Red mercury: the AS/400 IDE

Don’t get me started on IBM’s mismanagement of the AS/400 development environment, because I’m obsessive-compulsive on this subject.   AS/400 hardware is the best on the planet.  i5/OS is slick, and based upon the functionality it provides, nearly bulletproof.  SQL performance is pretty good; SQL functionality is okay (take a look at SQL Server 2005/8 if you want to see some cool stuff); ILE RPG is okay (when are you going to finish it, IBM?  ASNA’s had a fully free-form RPG for years).  But IDE development management has been gutless and devoid of a creative thought for 20 years: there’s been zero leadership by IBM’s development product managers, who apparently share a systemic inability to demonstrate to IBM’s suits the unique value proposition the AS/400 world offers to customers.  I suspect this group is in charge of e-mail for the Bush administration.

While IBM’s marketing of the AS/400 has been problematic, it’s much better today.  The problem is, the product is an empty suit.  Unless you’re running big batch jobs all day, of course.  If IBM wants to sell new accounts, developers need the tools to create highly-functional and easy-to-use applications in today’s vernacular: the browser.  If you can’t demonstrate an application that “works like every other desktop application” (and in many cases, able to be offered in SaaS mode), you’re screwed without a kiss.

That sucking sound you hear is the AS/400 market going away.  LAMPPP and .NET are cleaning IBM’s clock, and I’m both saddened and pissed off, primarily because IBM has bungled this product.  Meanwhile, I’m moving forward.  Sure, V6R1 is neat…but it doesn’t go nearly as far as it needs to.

Trust me on this one: when you learn how the real world handles development and IT, you’ll see what a great job IBM has done in insulating AS/400 shops from the real world.  And in spite of what you think, the AS/400 runs a pitifully small percentage of mission-critical applications.  While the hardware and O/S are capable, the IDE is so awful that the best features are discounted right out of contention.

Now, none of this means AS/400 shops aren’t providing value for their supporting organizations.  But new business and technology requirements are slowly marginalizing the value of the AS/400, and, without a complete change of direction on IBM’s part, the ability of AS/400 shops to move forward is deteriorating.   A typical shop has to take a completely different approach for developing a customer portal (web) than for developing internal applications (green-screen).  Does a good web designer/developer want to work on green-screen?  ROTFLMAO!  Does a good green-screen develop want to fiddle-faddle with developing a web site with a garage-band look?  Maybe, and it happens too often, and it shows.

IBM’s trying to hang the moon on Eclipse and WDSCi.  But here’s the truth: this is IBM’s red mercury.  Listen, folks-if you want to see an ass-kicking IDE, get on a first-name basis with Visual Studio 2008.  Don’t give me any of your childish geekwad ”evil empire” crap: Microsoft has a huge group (at least 10x larger than the WDSCi group) working on Visual Studio…and it shows.  In addition, Visual Studio Team System provides outstanding development management capabilities.  Is VS or VSTS cheap?  Nope…and as I’ve been telling IBM for a decade, I’ll be happy to pay $5K or more per seat for a great IDE, because even a merely good IDE has a 30-day payback.  Instead, we get a ”free” IDE from IBM that about as valuable and as useful as the crappy bait-and-switch software that comes preloaded on a Gateway entry-level PC.

Just how long has the AS/400 crowd been waiting for a fully-functional WYSIWYG screen designer?  I rest my case…and if you think SDA is full-function, you haven’t been paying attention: try using *DATE, *TIME, or *TIMESTAMP data types, or ENTFLDATR.

Netting it out: activation groups for the rest of us

Why do some overrides not work, like OVRDBF FRP001 SHARE(*YES), when I compile an RPG program?  Because activation groups work like “sub-jobs”; AG’s give you the ability to control overrides for different programs running within the same job.  So, if the calling program (CL or otherwise) is running in *DFTACTGRP and you carelessly compile an ILE RPG program with the QILE activation group, overrides won’t work.

One solution is to set your overrides with OVRSCOPE(*JOB).  If you check the default for that OVRDBF parameter, you’ll find it’s *ACTGRPDFN; this works fine if everything is compiled with the same activation group.  OVRSCOPE(*JOB) means “this override applies at the job and regardless of the activation group.”  *CALLER means “run this program in the same activation group as the program that called it.”  So, OVRSCOPE(*ACTGRPDFN) usually works for *CALLER…but QILE is a different activation group, and the override doesn’t apply.

Here’s the bottom line: IBM made a huge error by setting QILE as the default activation group in the CRTBNDRPG command-it should have been *CALLER.  Using *CALLER preserves existing behavior; using QILE doesn’t.My solution is to use XXM767 (my standard object creation program) for all compiles and object creation.  It’s a poor solution but it’s a standard and therefore far better than hand-compiling. 

There’s another solution: include an “H”-spec copybook with DFTACTGRP(*NO) ACTGRP(*CALLER); these parameters will override the compile defaults.  Of course, CL doesn’t support copy books, and commands don’t support external references (for parameter attributes).

In the real world, with source code control and where you do a build every day and drop everything when the build breaks, problems like this go away.  Unfortunately, most AS/400 shops (I’m trying very hard not to offend anybody!) haven’t recognized the value of a formalized process for managing the journey of source code from the developer to the production environment.  The fact that IBM hasn’t provided this key component of a well-rounded and fully-realized system is a shame.

