Modernizing My Old AS400 Programmer Brain

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September 11, 2024

Modernizing My Old AS400 Programmer Brain

By NickLitten

September 11, 2024

IBM i, modernization

Come with me while I go on a journey of discovery setting sail from the land of Legacy AS400 coding techniques, sailing over the horizon in search of the future of IBM i Coding Techniques.

Modernizing My Old AS400 Programmer Brain 1

The mission is to migrate away from green screen, also known as command line interface, and leave the old trusty SEU for source control. Wave goodbye to IBM-I source files.

I am moving away from the old comfortable green screen SEU & PDM style of programming to a more dynamic, and productive development experience offered by Visual Studio Code. This means migrating my applications source code from IBM i Source Files to the Integrated File System (IFS). Once in the IFS, this entire application can be stored in GITHUB and finally free itself from source files, backups and save files for tracking and version control.

It’s going to be a fun day in Litten-HQ!

Saying goodbye to IBM i PDM, or Programming Development Manager

IBM i PDM, or Programming Development Manager, is a toolset that was originally part of the Applications Development ToolSet (ADT) on AS/400 systems and is still widely used on IBM i systems today. It provides an environment for programmers and operators to manage and navigate through libraries, objects, and source members efficiently.

The program development manager is a super powerful tool. I’ve been using it for years and I count myself as a bit of a PDM Expert… but… the time to stop relying on PDM is now!

” If you have used PDM for years and love it so much then why on Earth are you thinking of moving away from PDM and storing your source in the IFS?” I can hear you thinking

PDM only lets me use source code in IBM-i Source Files!

Not offering IFS as a location for source files within PDM is a horrible blocker for any old school programmers trying to move into the new world of clean modern programming techniques.

There are so many advantages of storing source code in the IFS, if you really want to read the details of why the IFS is better than using source files, you can read my IFS article here

Modernizing My Old AS400 Programmer Brain 2

PDM also integrates with other tools like SEU (Source Entry Utility) for editing source code, SDA (Screen Design Aid) for designing display files, and RLU (Report Layout Utility) for creating printer files. But newer, fresher more modern alternatives for these old CLI tools are available in the wonderful free programming tool called Visual Studio Code.

So, what next?

Since my objective is to switch from the CLI (command line interface) and SEU to use Visual Studio code with the most excellent code for IBM I plug in, to do all of my source code development. The new source repository will be the IBM I integrated file system and, hopefully, my local PC.

Obviously, this will involve getting to know the innards and magical workings of a number of open source technologies that I’ve only briefly used thus far.

Aside from learning vs-code tips, tricks and techniques. I will also have to familiarize myself with multiple open-source technologies!

I have been exploring the IBM-I Better object builder Bob, and IFS Source Orbit for if source control. Reading the help text for both of these open-source IBM-I tools is leading me down the rabbit hole of Nodejs Package managers and using an IBM i Shell, within Visual Studio code, to tidy up all of the source code once I’ve migrated it to the IFS.

Many fun days ahead.

I’m going to record each significant milestone as I understand and figure out different details of this world of IBM-i Open Source and plug them in to a module on my AS400 modernization course. This new module, probably called something like modernizing an old AS 400 programmer will help me, as reference material going forward, and hopefully help you if you want to come along on this fun journey with me.


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