1. Being a Better RPG Programmer

What skills should an RPG programmer have besides knowledge of basic RPG? Written by Jim Staton Recently, I had the opportunity to interview candidates for a programming position at our company. I had just lost an excellent employee due to personal

2. Profound Logic Blasts the Myths Surrounding Rational Open Access: RPG Edition

A Webcast takes on all challengers, asserting that the technology works elegantly to modernize source-code available applications while saving time and requiring no programming. Written by Chris Smith There has been an air of mystery and, thus, ske

3. RPG IV and a New Approach to Control-Break Processing

Essentially, what's old is new again! Written by Jim Martin Those of us who used the RPG cycle and L1, L2, etc. for control-break processing remember how slick it was. Very few lines of code were needed, since most of the work was being done by the

4. Practical RPG: New Open-Source EGL Tools for RPG Developers

How quickly can you build multi-tiered Rich Internet Applications? With the new open-source EGL Development Tools, you can measure your development time in hours, not days or weeks. Written by Joe Pluta I have been an advocate of EGL for a long tim

5. How Much Do You Know About Job Switches?

This in-depth discussion about the IBM i job switches may reveal surprising—and helpful—information. Written by Junlei Li The design of the job switches can be traced back to earlier IBM midrange systems such as System/3, the first generation o

6. Update Your Data with Peace of Mind Using Commitment Control

Learn how to use commitment control in your RPG programs to ensure a complete transaction and how to roll back the changes when unable to complete. Written by Tom Snyder I'm usually talking about powerful IBM i resources that can do great things wi

7. Use Qshell Tools to Clean Up Your IFS Automatically

Create a useful RPG program to purge unnecessary files from your IFS. Written by Tom Snyder The year-end stuff is over, you've captured all your yearly snapshot data in their own files, and you're feeling pretty good about yourself. Next thing is t

8. Practical RPG: Handling Abnormal Termination in Servers

One of the hard parts of any server-based architecture is knowing when your server has been canceled; this article shows you how to address that. Written by Joe Pluta I saw an email message in the midrange.com mailing lists the other day about the

9. Maximize the Abilities of the LDA

Store pointers in a job's Local Data Area. Written by Junlei Li The Local Data Area (LDA) is a user-domain, permanent space object (with MI object type code/subtype code hex 19CE) that is allocated to each IBM i job by the system when the job becom

10. Using Binding Directories with Your Service Programs

Make compiling easier for service programs with the use of binding directories. Written by Tom Snyder With the end of the year comes time to close out my series of articles on service programs. In previous articles, I discussed how to create a serv

11. Want to Know All the MI Object Types Supported by Your IBM i?

Retrieve the exact table of MI object types via the undocumented API QLICNV. Written by Junlei Li On IBM i, historically there are two flavors when referring to objects. At the MI level, MI objects are categorized by a 2-byte MI object type code (1

12. Features and Cautions of the Binding Language

Find out how to support multiple signatures and what to be aware of when changing service programs. Written by Tom Snyder I initially intended on just doing a three-part series that worked its way toward binding directories, but I feel as though I

13. Subfiles and Data Queues: A Perfect Combination

Provide your users with everything they've ever wanted in a subfile program. Written by Kevin Vandever Editor's Note: This article is an excerpt from the book Subfiles in Free-Format RPG published by MC Press.   If you've ever looked at Program

14. Case Study: ASNA Wings: Re-imagining Modernization at INFOCON, Both Ways

Modernizing for a GUI doesn't mean you have to give up the power of RPG. Written by Thomas M. Stockwell Fueled by the talent of more than a dozen IBM RPG programmers, and an overall staff of 50, INFOCON is an IBM Business Partner with a vision of e

15. Uncover the Secret of the Changed Object List (COL)

Discover the essence and usage of the COL associated with a library. Written by Junlei Li In the reply post in 2009 to a question called "Best Way to Check if a Library Has At Least 1 Changed Object" in the midrange-l mailing list, CRPence mentione

16. Using Binding Language with Your Service Programs

Do you know how to recompile your service programs without having to recompile all programs using the service program? Written by Tom Snyder I have to admit that the binding language was a late discovery for me, and I've struggled for quite awhile