Favorite TV

My favorite shows include:

• “The Simpsons” (trust me-this show is the least offensive one listed herein)
• “Family Guy” (you’ll like this show if you appreciate tastelessness and oblique humor)
• “Squidbillies” (15 minutes of utter tastelessness)
• “McLaughlin Group” (high-volume political commentary)
• “60 Minutes” (a classic American “get-the-bad guy” show: I can imagine Mike Wallace waving bank receipts in front of Eliott Spitzer)

A British import, “MI-5″, gets a special mention.  It’s a dark, contemporary spy show, where much of the intrigue is psychological and political.  Somerset Maugham’s short stories set in the Far East and Len Deighton’s “Bernard Sampson” arc are precursors of MI-5.

Honorable mention goes to:

• “Futurama”
• “King Of The Hill”

And R.I.P. for:

• “The Prisoner”
• “Chappelle Show”
• “Bizarre”
• “The Two Ronnies”

-rf

Hāna: the thingie over the “ā” is a…

macron.

“Aloha” means goodbye and hello

Aloha-I’m back, earlier than desired or planned.  But I have too many personal initiatives going on, and, after a week, I burned out on vacation.  Twenty years ago, I needed five days to get into the vacation spirit.  Now, it’s longer; I just don’t know how much longer.  Seven days doesn’t appear to be long enough, and that’s a depressing thought.

So I flew into Honolulu and then to Hilo, and then up drove up the mountain to the volcano.

 Hawai’i, the Big Island: before you die, here are two adventures.  You must visit Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park.  Even if you don’t see lava flowing, the lava fields, cinder cones, and craters are surreal.  Pictures are not worthy-you need to see it in 3D.  And then go to the summit of Manua Kea: the view looking down is magnificent.  Just make sure you’re there for sunset, and then take your time going down (you don’t have a choice).  Here’s the important move: pull over at 9,000 0r 10,000 feet; wait for the traffic to die down, wait for your night vision to develop, and then look up.  The naked-eye view of 20,000 stars is breathtaking-you just don’t see this sight from many places on Earth.  The net result: I am reminded of how small and insignificant the human race is.  Anybody thinking we’re the only critters in the universe, much less the most powerful, has been brainwashed (E-Meters, I guess).  My next trip will likely entail backpacking through the HVNP and on Maui.

I needed some sea level time, so I split for Maui.

 Maui: I like the east side.  It’s very rugged and ranchy; several entertainment names (Oprah is a major landowner and will probably build a wellness center there; Willy; Kris; Woody, and RIP Fab-Four George) live in the Hana area.  You’ve heard about the road to Hana; the road south from Hana is substantially more narrow.  There are some beautiful homes/estates/ranches south of town, on the edge of the island overlooking volcanic beaches.  By car, Hana is functionally inacessible (at least 90 minutes and usually 2.5 hours); if you’re a Big Name, you’ll charter into the Hana airport from Honolulu or chopper in from Kahului.  The Hana Ranch is a major beef producer, which is why you see cattle everywhere.  During my round-the-Island helicopter flight, Jason, the pilot, mentioned sugar cane was the Island’s biggest cash crop; I suggested maybe it was the Island’s largest acknowledged cash crop.  We all know Willy is growing something besides cattle on his ranch in Hana.

Now, a little bit about the road to Hana.  Yes, it’s as good and as bad as they say.  Driving there is bad enough, ’cause traffic will be awful and there is not one damn thing to do in Hana.  Yes, I’ll telling the truth: nothing, nothing, nothing; when you get there, you’re hit with the realization you have to go back.  The drive back from Hana-well, let me suggest having red-hot pokers stuck in my eyes would have been less painful.  No, check that-I’d have to include being in a special Hell populated solely by skateboarders.  Wait-here it is: having red-hot pokers stuck in my eyes while in the special Hell populated by the Johnny Knoxville/”Jackass” crowd of skateboarders while having Rush Limbaugh blustering in one ear and Bill O’Reilly lying in the other would be less painful than the drive back from Hana.

About the drivers: I saw so many red Mustang convertibles I thought I’d be sick.  The worst drivers are tourists, all driving to Hana in their Dodge muscle cars and thinking the double yellow lines with reflectors is the middle of their lane.  Next up: the locals in their tricked-out pickups whipping around curves like they own the road (they don’t; tourists paid for it).  Some rides were jacked up so high they had anticollision lights and an escalator.

In spite of my grumbling, I still like the place.  It is beautiful, and the Pacific is awesome.  The next time, I’m not settling for less than four stars (and I’m not talking about the ones in the sky, I’m talking about the ones in Frommer’s).

Factoids:
(1) Hawai’i is expensive.  It’s all that nasty transportation from the mainland.
(2) “Bed and breakfast” lodging means, “No housekeeping service, no air conditioning, no ceiling fan, no shampoo, and clean towels every fourth day.”  You’ve been warned!  On the other hand, the Four Seasons is flawless.  Expensive, but as close to perfection as you’re going to find.
(3)  I was very surprised at the amount of roadside garbage, particularly on the Big Island.  Every back road leading to a beach has rusting, abandoned cars, trailers, boats, and washing machines.  Listen-it’s not the tourists dumping this stuff.
(4)  Don’t go crazy on me, but I was appalled at the amount of litter flying out of residents’ cars.  For a community so in touch with the land and sea, this is surprising.  Unless the car rental companies are renting jacked-up Datsun trucks and battered Chevy’s, the litterbugs are locals.
(5)  Hawai’ian hosptiality is alive and well-everybody was very nice.
(6)  I hate Seattle weather seven months a year.
(7)  I miss my doggies. 
(8)  Retirement must be hell.

Maybe I’ll try Steamboat Springs this summer.