System iNetwork

March 19, 2005 8:54 AM

Just an update

Sorry is has been so long since I've blogged anything. The Spring is my busiest travel time. I'm always away on some KOA trip right when COMMON is taking place. I heard there was a nice comment about our WDSc work at KOA made to the IBMers in a session. Thanks!

If you've read Jim Collin's book "From Good to Great", Jim talks about the brutal facts. Brutal facts are those things that you have to face, no matter what because they are what they are.

The brutal facts from our survivor journey is two of the four programmers have made the journey and two have not. The last of the five switched roles and doesn't use WDSc much for iSeries development, but has played with plugs ins for PHP.

I never intended to "force", (a very strong word) the developers to use WDSc instead of PDM/SEU. The only way I'll get two of my programmers to convert is to remove PDM/SEU completely. There are many excuses why they don't use it, some of the excuses are legit and others are not, at least in my opinion. The brutal fact is, they don't use it for 100% of their development.

To me, though IBM has WDSc release 5.something.something out there, WDSc is still relatively new. They have come a long ways and talking to the folks with IBM development team, they are excited about what WDSc can do. I'm convinced WDSc is better than PDM/SEU and shops should at least consider giving it a try.

Our mixed environment hasn't proved detrimental to our development work outside of the time spent in conversations either talking it up or talking it down. Healthy dialog though is always a good think, even for programmers!

jef

Posted by on March 19, 2005 at 8:54 AM | Comments (6)

January 10, 2005 9:06 AM

You gotta try the code designer for screens

The more I play with the code designed for screens, the more I like it. I still get in this mind set that says "Gee, I only need to make a small change to this screen. It might be faster to edit the code or use SDA which I know like the back of my hand." But, I force myself to pull up code designed and I'm rarely disappointed. I recently had to make once screen become four. I quickly found the duplicate menu option. Wow! I had the four screen changes made in 1/2 hour and I had to rearrange all four screens and add fields. The ability to move fields around and create new text beats SDA hands down. No more quote marks, not more - and = to move stuff around. You gotta try it!

Posted by on January 10, 2005 at 9:06 AM | Comments (2)

December 24, 2004 5:32 AM

Quick Marks

I always enjoy stumbling upon little features that make a big difference. I often have to jump from my current coding position to elsewhere in the code usually because I forgot if I put some code in or declared a variable :(

WDSc quick mark to the rescue! At my current coding position I press CTRL+Q to set the quick mark. Then I move around in my code. When it is time to go back ALT+Q takes me right back.

There is only one quick mark. Everytime you press CTRL+Q it sets the mark. Wonderful feature!

Posted by on December 24, 2004 at 5:32 AM | Comments (1)

December 22, 2004 5:44 PM

Merry Christmas

It's the season for gifts, and they were delivered a little while ago. We have been using WDSC now for a couple of weeks on 19 inch flat panels, and it makes an amazing difference! I have had to lash up a custom mounting for it, to lower the display closer to the desk, so that my bifocals don't make me crane my neck to view the screen, but once adjusted it is great. The new screens are much brighter, and the text is larger, making it quicker and easier to use. (You young guys laugh all you want, but by the end of the day it is noticable!)
I have also customized the colors in the RPG editor; and combined with the brighter screen I now can fine tune how the different specifications show up. By changing comments to a lighter color than standard code, it is now VERY obvious if any code has been "commented" out, instead of deleted. (Please, no comments on commenting out code - it's there and we live with it, but we try not to spread it any further.)

The other reason this will be a "merry" Xmas is the people we have been working with. We have been corresponding with the WDSC developers for a while now, reporting bugs and requesting enhancements; and their attitude is great. I wish all the vendors I deal with had the same empathy and customer service orientation. As grumpy as I have been about the product, they always come back with helpful suggestions, fixes, or enhancements. Great job guys - keep up the good work.

I hope everyone out there reading this has an enjoyable holiday season, and makes a New Year's resolution to give these tools a try.

Posted by on December 22, 2004 at 5:44 PM | Comments (1)

December 13, 2004 5:26 AM

Removing all those error lines

Just a quick tip this morning. After a compile in WDSc you can click on the error messages and go to the source code. WDSc inserts lines in your source showing you all the errors it found during the compile. Sometimes a quick add, such as the variable you forgot to declare can clear up most of those. To remove all those temporary lines in your source that show the errors, press CTRL+F5.

