Switch to and back from different user profiles within the same job with ease.

Written by Junlei Li

In UNIX or Linux, users switch to the super user (aka root) or another user via the su shell command (in a new shell, actually). With proper options, a su command can even preserve the original environment in the newly started shell session—for example, the -m option (do not reset environment variables) of the su command of GNU Linux. For an IBM i developer or operator, a CL command with function similar to the UNIX/Linux su shell command would be very handy.

Learn how to properly install TFS and then make the best use of it.

Written by Joydip Kanjilal

Team Foundation Server (commonly known as TFS) is a source control management offering from Microsoft that has over the years matured a lot. TFS provides complete ALM features—data collection, project planning and tracking, and also reporting. You should have a good knowledge of Team Foundation Server components, understand its installation prerequisites, and also know the strategies and best practices to make the best use of TFS in your development environment.

Make your life easier by enabling the cut, copy, and paste shortcut keys in iSeries Access.

by Sam Lennon

Say what you like about Windows; it has added a significant level of consistency across applications that many rely on. I love the efficiency of the Windows shortcut keys for cut, copy, and paste (Ctrl+X, Ctrl+C, and Ctrl+V, respectively), and I use them in many applications instead of clicking on icons in the tool bar or clicking on the Edit menu. Since these keys work consistently across virtually all Windows applications, you get into the habit of using them everywhere.

Use these techniques to ensure that you're writing effective and appropriate comments in your RPG code.

Written by Bryan Meyers and Jim Buck

Editor's note: This TechTip is an excerpt from the book Programming in RPG IV, 4th Edition.

Good programming style can serve a documentary purpose in helping others understand your source code. But use comments judiciously. If you practice good code construction techniques, you'll find that "less is more" when it comes to commenting the source. Too many comments are as bad as too few. Here are some specific commenting guidelines.

It's easy to incorporate your backups into a batch script.

Written by David Tansley

With ever-growing business needs to have systems up 24/7, finding a window to do your nightly batch runs becomes increasingly hard, especially to take backups, which are crucial for any system. AIX provides various methods to do online backups for JFS2 file systems, like internal and external snapshots, backsnaps, and mirroring. A method that is also available for JFS file systems for online backups is the splitcopy command.

With IBM Navigator for i, application administration has never been easier.

Written by Steve Pitcher

What's Application Administration? Simply put, Application Administration is a utility that allows you to control functions and applications available to users and groups on IBM i.

There's an IBM i command that's similar to Application Administration in that it allows you to manage many different system components—from specifying which users can get/put via an FTP client to controlling who can manage disk pools via the IBM Navigator for i Web interface or the System i Navigator thick client. In the spirit of modernization, I'm not going to show you how to use that command or even tell you the command name.

Expand your skills from the perspective of an RPG developer: Keep your IBM database close; keep your Microsoft database closer with Microsoft SQL Server.

Written by Tom Snyder

As a writer for MC Press, I understand how the sentiments on Microsoft can be, and I just happen to be watching The Godfather while putting this article together, so I thought that keeping your friends close and your enemies closer would be a good opener for my new series on Microsoft products.

Wouldn't it be nice to have just one delete command for all object types?

Written by Junlei Li

As an IBM i developer, you have numerous object-related commands that accept a qualified object name and a valid object type to identify the target object(s) to work with—for example, WRKOBJ OBJ(XLIB/XFILE) OBJTYPE(*FILE), ALCOBJ OBJ(XLIB/XPGM) OBJTYPE(*PGM), DSPOBJD OBJ(XLIB/XSPC) OBJTYPE(*USRSPC), etc. However, you do not have a Delete Object (DLTOBJ) command. Instead, you have a bunch of object type?specific delete object commands, such as Delete Program (DLTPGM), Delete File (DLTF), and so on.