Although they've been around for quite a while, activation groups remain something of an enigma; this article will begin to dispel that mystery.

Written by Joe Pluta

When RPG ILE was introduced back in 1994, it really consisted of two entirely different components: syntactical changes to the RPG language itself, and the larger underlying change of the entire programming model with the introduction of the Integrated Language Environment (ILE). As usual, IBM did a good job of hiding the complexities of the fundamental architecture change (CISC to RISC, anyone?). So good, in fact, that for a lot of us more "seasoned" programmers, the ILE concepts sort of got overshadowed by the syntactical changes. A lot of it was practical: we got a lot more out of learning the new built-in functions (BIFs) than we did out of activation groups. But I think it's high time that we all learned what activation groups can do for us, and there's no easier way to start than with a simple, practical example.

A UEPT will improve the performance of external program calls to user programs.

Written by Junlei Li

This article is a follow-up to my System Entry Point Table (SEPT) article. One of our readers, Mark Waterbury, suggested that I write it. In my SEPT article, I discussed the performance gains in API invocations brought by the SEPT object. Actually, to improve the performance of external program calls to user programs, you can also implement your own "SEPT," or, in other words, your User Entry Point Table (UEPT) objects for performance-critical applications following the same rationale of SEPT.