Similarly updates in the RPG language have outstripped enhancements in the capabilities of the version of COBOL (i.e., the non-OO COBOL) that most mainframe shops use. That makes it a lot easier for us to deal with the programmer shortage by taking C, Java or PHP programmers and training them in RPG. We would not want to be running a COBOL shop and having to try to persuade young programmers to learn the language. That said though, we would expect many of the problems they face to be remarkably similar. A quick perusal of the survey results seems to bear this out.

For example in the section on "Why are green screen applications still used?" the results seem very much in keeping with our own experience. Some 55 percent are dissatisfied with their green-screen apps, but seem to consider the risks and costs of fixing the problem to be too high, particularly in light of the shortage of skills. Notice that this is not an absolute "there are no programmers" statement; rather it is a comment about a lack of programmers with the _skills_ to perform the task. Now where have we heard that before?

Indeed the follow-on chart highlights that most sites are likely to be using emulation products--even on phones (shudder) and tablets--than actually modernizing (6 percent) or replacing (5 percent) the old apps. We have a feeling that modernizing via intelligent refacing technology and/or Open Access based tools probably means that these numbers would be a little higher in the IBM i world but not perhaps by a huge margin.

There's a lot more of interest in this study but we'll highlight just a few more points.

First, 89 percent have had complaints from end users about green-screen applications. Those of our readers who adhere to the "sometimes green is best" philosophy might be surprised by that.

Second, some 66 percent stated that using green screens negatively affected staff satisfaction levels, with some 19 percent of them saying that impact was significant in hiring, training and retaining staff. The survey goes on to study the roots of these problems in more detail which provides interesting reading. 97 percent said that end user satisfaction would either probably or definitely increase if the green screen applications were updated.

Third, while most of the IT departments surveyed consider themselves innovative, only 28 percent believe that their users consider any updates to existing applications to constitute "innovation."

So updating the user interface to existing applications is good. But to be considered innovative, users expect more, such as mobile apps or "technology that has new or surprising features and functions" (whatever that means!).

It is perhaps a sad reflection of this crazy world that modernizing what you have is not seen as innovative. We're not sure if that reflects a lack of vision on the part of the responders or simply that having a new "Now you can 'friend' us easily from your phone" app is now considered business critical.

Take a look at the study. We'd be interested on hearing how well it maps to your own experiences.





 

Open Access--Oh the Thinks You Can Think!

The more we work with Open Access for RPG the more we realize how much more we can do with it. For example, a couple of weeks ago Jon published an article detailing an RPG Open Access (OA) handler that allows entries to be written to a data queue with a conventional RPG Write operation. He mentioned at the time that while APIs such as those for data queues are not particularly complex, they are complex enough that they are not as frequently used as they should be.

Dan Cruikshank, one of IBM's leading DB2 experts, and a fellow member of the Modernization Redbook team, wrote to us after the piece was published. He pointed out that while data queues were an excellent example of how OA can be used to simplify things, the interface to almost any list API could benefit from the development of an OA handler. For example, wouldn't it be nice to be able to process a list of spoolfiles that meet certain criteria by using SETLL to set up the criteria, followed by a series of READ or READE operations to retrieve the data. Dan is no newcomer to using OA to adapt existing processes and has written several articles on database modernization using OA. For an example see his article on using SQL with OA on Developerworks.

The more we thought about Dan's comments the more we realized that he was right. After all, how many programmers do you know who still persist in using the outfile support from IBM i commands rather than use the more efficient and more capable related APIs? Would they be more inclined to abandon their old habits if there was an OA handler available for the API in question that would allow them to process the results with familiar RPG op-codes? We think the answer is yes.

So we've been busily working on a sample OA handler that supports CHAIN, SETLL and READ operations against a simple list. The idea being that the basic principals can be adapted to processing any list--no matter how it is derived. We'll be publishing the related article in an upcoming edition of IBM i EXTRA so you might want to watch out for that. (Editor's note: If you don't currently receive the IBM i EXTRA newsletter, you can subscribe here.)

Mindset

This week marks the end of the “formal” part of the Modernization Redbooks residency we mentioned back in July. We were only able to be in Rochester for the first week, but have been participating remotely since and will continue to do so as the project progresses. It will be some time before the finished project appears—hopefully by Christmas. Modernizing our applications is hugely important to the future of the IBM i platform and while the book will not offer any silver bullets, it will hopefully provide a good base for discussions and further exploration. Not to mention, a few surprises for the naysayers who still cling to the outdated belief that the system and/or the RPG language are outdated.

