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Firstly, ‘Sorry for writing so many blogs about IBM BOB‘ in recent months, but it really has been a complete game changer for me over the last year. It has turned the daily grind of staring at dusty fixed-format RPG into something almost enjoyable (honestly!). What used to take hours of head-scratching and strong tea …
IBM i BOB v2.0 was released June 24, 2026 – just one day before my birthday! Coincidence? I don’t think so 😉 IBM BOB TWO is a major rebuild of IBM’s AI-powered development partner. It focuses on speed, agentic capabilities, and better enterprise workflows, with a dedicated Premium Package for i that brings IBM i-specific …
I was just happily working away and VSCODE (and IBM BOB) popped up this message: “YIKES!!!” I thought. Yes. I do still think in 100 year old English language style… By Jove! But don’t worry, a quick search and I found this to ease my fears: So, simply uninstall the Source Orbit Extension and get …
SQLRPGLE – A Sortable Subfile with Column Headings and Search using RTNCSRLOC If you have been following the subfile series, you will know we already have a solid working example in the SORTSFLBOB program. Now it is time to add the finishing touches that make it feel properly modern. Let’s go with the assumption that …
Code Modernization, Upgrading, Refactoring with an AI Coding Companion – Which to use? I have been playing with a little experiment this week and I thought I would share the results while they are still fresh. The star of the show is a classic little RPGLE subfile program I wrote years ago, it’s languished in …
Mapepire on My IBM i System: Finally Database Connections That Dont Make Me Want to Scream into the Void! Picture this: you are building a slick modern app and you just want it to chat nicely with Db2 for i without wrestling ancient ODBC drivers or wrestling with client libraries that feel older than your …
TOBi Builder MAKEi Fails with BLEUUURGH Error Code – A Quick Debugging Tale Hey there, fellow IBM i programmers. Today we’re diving into a real-world head-scratcher I hit while working with TOBi (the IBM i Object Builder) and its MAKEi component. If you’ve ever tried to compile from your local source copies and instead of …
DISCLAIMER: This is not my usual style of programming video. It’s long format, lots of me muttering at the camera while trying to fix some RPG code. I started recording with no idea if it would work or not. Spoiler – it did in the end. Also featuring an AI generated video, a growling version …
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 …
If you have ever stared at a dusty fixed-format RPG III program from the 1990s and thought “there has to be a better way”, then IBM’s latest AI-powered sidekick might just be your new best friend. Meet IBM BOB (yes, that’s the official name now – Project Bob has grown up). BOB is IBM’s AI-first …
AKA – Taming the wild west of RPGLE/SQLRPGLE source code comments with IBM i BOB, turning cryptic developer scribbles into a perfectly standardized, comment utopia. If you spend any time maintaining IBM i systems like I do, you know how messy legacy RPGLE and SQLRPGLE source can get. One program after another with zero comments, …
If you are developing software on IBM i systems then IBM Bob has probably caught your attention by now. This AI powered coding assistant lives right inside your IDE and acts as a smart programming partner that understands your full codebase. It helps you design, refactor, review and modernize code with real expertise in RPG, …
