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If you’re a gray-haired IBM-i Programmer like me (I prefer silver-fox BTW), you’ve definitely spent countless hours wrangling with the green screen, trying to make your system do exactly what you want. That’s where Control Language, or CL for short, comes in handy. It’s the scripting language built right into IBM i that lets you …
If you’ve spent any time around IBM i systems, you’ve probably heard the term “Control Language” or “CL” thrown around. But what exactly is Control Language? And why should you, a modern programmer in 2026, care about it? Grab a cuppa, and let’s dive in. What is Control Language (CL)? In the simplest terms, Control …
Let’s talk about something that can seriously boost your programming productivity: split screen editing in Visual Studio Code. If you’re like most IBM i programmers, you’re probably used to alt-tabbing between files. But VS Code’s split screen functionality? It’s a game-changer. Why Should You Care About Split Screen? In my years of programming on AS400, …
Well folks, the future for IBM-i Programmers is here, and its name is Project Bob. I just had the pleasure of getting my hands on IBM’s latest AI tool designed specifically for us IBM i programmers, and I have to say – I’m very impressed! In a world where AI seems to be everywhere (and …
Let’s talk about something that keeps many IBM i programmers awake at night: data encryption. In today’s world of GDPR, data breaches, and compliance audits, knowing how to properly encrypt sensitive data isn’t just nice to have, it’s absolutely essential. Now, I’ll be honest with you. When I first started digging into encryption on our …
If you’re diving into the world of IBM i programming and stumbled across the term ERRHDLR, you might be scratching your head wondering what it is. I was playing with an SQL Data Encryption routine earlier today and saw a code sample referencing ERRHDLR. “What is that?” I thought. After much time digging through the …
Ditching the Dinosaur Files: Why Your Modern RPG Source Code Deserves a Swanky IFS Pad Instead of Those Crusty Old AS/400 Source Files Ahoy, fellow IBM i adventurers! If you’ve been lurking in the shadowy realms of AS/400 development long enough, you know the drill: punching code into those venerable source physical files like QRPGSRC …
If you’re an IBM i developer, admin, or general green‑screen wrangler, you already know that IBM i Access Client Solutions (ACS) is the Swiss Army knife we all rely on. It’s the tool that quietly does everything: 5250 emulation, SQL scripting, file transfers, database navigation, and the occasional “why is this button even here?” mystery …
How to Check Whether a Subsystem Is Active in IBM i Using CL If you’ve spent any time automating operations on IBM i, you’ve probably bumped into this classic requirement: “Before I run this job, I need to know whether a subsystem is active.” It sounds simple, but depending on your tooling and IBM i …
Every IBM i developer has opened a source member, stared at a sea of cryptic variable names, and muttered something unprintable. We have all inherited codebases where X1, CUSTFLG, and TMP123 roam free like wild animals. And while that might have been acceptable in the 1980s, modern RPGLE deserves modern readability. A clean naming convention …
If you’re an IBM i administrator, developer, or power user, IBM i Access Client Solutions (ACS) is likely your go-to tool for everything from 5250 emulation to database management, Run SQL Scripts, and IFS browsing. But ACS is a Java application at its core, which means your experience, and security, hinges on the Java Runtime …