Talking of “outdated” reminds us that this week marks the arrival of the 2013 version of the Beloit Mindset List for the Class of 2017. This list was originally created to remind college faculty to be aware of using outdated references—8 track players anyone? The list has been produced every August since 1998 and is always an interesting read. This year’s list does not include as many “Wow!” moments as some in recent years but still has its share of surprises. Here are just a few of the items that stood out for us.

For the members of the class of 2017:

            - With GPS, they have never needed directions to get someplace, just an address.

            - Java has never been just a cup of coffee.

            - Eminem and LL Cool J could show up at parents’ weekend.

            - Having a chat has seldom involved talking.

            - Gaga has never been baby talk.

            - Their TV screens keep getting smaller as their parents’ screens grow ever larger.

            - A tablet is no longer something you take in the morning.

            - and just to add a computer reference - They have always been able to plug into USB ports.

If you have never seen this list before and want to check back on previous years, you can find links to the lists for the classes of 2002 to 2016.

Which leads us back to the IBM i. Going through this list, it occurs to us that perhaps part of the problem of selling the legendary reliability factor of IBM i as a benefit is that the current generation of buyers and influencers have grown up with the idea that computers always fail. Windows has always blue-screened, browsers crashed, phones and tablets locked up, etc. etc. If there is a built-in assumption of failure, then perhaps trying to sell someone on the idea of a system that doesn’t crash just stretches credibility too far?

 

 

 

 

Sometimes the Simple Ways Are the Best

In last week's blog, we mentioned we were in Rochester for the kick off of the new Modernization Redbook. Thanks to those of you who commented on the blog. We're still open to suggestions, so keep them coming.

This week we were inspired by the signs we saw on the sidewalk outside the Rochester Lab every time we entered or left the building. You can see one of the signs here:

We were struck by what an effective, albeit low-tech, means of communication this was. After all, in a building filled with techies wouldn't your first thought as an organizer to be to spread the news by email, or Twitter, or a company bulletin board, or ... ? But you couldn't miss seeing this one. If, like Jon, you have well-developed skills for reading upside down, you would get the message at least twice a day. Hard to ignore.

If you've never been to the Rochester lab, you should know that instead of one building with just one or two entrances, the lab is made up of many smaller buildings joined by central hallways. Most buildings have their own door to the outside with a sidewalk leading up to it. These picnic signs were placed on the sidewalks leading up to each building entrance. So someone used a lot of chalk!

Why did the organizers choose to step backwards in time like this? Well, in the early days of email, and indeed even Twitter and Facebook, sending a message of this type would have almost guaranteed that your audience saw it. Today there is so much spam and other junk mail flying around--not to mention the pure volume of mail that most of us receive--that email is a significantly less effective vehicle than it once was. Even Twitter is so cluttered with junk that spotting the useful and interesting requires either a 24-hour devotion to the feed or additional tooling to help sort the wheat from the chaff.

So, the next time you need to impart some vital knowledge to your colleagues think about keeping it simple. But be aware that if your new tactics succeed in getting their attention, others may copy you and then you may end up in this kind of hell scape!

Sunny with Clouds

Greetings from sunny Rochester! Well it is sunny today (Monday) anyway. When we first arrived on Saturday afternoon it was freezing. Not quite literally but a lot closer than one should ever expect to get in late July. There was even an overnight frost warning in some parts of the state last night.

We are actually in Rochester to participate in the kickoff meeting for a new modernization Redbook, which will be covering everything from modernizing the UI, to modularizing code, to updating the database, to ... well you get the picture. It is a daunting task but many good people are involved in the project. This week is devoted to determining the topics to be covered, so if there is anything in the modernization arena that you feel your company needs advice and guidance on, please let us know via the comments to this blog and we'll bring them forward to the group.

But Backups are Looking Cloudy

For some time now we've been trying to find a simple, reliable method of providing an off-site backup for our mission-critical files. This is particularly important during those periods (like now) when we are registering folks for our fall RPG & DB2 Summit.

We had been using FTP to send the nightly backups to an off-site IBM i, but have suffered timing issues that made this approach unreliable for reasons we won't delve into. As a result we had been looking for a commercial FTP site that might work for us, but those that we found either had file size limits that were too low for us or had prices that were too high.

We knew that sites like Box.com (where we already had an account) and DropBox.com had the kind of cloud-based service that we needed. But they didn't support FTP and we just didn't have the cycles to program to their APIs.