Posted by on December 13, 2004 at 5:26 AM | Comments (1)

December 1, 2004 7:14 AM

The road trip

Just went through my first road trip after having moved primarily to WDSc. And, as usual, I needed to fix a couple of small things while on the road, from my hotel room. I knew where the code was that had a problem. I went into our application first so I could see the problem that had been reported. Sure enough, I had a small bug. I instinctively went to PDM/SEU as I was on the road and already signed on to the development machine, which is also where I made sure I could duplicate the issue that had been reported. In a matter of seconds, I was in SEU editing the source member. I then stopped, made myself get out and I fired up WDSc. It took over 30 seconds to load and then I had to get a filter added so I could edit the member. I find I'm adding filters to an existing filter more often than browsing an entire source file and all members. It was easy to find my problem, edit it and compile in WDSc. It wasn't as fast as PDM/SEU because I had to start the load from scratch. Typically, in the office I start WDSc in the morning and go. I understand the delay in starting WDSc, but what I'd really like to see is a smarter environment where it knows the last source library & file I worked with and would allow a quick open of a source code member instead of browsing a long list or having to add it to a filter.

Posted by on December 1, 2004 at 7:14 AM | Comments (2)

November 29, 2004 12:29 PM

Thankful for beta test code...

One of the advantages we have as part of this effort to describe our experiences with WDSC is that we have a channel to report problems directly to the development team inside IBM. This past week they really came through, and fixed a nasty bug with a memory leak (which was probably the source of the Outline View locking up.) We are now beta testing it for them, and so far it is looking good. Great job IBM!

Because the Outline view is now usable, I am back in the WDSC environment, and it is helping. Since the bug fix (which should be available on their web site in the near future), WDSC takes much less time to load, and the individual functions seem to work faster as well. One item we discovered during this process is that there are diagnostic logs which may grow very large over time, and just clearing the log files will make a significant difference in the startup speed for WDSC. Another tip to help keep it from locking up is to use one of the compile options 1st, to be sure that the library list for WDSC is correct, and that it can find all the files and /COPY members that it needs to create its indexes with.

Now that I am using the Outline view more, I have some ideas on what I would like to see it do, that are not in it right now. We will be having an internal discussion on developer topics later this week, and will probably send in to IBM a list of features we would like to see after that meeting. One of the first things on my list would be a quick way to jump back and forth between the editor in full screen mode, and the related outline view (right now I can go from full screen to the multiple window view, but there is no key combination to shift back to the previous editor session AND shift into full screen mode.) The other big item would be a “find” option in the outline view; so that I don’t need to scroll through data structures, fields, files, etc looking for a field name, or could quickly position to a subroutine in a long list of them. (These are minor items compared to the bug they just fixed; so thanks again guys.)

And now, back to the code...

Posted by on November 29, 2004 at 12:29 PM | Comments (3)

November 11, 2004 6:01 PM

Feeling Grumpy...

This past week with WDSC has not been good, and believe me; you don’t want to share these experiences. So, as long as I’m going to vent, I might as well do it right...

I am now working on some of the “core” programs in our reservation application, code that has been around for a long time, has been heavily modified over time, and could REALLY use the advanced tools built into WDSC. Unfortunately, they are not “pure” RPG programs, they are SQLRPGLE members. They also make heavy use of copy members, compiler directives and program calls. The code is a mix of RPG and RPG/FREE, depending on when it was modified. I’d love to rewrite these, but don’t have the time; I’ll just have to patch in the changes and go on to the next program.

WDSC just doesn’t like these programs at all. I can use the LPEX editor, but that’s it. If I try to verify, use the Outline View, or the quick links from errors to the source, it has problems. We have been in contact with IBM for some of these for a while now, and had gotten the word that there was an update to the JVM and to a new version of WDSC. Both of these were installed, and the problems persist. NOT what I am used to from iSeries system software.

The Verifier and Outline Views create the worst errors; literally causing the entire WDSC environment to hang. There is no way to cancel out from within WDSC; you must use the Windows task manager to cancel the JVM task before your screen comes back. (It’s easy to see which JVM to cancel though, just look for the one using over 800MB of memory!) The quick links from the errors don’t hang the session; they just don’t go to the right line of the source member. This is really due to the way that SQLRPGLE members must go through a “precompiler” before being passed to the actual RPG compiler itself; and the precompiler inserts additional lines into your source, which throws off the line counters for WDSC.

With none of the advanced features of WDSC useable on these programs, I have gone back to PDM, at least until I am done with the SQLRPGLE programs. A secondary reason for going back to PDM is that it is much easier to copy source lines from one member to another. A couple “CC” entries in the from source member, a “B” or “A” in the target source, and you’re done! Why can’t WDSC manage to do this? Especially when “CC” and the “B” and “A” line commands already work within a single member? Don’t tell me to use the block copy, either. I tried that, and managed to miss the 1st character in the line, in the block I copied. When I pasted the text into the other program, it shifted everything to the left. Then the “intelligent” editing functions kicked in. I couldn’t just insert a space at the beginning of the line, because it would only shift the data in the current “field”, and not move the rest of the line. Since it hadn’t shifted the whole line, it then whined about invalid entries in the rest of the columns. This is improved productivity???