17. Book Review: Subfiles in Free-Format RPG

Whether you're a newbie or a seasoned pro, this book has something for you. Written by Mike Faust For System i developers, mastering the ability to develop subfile applications is an absolute must! In Subfiles in Free-Format RPG, Kevin Vandever tak

18. RPG Display Modernization Gets Wings

Convert old 5250 screens to modern GUI formats in a few easy steps. Written by Thomas M. Stockwell Last year, ASNA introduced its ASNA Wings modernization tool, which quickly and efficiently converts the old 5250 green-screen legacy display files i

19. How to Create, Compile, and Use Service Programs

Did you know you can create service programs from commonly used procedures? Written by Tom Snyder I am a big advocate of encapsulation and modular programming to build solid code from reusable components. One of the capabilities that ILE gives us t

20. Create an Auto-Extend User Space

Editor's Note: This article is an excerpt from RPG TnT: 101 Dynamite Tips 'n Techniques with RPG IV. Written by Robert Cozzi The User Space is an interesting object. User Spaces have been around on this architecture for nearly 20 years, and yet ma

21. Cool Things: SQL Functions and List APIs

Two functionalities that work perfectly together. Written by Mike Faust One of my favorite programming techniques is linking together functionality to make even-more-powerful functionality. An example of this is wrapping an SQL user-defined table f

22. Don't Be Misled by SETLL *LOVAL

Be careful when using SETLL *LOVAL on keyed access paths containing numeric key fields. Written by Junlei Li Almost every RPG programmer has become accustomed to setting the file pointer to the starting position of a logical file by specifying the

23. Analyzing the MI Instruction Stream of an OPM Program

Simon Coulter leaves us a gift before he departs. Written by Junlei Li As you probably know, Simon Coulter, a knowledgeable and versatile IBM i expert, passed away in October 2010. Simon was loved by many IBM i developers because he was one of the

24. Practical RPG: The Future of RPG

There is no crystal ball deciding the future of the language, but we can identify trends, and some of the trends may surprise you. Written by Joe Pluta The IBM midrange is unique in that it has always been focused on business programming, with a pa

25. When CCSID Constants Vary, Part III

Learn some tips and tricks to correctly handle literal constants. Written by Jean-Paul Lamontre My first article described how a CCSID variation can turn a program crazy. My second article described the solution, which requires correctly handling l

26. Optimize Your RPG Code to Run Faster Using Static Variables

Take advantage of global, static, and non-static variable attributes within subroutines and procedures. Written by Tom Snyder IBM has always been good at giving us all the tools that we need in one box and ensuring that they run on the box reliably

27. Practical RPG: Accessing LDAP

Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) servers are everywhere in enterprises today, and this article shows you how to access LDAP servers on any platform from RPG. Written by Joe Pluta The IBM i is perhaps the most integrated and integrate-ab

28. When CCSID Constants Vary, Part II

Don't let a small thing like a literal string completely ruin your multi-national program. Written by Jean-Paul Lamontre The variations of CCSID are a vast topic and are in fact the main issue to consider during globalization of an application. You

29. Sort Fixed-Formatted Text Files on the IFS Using Qshell

Use a combination of CPYTOIMPF and the sort command to export sorted, fixed-format files. Written by Tom Snyder No matter how many ways I find to do something, I always run into a situation where I need to get creative. In various articles, I used

30. When CCSID Constants Vary, Part I

Learn how one simple character can make a program go crazy. Written by Jean-Paul Lamontre Several years ago, I wrote an email processing program for the System i and posted the source on my Web site. Several people have downloaded the code, compile

31. Library Lists, Schemas, and Other Properties in SQuirreL SQL Client

Configure the SQuirreL alias properties and preferences commonly used by RPG programmers. Written by Tom Snyder To complete my SQuirreL SQL client series, I will explain how to set up your schema and alias properties, such as library lists, and you

32. GPS-Enable the Addresses in Your Database!

Do you realize how much your business can do with GPS coordinates? No? Well, let me tell you. Written by Rafael Victória-Pereira All of our applications' databases hold hundreds if not thousands of addresses—from our clients, suppliers, stores,