Just when we thought we were going to have to give in and either program to the APIs or pay through the nose for an FTP site, along came Arpeggio Software with its latest offering ARP-DROP. ARP-DROP currently only works with DropBox, but will shortly support other cloud-based services such as Google and Box.com. Best of all, it is a free offering that works in the IBM i native environment. As soon as we heard about it we signed up for a copy and loaded it onto our IBM i. Within 10 minutes were sending and receiving savefiles from DropBox using simple IBM i commands, and the performance was really impressive. Also, because the product is command based, it is perfectly suited to being used in automated backup scripts and that's exactly what we'll be doing. If you have a need for a similar tool take a look at ARP-DROP. We're really impressed with what we have seen so far and intend to take full advantage of it in the coming months. Thanks Arpeggio.

Mentoring and More

We were particularly pleased to see the comments to our blog two weeks ago on training new RPG programmers. It's always gratifying to know that you are not the only people in the world who think that educating our replacements is a good idea. Maybe some of you want to work forever--not us--we have many things we'd like to do.

Among the comments was one from Torbjörn Appehl who mentioned that in Sweden a company named Tieto had recently undertaken a program to train young recruits in the joys of RPG. We mentioned this story last year in our blog, but at the time didn't know the name of the company, etc. Now, thanks to Torbjörn, we have been able to look at the company's website and we highly recommend you to pay a visit too. This is a company to be watched. If you don't live in one of the countries Tieto serves, you're forgiven for going off and weeping quietly in a corner as you bemoan the state of IT companies in North America and probably elsewhere.

So many companies seem content to simply deal with resource shortages by outsourcing, which is not only a short-term solution, but also one that in our opinion is also shortsighted. Do we really want our children to be the hewers of wood and and drawers of water for the rest of the world because we were not willing to invest in them? On the Tieto website pay attention to the mention of mentoring programs and other similar investments the company makes. Do you know of anyone in North America doing that? Or are most, as we suspect, simply bemoaning the skills shortage, which is not just an IBM i and RPG issue, and doing nothing about it.

This issue is fresh in our minds as it came up during the roundtable discussion that opened the annual WMPCA Spring Conference, which we are attending this week. Present at the meeting were a number of present and former students of our friend Jim Buck, who we mentioned in the earlier blog entry. Some of them described the importance of mentoring and internship programs to their success and how hard such opportunities were to come by. Jim is currently working on ways of extending the reach of his programs and we hope to work with him on that. Something needs to happen.

Another comment on the blog came from Christian in France who works for a French training company that runs introductory IBM i and RPG training two or three times a year for clients whose companies have recruited young programmers. We were particularly pleased to see Christian's comments regarding modern programming practices and tooling.

In part he said: "Of course, we use SQL and free RPG, even if we have to talk about DDS and fixed form RPG. Our tools are system i Navigator and RDP, no choice!..."

"As you can see, it is possible to teach 'IBM i', it's a wonderful system with many advantages that can be interesting for young people, but we have to show them the 'sunny side'."

The "sunny side" indeed Christian! No young programmer in their right mind is going to be interested in RPG II style fixed-format coding and SEU. You'll be lucky if you keep them for a month, even if they are an unpaid intern! Show them modern RPG and RDP and you'll find a very different response.

Thanks also to the others who commented on the blog. We really appreciate your feedback.

Another point that came up during this evening's discussion was that most IBM i programmers aren't just programmers. They're really business analysts that implement the results of their analysis in RPG. This in some ways reinforces the point we made about retraining experienced business people and teaching them how to program. It was the way Jon's father broke into programming and we know many other people whose entry into the world of computing took a similar path. Now if only we could work out a way to make that happen on a large enough scale to make a dent in unemployment levels and the RPG programmer shortage that would be progress!

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.

 

 

 

 

RPG is Dead - Long Live RPG

About every two years some industry pundit or other takes it upon themselves to remind us that "RPG is Dead." We say "remind" because this theme recurs so frequently -- and always with the same predictable results. One group rushes to agree and joyfully starts banging the nails in the coffin lid, another (usually larger) group decries the statement, starts pulling out the nails, and affirms that the language is indeed alive and well in their world. Sometimes the discussion occurs on the Internet on one of the IBM i related lists, at other times it appears on websites such as LinkedIn, and from time to time it appears in the IBM i press. As Yogi Berra said, "It's deja vu all over again."

The latest, and the reason for this blog entry, appeared recently on iProDeveloper.com under the headline "Is RPG Dead? Why it's time to write the obituary" and was authored by Mel Beckman. Before you read on, you may want to read Mel's piece if you haven't already done so. You may notice that one of the people who commented on the piece was Jon. He has a lot more he could say about some of the points made in the article, but he's trying to restrain himself. We want to make some rather different points here and to dissect the article itself would not serve that purpose.

