What are the most significant enhancements to RPG? The answer depends on whom you ask.

By Jon Paris

One of the interesting aspects of the V6R1 release of RPG is that it highlights the differences in perspective between IBM as the language designer and us as the language consumers. Every IBM document I have seen to date places RPG's new multi-threading support front and center, but I have not met many RPG users who were particularly excited by this news. On the other hand, some of the features that receive less emphasis from IBM (for example, increases in maximum sizes) are frequently greeted by cheers from those in the trenches.

Take the hassle out of managing procedures and functions with some easy-to-use tools.

By Scott Forstie

Procedures and functions work as desired only when they're kept in sync with the QSYS2/SYSROUTINE and QSYS2/SYSPARMS catalogs. For some users, maintaining the executable code and catalog entries over many machines can seem about as difficult as Dorothy finding her way out of Oz and back to Kansas. The goal of this article is to pull back the curtain and expose some of secrets known only by the Wizard.

Old habits can be hard to break, but sometimes it's worth the effort.

By Susan Gantner

Are you as productive in your programming as you could be? If you're still using the same toolset you used five or 10 (or more) years ago (i.e., PDM, SEU, SDA, and a green-screen debugger), then almost certainly not. Maybe it's time you gave some modern tools a try.