another snippet from an old document I found in a dim dark and hazy corner of an even older HDD… rather than let it disintegrate, here it is migrating to the web just in the (extreme) off chance that it may be useful to someone out there. Hey.. if YOU are reading this then its dont its job  ðŸ˜‰

RLU is used to design a report image, print prototype reports, create printer files, and generate DDS from which the report will be created. A prototype report is a printed copy of the report image that looks like the report that an application program will generate.

The Design Report display is the main screen from which you edit the report. From this display you can use function keys to go to other displays where you can add information at the file, record and field levels. You can also go to the Change Session Defaults display where you can control the characteristics of your edit session.

...
Read More

So, we had a file coming in from an external partner today – containing a date in Julian Format. Or what I initially thought to be Julian format. Many applications (especially mainframe systems) store dates in the Julian format. Julian dates (abbreviated JD) are simply a continuous count of days and fractions since noon Universal

Read More

I found this excellent article by Birgitta Hauser, Software and Database Engineer, Toolmaker Advanced Efficiency GmbH. It covers the basic concepts you will need to consider if you want to “Replace IBM i Native File Access with SQL” Just in case it vanishes I’m going to reproduce it here: If you are considering SQL and

Read More

Washington DC – President Trump announced his government is launching a special software advisory group – “Not long ago we all went through the Year 2000 crisis. If you were in the computer and software industry you recall the many headaches in converting and changing databases and software so the Year 2000 would be a

Read More

Indicators Suck! So, lets look at two simple alternatives to make your RPG code more readable and easier to understand and modify. (1) RPG Named Indicators When is an RPG indicator more than just a number? We can use a named data structure to overlay over the top of all the indicators used in the program.

Read More

Pomodoro Time Management Over the last year, I’ve found a marked decrease in productivity during project work due to what seems like a lot more life interruptions. I’m (a) easily distracted, (b) the king of procrastination, and (c) frequently trying to multi-task to such a wide degree that I almost completely zone out and have

Read More

I was talking about RPG OA today. If you’re an IBM i techie, then you will know about OA already. You probably understand its power and potential in our IBM-i world. If you’re a bit more old school, you’ve been churning out column-based code for years, or you are living under a rock in a

Read More

RPG would be Jehovah’s Witnesses – RPG programmers are of the elite 144,000 left in the world (because there are only 144,000 left in the world) and believe they are in the last days of the present world and lots of people make fun of them for their beliefs and rigid standards. The modern generation

Read More

AKA – Why does this compile fail using SQLRPGLE and QUALIFIED data structures? Sometimes I find a problem and scratch my head and just cannot figure it out. I swear a lot. Then I discover the solution by climbing out of my little box, turning my head at a funny angle, squinting and thinking a

Read More

Most IBM i shops using webservices to talk to the Internet, will convert the data they are sharing into a web-service format like XML or JSON before sending it out. Obviously the responses will be in the same format and they need to convert it back into native IBM i format to use it. That

Read More

If you are an RPG Programmer thern you can quite easily add C# to the list of progamming languages you have in your brainbox. It’s a very similar syntax. Checkout the latest C# For RPGers TechTip and check out the similarities between C# and RPG loops: http://www.mcpressonline.com/programming/programming-other/c-for-rpgers-taking-c-loops-for-a-spin   The missing piece to the basic C# language

Read More

Excited to see a new release of MiWorkplace – the replacement for RPG NEXT GEN code editor. Will download this and do a little review in a blog sometime: Hi Nick, I am really happy to announce a new release of MiWorkplace. This release is not as feature packed as the last one but on

Read More