It seems to us that articles such as this only serve to harm the community. We are a (relatively) small group, and the vast majority of us still believe that IBM i on Power is the single best business system out there -- period. So why do we continue to make such negative public critiques as this? It seems to us that the only thing these discussions serve to do is to help reinforce all of the negative things that our "competition" like to say about us. "Look, even IBM i experts think RPG is dead." And of course if you say RPG is dead then you have pretty much condemned the platform. Make no mistake - that is exactly how the competition uses such articles. After all, a very large percentage of application code running on IBM i systems today is written in RPG. So connect the dots -- from an IBM i competitor's perspective.

We used to think that the positives of such discussions, namely encouraging people to explore new languages and techniques -- outweighed the negatives, but we are less and less convinced of that. 

RPG is a tool. Plain and simple. PHP is a tool. So is Java. So is C++. Just as we wouldn't use a hammer to try and smooth out a piece of wood so we (personally) would not want to implement our business rules in Java or C++. Java and other OO languages have a role for sure. There are many things that OO languages are well suited for. We just don't find the argument that business processes are among that set a convincing one. More importantly, we think that these so-called "modern" languages should be added to our tool kit -- not used to replace the tools we already have. Even if it made sense from a capability perspective (which we don't believe it does), it would make no economic sense.

We have no idea what plans IBM may, or may not, have for RPG or of the timeframe in which any new features might be delivered. But we're not sure an OO RPG would be a good option -- not because it would be too late, but simply because such a large percentage of RPGers don't take advantage of the more modern facilities such as subprocedures in the language today. Thinking that those stuck in RPG III mode would embrace OO just because it has an RPG label is just foolish. There are better things for IBM to spend their money on.

"(RPG is) ... no longer routinely used to write new programs that solve current problems." Really? Many, many shops are writing new, modern applications using RPG. Sure, there are shops out there still using outdated versions of the language and outdated tools and techniques. But there are also many mobile and Web-based applications out there with rock-solid, modern RPG at their core. 

Since we included a Yogi Berra quote earlier, perhaps it is appropriate to steal one from Mark Twain to close. "The report of my death was an exaggeration." 

 

 

Rational Gives an Early Valentine With Free Open Access

They love us. They really love us! Finally IBM Rational has admitted the folly of trying to persuade us to buy our own gifts and is giving us Open Access for free.

Today's announcement confirms the rumors that have been circulating for the last few months. Namely that the OA run-time components are being bundled with IBM i and the compiler components are being included with the compiler. Of course it will all have to be distributed as PTFs for a while, but over time will be shipped as standard. We just read Steve Wills' You and i blog and noticed that our "Valentine" headline is even more appropriate than we thought because the PTFs are due to be available starting on Feb. 14!

The link we have for the formal announcement letter doesn't seem to be working right now so we'll post that in the comments as soon as we can confirm it.

We think this is a good thing for several reasons:

1. ISVs that have products that utilize OA no longer have to get customers to install an additional chargeable feature before they can even take advantage of a free trial. IBM partly addressed this by making a trial version of OA available a few months ago but it was still an impediment.
2. Smaller ISVs that might otherwise have developed handlers couldn't justify doing so since, in some instances, the cost to the client of installing OA would have exceeded what they could reasonably charge for the product. 
3. Open-source advocates were never going to embrace writing handlers that relied on a chargeable product.
4. Similarly the number of magazine articles on the subject of OA has been severely lacking. Although we have written a couple ourselves we're only aware of two or three other writers who have done anything. In fact we had given up writing on the subject, other than here in the blog. The reason is the same--there's little satisfaction in writing an article on a subject that you know most of your readers can't put into practice. Now that everyone will be able to use the examples we present we'll be dusting off a couple of ideas that we have on hold. In the meantime you can find our earlier articles on OA here and here.
5. Last, but not least, it will hopefully dispel the notion that the only thing OA is good for is modernizing 5250 applications. As we've said before, while this is a very important function of OA it's only a tiny part of what can be done with it. We need more applications that exploit email, processing IFS files, Web services, etc. OA is an excellent way to enable such features for "the masses." Even highly skilled RPG programmers can make use of OA. For example, during a recent discussion with IBM's Barbara Morris, we discovered that even though she is comfortable with using the IFS APIs, she actually finds it easier to use an IFS handler that she wrote herself whenever she needs to process IFS files in RPG.

Rational has shown us a little love here. Let's return the favor and thank them the best way we can--by using OA to add new functionality to our favorite language.

Please use the Comments section of this blog to pass on your ideas of the kind of handlers you'd like to see written or indeed to tell us about those that you plan to write.