IBM Code Editor – S.E.U. (or Stoneage Entry Utility)
As I drag myself, kicking and screaming, out of the green-on-black stone ages and into the sunny clear skies of 21st century web enabled coding, I find myself seriously confused about what tools I should use to write this new fangled code. Leaving the world of green screen SEU stoneage Entry Utility isnt that easy.
The IBM RPG Code Editor – S.E.U. (or Stoneage Entry Utility as i like to call it) is a wonderful tool but lets face it, Windows rules the world and its time to get with the times.
There are so many out there, some established while I’ve been floundering around with my SEU Source editor and many new and leading edge applications just to confuse things further: WDSC? Rdi? Code400? Eclipse? Websphere? Mocha? Frontpage? and many many more acronyms and weird and wonderful names spring to mind. Recently, I’ve tried a few but it was the efforts of Mihael (the guy developing the wonderful RPG/Next-Generation application) that has finally inspired me to invest some time and figure out what its all about.
As it seems to be one of the most common, my IDE of choice is…. drum roll please… yes IDE stands for Integrated Development Environment… yes thats just a complicated way of saying ‘Code Editor’… anyway… *cough*… it’s ECLIPSE! “No. Stop. Wait” I hear you say “I looked at Eclipse and there is loads of different versions and plug ins and stuff and its so confusing I just couldn’t figure it out”
Join the club! I’ve spent a few weeks thinking exactly the same thing… I kind of knew that I wanted to use Eclipse as my code editor since this is the power behind the RPG/NG editor – which works wonderfully for editing RPG3/400/ILE code on the venerable artist-formerly-known-as-the-AS400. But, my problem is that looking at the ECLIPSE website, its none too clear which version can be installed, what package should be added, how do you add these packages to it, etc etc…
Well, dont worry – help is at hand and its called PULSE (http://www.poweredbypulse.com)
Basically, this great little tool tells you which versions are out there, lets you select the version to use (with a useful little overview of each one to keep things simple) and then installs it for you. Every time you run it will update components as newer ones come out and generally keep everything ship-shape and Bristol fashion.
- Register yourself at PULSE (its free)
- Download Pulse and run it
- Choose the version of Eclipse you want to play with – in my case 3.4 Standard
- Choose any addons you want
- It downloads everything for you and install them to the PULSE menu in Windows
Very cool.
Java, PHP, RPGLE development here I come….
If your ECLIPSE hasnt got a Pulse theres a good chance its Dead!