System iNetwork

October 7, 2004

Diary entry 2

Day 12

Start working on my first real project at work. I easily copied some source code from other members and started a maintenance screen program. I needed a new file, DDS screen and RPG/SQL maintenance program. I wanted to see if I could find out how to get the equivelent of the screen designer so I loaded the DDS source and pressed F1. I used the search button to search on "design screen". The first time help has to index from on-line sources, it will take about 5 minutes to load the index. The indexer says it only happens one time.

When working with DDS source, I noticed the + for field positioning based on the end of the prior field position gives me an error. Found out from IBM this is actually a bug in the editor that hasn't been reported. Let's see how long it takes to get fixed!

It is good to know that the member is locked. While editing in WDSc I went to PDM and tried to access the member. I got the message that the member was in use.

Also learned from IBM today that my inability to see the compile options on my first install could be due to a corrupt workspace. A workspace is a series of files and folders usually found in \my documents\IBM. I exited WDSc, renamed the folder 'workspace' to 'workspace_orig' and then restarted WDSc. It worked! I was able to copy my filters from 'workspace_orig' to 'workspace' and that was OK but I couldn't copy the files from my user commands over initally. We'll see if IBM comes up with a way to do that. Luckily, I only had one!

Day 13

Back from vacation and Oh how I missed WDSc! OK, a little blog sarcasm. I thought it was pretty cool that when I start WDSc, it remembers my view, layout and environment (or so I thought). I could see that my library list was just as it was when I exited WDSc previously. Then I made a change and compiled and got a whole bunch of errors ... more than normal for a couple of lines of code change. Turns out that compiler couldn't find any of my files. Why not? I asked. The library list was set. I even emailed a screen shot to IBM. Turns out, the way the default preferences are set, it restores the "view", but that is it. The library list isnt' really set. You can turn this off in preferences so it doesn't appear to load your last session's environment. I still think it is a bug. If it shows the environment, it should set the environment. I'd take the extra 15-20 seconds hit at load if it really restored my environment.

Day 14
I'm in WDSc all the time now. I've had to change some of my thinking on how I spend my time as it takes a little longer to load. But, once loaded, I've become very comfortable with the basic editing functions. I'm still not sure how to split screens to show the same source in two different windows but I'm sure it is there. The HELP hasn't been much help in this area yet.

I used Code Designer to make some screen changes. This is going to take some getting used to! I need a good tutorial on using Code Designer for screens, that is for sure.

I still can't get my compile error messages to go to the source line. I get an error message about a file not being found in qtemp. Tom is getting it too. I send screen shots to IBM to have them check into this one. I have to switch back to command line to review source compiles.

I also had my biggest failure today. I had made significant changes to the code in WDSc. I went to save and got a message box about the source on the server being updated since my last save. I didn't make any changes to the member, so I can't figure out why I got the message. Anyways, I thought I was taking the option to update my changes to the source member, but the default is to update my view of the WDSc code with the original source member code. I basically over wrote all of my code changes. There isn't an undo for this one! Rats! I lost about 1/2 hours worth of work.

Posted by at October 7, 2004 7:18 AM