As long as I am up on the soapbox, let’s talk about the RPG language in general, and SQL and RPG in particular. What gives, IBM? Why is it so cumbersome to make these two tools work together? Why does MY source have to be “precompiled” before the RPG compiler can make sense of it? Don’t the SQL developers and the RPG developers talk to one another? Why am I forced to use fixed format RPG to code SQL statements, instead of allowing it to be in free format? A good program not only has the correct logic, but the source should have a visual appeal as well; being well indented, commented, and separated with appropriate white space. Shifting in and out of free format destroys the visual formatting, and discourages the use of the newer features.

Speaking of discouraging the use of the newer features of the language, the most aggravating omission in free format RPG is the lack of ANY support for MOVE, MOVEL, and MOVEA operations! Why bother to use free format, if you have to switch back to regular RPG just to handle multiple indicators, or move data into part of a field. I don’t have time to go back and convert by hand every line where I have used one of the MOVE opcodes, so why convert at all? Or, if I am writing new code, why make me handle arrays on my own, instead of giving me access to the functionality in the MOVEA opcode?

Another pet peeve is the TIME opcode. Give me a formatting option so I can create the same kinds of output in free format that the fixed format version creates! I have legacy database I still need to support, that use the old format for the time, but I can’t generate it in the new programming style. One of the MAJOR strengths of the AS/400 and iSeries platforms is that they did NOT force you to reprogram or convert your application and all its history, and that you could move to a new box or version of the operating system and ALL your old code still worked! This is very valuable to the customer, and by not supporting the legacy data formats you are making a serious mistake. Yes, you do need to support the new standards, and we do use them for new development, but please don’t handicap us when it comes to maintaining our existing databases and applications!

Another handicap is the lack of support for the GOTO and TAG opcodes. (This ought to generate some comments!) I know they are nasty, vile, outdated, and discouraged; BUT, they are all over much of our older code. This code was originally developed on the S/38, and it continues to run just fine. The applications are very stable, and don’t require much maintenance, but when they do, we MUST stick with fixed format; or rewrite the entire program. Flag them with a warning error or something, but add those opcodes! Why break something (with non-supported opcodes) which works just fine? Take the customer point of view, not the theoretical point of view; and maybe you’ll have more success getting the customers to use the new tools!

Anybody else out there feel a little grumpy and want to let IBM know about what they think of how the development tools ought to work???

Posted by on November 11, 2004 at 6:01 PM | Comments (3)

November 10, 2004 2:38 PM

A cool tool

I've found a neat tool: Tritton's USB to SVGA product. It allows me to have two monitors really easy, without having to install another graphic card interally. I drug out my old 21" BIG monitor and hooked it up to the Tritton USB adapter and Whammo!, I had two monitors. This is way-cool with WDSc. I put green-screen on one monitor and WDSC in another and I can look at both at the same time in full-screen sized windows. If you've got old monitors laying around and $80, it is worth it! Now I need to convince my wife I need two 19" LCDs.

Posted by on November 10, 2004 at 2:38 PM

November 1, 2004 7:43 AM

Day 15

Day 15
Got my code back from yesterday's snafu. Only took be 15 minutes. Wow, if you keep recoding the same thing, you get better at it! :)

My learnings today:

I attempted to debug an interactive program in WDSc. The setup for the debug session was easy. Then it got to the point of actually doing something and I got a nice window that said it couldn't continue because I didn't have the necessary PTFs installed on the server. I click on the button to list the PTFs and there they were! OK, my fault, but back to green-screen and my trusty STRDBG command!

I went into Window/Preferences/LPEX Editor/Appearance and changed my default font size from 10 to 12. I also found that is where I can play with all my colors. They have a default color scheme that appears very similar to SEU green-screen. Go figure.

I had copied an HTML file from the IFS view in WDSc. The HTML file I opened was in the IFS. I then click on Save As and renamed it. I thought that is saved the copy in the IFS. I then couldn't find it in the IFS though I had been working with it on screen for days. I only found out it wasn't in the IFS when I ran my RPG program and it couldn't find the HTML file I was using as a report template. Come to find out that Save As saves the file to your local, working directory. From the Save As, I couldn't even navigate to any local drives or the IFS. I ended up doing an Export of the HTML file I'd been working on in WDSc and then I could specify the local drive or network drive (IFS). I then closed my open editor for the HTML and reopenined the file from the IFS view in WDSc. Not what I expected but probably my own fault for not knowing more about the environment. Heck, I thought I was doing good getting the font changed!

My recent projects involve IFS files and RPG. I have really enjoyed the fact that I can code and see the results in the IFS from the same environment. I used to have PDM/SEU up in emulation, Notespad in another window and Explorer in another. Now, I have WDSc and they are all open and available through simple navigation.

Posted by on November 1, 2004 at 7:43 AM