33. My Way of Looping

There's one task to accomplish and so many ways to do it. Written by Jan Jorgensen This article is about a common thing, something we do every day, something most of us never really think about. Maybe we were provided with some code long ago, and s

34. Synchronize Your Source Files

Use the WinMerge graphical compare and merge utility to aid with the synchronization of RPG and other i/OS source members. Written by Michael Sansoterra One of the dreaded drudgeries of RPG programming is retrofitting custom modifications to applic

35. Create an MD5 Hash Using RPG and SQL

Using an MD5 hash offers potential integration, performance, and security benefits. Written by Michael Sansoterra When developing modern applications or enhancing legacy ones, an RPG or DB2 routine may need to apply an MD5 hash to application data.

36. Do You Use an ALIAS?

In 7.1, you have a new option that allows you to use the alias names in externally described data structures. Written by Gina Whitney Right after my first child was born, I remember admiring him and trying to decide what his name should be. My husb

37. Drive Batch Jobs with Ease!

Use logical files in the command input stream. Written by Junlei Li Batch job commands, such as Submit Database Jobs (SBMDBJOB) and Start Database Reader (STRDBRDR), allow programmers to submit batch jobs to job queues so that CL commands stored in

38. What Is the Difference Between *OMIT and *NOPASS?

Do you know the best way to use optional parameters with procedures? Written by Tom Snyder When you're using procedures, you have to ability to support optional parameters by using the special keywords *NOPASS and *OMIT. This article discusses the

39. Practical RPG: Activation Groups and *INLR

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 diff

40. Implementing and Maintaining Your User Entry Point Table (UEPT)

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 SEP

41. Format and Compile RPG to Use Embedded SQL

Let's explore the nuts and bolts of using embedded SQL: file type, syntax, and compiling. Written by Tom Snyder In a previous article, "Why Use Embedded SQL Within RPG?," I talked about why you would use embedded SQL in RPG. In this article, I will

42. Are RPG Programmers RPG's Worst Enemy?

When you try to use new techniques and technologies, do you get resistance from your own staff? Written by Tom Snyder Are you an RPG programmer who is dealing with resistance to updating your RPG skills from people in your staff or even management

43. Practical RDPi: Managing Message Descriptions

Message descriptions are one of the unsung heroes of IBM i application development, and this article shows you how to use RDPi to manage them with ease. Written by Joe Pluta The message description is unique to the IBM i. The concept is simple: a s

44. Sometimes Programs and Procedures Want to Know: Who Am I?

If you were a program, could you answer this question? Written by Junlei Li In software programming, sometimes a program, a procedure, or a process or thread needs to answer the question: "Who am I?" For example, in an error-logging framework, afte

45. The Most Lightweight Mutually Exclusive Synchronization Mechanism

Implement the mutex primitive via MI instructions CHKLKVAL and CLRLKVAL. Written by Junlei Li Efforts of numerous computer scientists have been devoted to solving performance problems in different performance-critical circumstances. One of these pe

46. Practical RPG: Initialization Made Easy

Writing new records is a standard task in any system, and this article makes one of the steps of that process a whole lot easier. Written by Joe Pluta One of the most critical functions of any business application is writing data to the database, w

47. Advanced Integrated RPG: Creating PDFs with RPG

Create a PDF "Hello World" program with RPG. Written by Tom Snyder Editor's note: This article is excerpted from the MC Press book Advanced Integrated RPG.   I hope you enjoyed my Video Tour presented on July 21 in which I discussed the possibil

48. Practical RDPi: Supercharge Your Editor

Out of the box, RDPi makes programming faster. Now let me show you what happens when you make a few tweaks under the hood to make your editor fly! Written by Joe Pluta RDPi is an incredible tool. Whether it's something new like the Screen and Repor

49. Display Java System Attributes from Within RPG

Turn conceptual Java properties into definitive, concrete attributes. Written by Tom Snyder When working with RPG in different environments, such as production and test, you will most likely be working with different library lists and using differe

50. Practical RDPi: Filters for Fun (and Productivity)

Some jobs are too tricky to leave to your computer unsupervised, but RDPi has tools that speed up even the most tedious of programming tasks. Written by Joe Pluta A computer will do exactly what you tell it to do, no matter how much that request mi