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From AS/400 Fossils to Modern IBM i SQL: The Practical Path That Doesn’t Break Everything I’ve just knocked out a short series of practical lessons on dragging classic AS/400 databases into the 21st century with proper IBM i SQL [more] We’re taking those ancient DDS Physical Files and Logical Files and turning them into grown-up …
There is a special breed of IBM i programmer who will fight you to the death over the name of the box. Call it an IBM i Power system and watch their blood pressure climb. Mention Power Systems running IBM i and they start twitching. No, they insist, it is still an AS/400, always has …
As I like to tell IBM i clients: the goal isn’t to get rid of the AS/400 database. It’s to discover that you’ve actually been running one of the world’s best SQL databases all along. The Advantages of Modernizing an Old AS/400 Database to Modern SQL If you are still rocking physical files defined in …
The 3am Wake-Up Call You Didn’t Need: Service Account Password Expiration If your web services or overnight batch jobs have ever thrown a wobbly because a password decided to expire at the worst possible moment, you are not alone. On IBM i systems, password expiration is one of those security features that works brilliantly for …
Mapepire, a type of pit viper native to South America, is IBM’s new interface layer for IBM-i. Mapepire boasts a logo that’s arguably the best creation from Big Blue since the original IBM emblem. As for how to say it, IBM-i Mapepire GitHub says Mapepire is pronounced ‘mapəpɪə’ or ‘MAH-pup-ee’ which seems nonsense to me! I’ve …
Perhaps the question is really “Is using AI to write code, or at least using AI as a coding assistant, the Future of IBM i Development?“ Well, I reckon AI is absolutely going to be a big part of the future for IBM i development, but it‘s not (yet) able to wave a magic wand …
Hey there, esteemed IBM i beginners and learners! If you have already powered through my earlier post over at https://www.nicklitten.com/10-essential-ibm-i-commands-every-beginner-must-master/ then you are probably feeling pretty comfortable at the green screen by now. Excellent work! Today, as a direct follow-up, I am going to whip through ten more everyday commands that every new IBM i …
If you are just getting started with IBM i systems or you need a solid refresher on how the database really works under the hood, you have landed in the right place. Today we are going to walk through the complete hierarchy of IBM i data structures in a clear, step by step way. We …
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 …
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 …
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 still storing all your RPG, CL, and SQL source in traditional QSYS libraries, you’re missing out on one of the biggest productivity boosts available on IBM i today. The Integrated File System (IFS) is no longer just “that Unix-like thing over there” it’s the natural home for modern IBM i Source Code. Twenty …
