January 29

6 comments

Premium RPG Editor – ILEDITOR could be called RDi Lite ;)

By NickLitten

January 29, 2018

RPG, editor, FREE, ILEditor, programming, RDi

UPDATE 2021 – Version 1 of ILEditor used to be free! Sadly, Version 2 is out and it’s become a chargeable premium code editor. Priced at $35 USD per month, per forever. 🙁

Free Premium ILE RPG Editor for IBM i – ILEDITOR

I’ve been waiting for a simple free-format RPG editor for the longest time. Opensource ILEditor delivers, but at a cost of#35 USD per month. Version1 was free, open-source, actively maintained but as it grew in popularity it’s developers decided to monetise. And how can blame them? ILEEDITOR is simple to use, and I can already see that as it’s popularity grows new plugin functions will be easy to add.

Shame it hasnt got a FREE mode to attract new users, but I quite like this editor and hope it goes from strength to strength.

What is ILEditor?

Premium rpg editor - ileditor could be called rdi lite ;) 1

ILEditor is an editor for development of ILE applications on IBM i. ILEditor will support development with any ILE language, be it CL, RPG, COBOL, C or C++. Error listing and syntax highlighting is available for all ILE languages.

Features

  • Source member editing (+ browsing & diff view)
  • Inline compiling & error listing
  • Multiple system configurations
  • Basic RPG fixed-to-free & CL Formatting
  • ILE syntax highlighting
  • Store members locally & search locally
  • Integrated spool file listing
  • Light and dark modes (dark mode in the image above)
  • Offline mode for when you’re on the go
  • Support for FTPES (requires setup on IBM i)

Installation

  • You can install from the ClickOnce installer which will also prompt you when an update is available. Download here.
  • Build from source. Clone from GitHub, open the project into Visual Studio and build from there.

What does it look like?

It’s very simple to use and it looks like a clean basic text editor. With some basic syntax checking and colour coded highlighting it’s a winner.

You simply create a connection to your IBM i system:

Premium rpg editor - ileditor could be called rdi lite ;) 2

I prefer a dark background when coding so I checked the DARK MODE box:

Premium rpg editor - ileditor could be called rdi lite ;) 3

Once connected you see a clean welcome screen:

Premium rpg editor - ileditor could be called rdi lite ;) 4

So let’s dive straight into editting something.

I entered my work library (litlenn) and source member (qrpglesrc) into the browse member section on the right panel. Pressed enter and quickly saw a list of the source members in my file. Select and edit one and it looks like this:

Ileditor

How cool is that?

For reference the same source member in RDi looks like this:

Ileditor vs rdi

It’s really fast and easy to use without the bloat of Rdi.

Some might call it RDi LITE 😉

I like it and it’s a reasonable alternative to RDi for people without the budget for Rational Developer (let’s admit it, RDi is outlandishly expensive for a bloody code editor) and people who are struggling with RDi ports, connection quirks and other software lunacy from IBM.

I think you should check it out…

What are you waiting for?

  • Nice compact utility editor. Is there a way to launch this editor by passing a local copy of a source member?

    ILEEDITOR.exe “C:tempproof.rpgle”

  • Okay, looks like Nick Litten is very busy. So is there anybody coming across these comments that has actually already downloaded ILEditor and used it and can answer these questions?

    My employing company provides me with RDi, so I don’t need it too bad, but I plan to try it out some weekend forthcoming. But the answer to the questions would shorten the learning curve. I’ll try to remember to come back here with results.

  • No library lists? I have to add each library one at a time? And it doesn’t just update SRCDAT values, it loses them?

    Installed it, hated it, uninstalled it. I don’t understand Mr. Litten’s enthusiasm for it. The price (free) is the only upside.

    • No Enthusiasm from me… it’s a free code editor in the public domain. I don’t have anything to do with it – merely documenting it for blogging purposes. I use RDI – you should to – it’s a premium product, with a premium price, but it does the things you want…

  • I just installed it. It is connected and I can create a member in my library/souceFile. But there is no feedback. It can’t find my source members. Any idea why?

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