Session Descriptions

Track 4 RPG: Tips, Techniques, and New Insights

API s at Work Part I: i5/OS Unique APIs
Come to this session and see how you can put hundreds of i5/OS APIs to work by leveraging a handful of critical API concepts. Gain a solid understanding of how to use system APIs, including working with the generic List API header structure. Get step-by-step guidance on translating the API documentation into RPG prototypes for APIs and data definitions for the list items. Walk through examples that show the pros and cons, dos and don’ts of Retrieve APIs, List APIs, and Open List APIs. Leave with the knowledge to start putting the vast majority of i5/OS unique system APIs to work right away.

API s at Work Part II : Industry Standard APIs
This session picks up where Part I leaves off and dives into i5/OS industry standard APIs, like the Integrated File System, Sockets, and Environment Variables. Wrap your arms around the concepts necessary to utilize UNIXtype APIs in general, and see how cross-platform portability provided by these APIs can increase efficiency in your shop. Familiarize yourself with the C programming language so you’re able to read UNIX-type parameter descriptions. Walk through examples of the Integrated File System APIs open, close, read, write, and errno. You should be able to use the vast majority of i5/OS provided industry standard UNIX-type APIs by the end of this session.

Leveraging API s to Reduce Support Costs for Your RPG Applications
Learn how to leverage APIs to significantly reduce the ongoing issue of reporting and isolation support costs within your RPG applications. Gain an overview of serviceability, including the three primary types of problems users encounter and how you can achieve enhanced productivity by solving these problems quickly. Follow along through examples and see how to take advantage of key tools that are available such as Message Handling, Message Watching, First Failure Data Capture, Performance Explorer, and Trace. Learn how to use these tools to send meaningful messages, watch for messages on the system, and gather service-related, performance, and trace data. Knowledge of i5/OS System API fundamentals is assumed for this session.

ILE Essentials: Static Binding and Binder Language
Develop the skills you need to start programming in a true Integrated Language Environment (ILE) and understand how knowledge in ILE can change your job as a programmer. This session focuses on creating and using binding directories and binder language, as well as creating modules, bound programs, and service programs. Find out how to write modular applications that perform well and are easily maintained, and hit the ground running with details on how to safely and productively work with static binding. Examine the various maintenance issues that occur most frequently on a system. Uncover options for preventing signature errors when using service programs, including options for managing signatures via a binder language, and rebinding affected programs quickly and effectively.

The Seven Deadly Sins of ILE
Discover the seven ILE practices that should be severely restricted or all together avoided. While some of these might not result in instant death, find out how they can be deadly in an insidious fashion, waiting to come to light when you least expect it. So save your shop time and money by examining the ins-and-outs of each lethal practice, such as allowing scoping parameters to default and using the RCLRSC command. Uncover the essential information you need to recognize these deadly sins and steer clear of them, or if it’s too late, resolve them and prevent them from happening again.

/Free Your RPG
This session delivers a soup-to-nuts review of coding in /Free RPG syntax, first introduced in V5R1 and enhanced with subsequent releases. Familiarize yourself with the basic syntax rules and style guidelines for coding in /Free-form, the new built-in functions (BIFs), and the ways in which they can improve your coding even if you choose not to move to /Free-form. Get introduced to the language features that can only be used in /Free-form. Understand the pros and cons of using /Free RPG, and learn alternative coding techniques to replace functions (such as CALL/PARM and the MOVE opcodes) that are not supported in /Free-form.

The Powerful New Features Lurking in the Modern D-Spec
This session sheds light on the many features of D-Specs that remain undiscovered by the majority of RPG programmers. Get tips that will save you time, like not having to give names to fields and how using group fields as a powerful tool for grouping and sorting data. See how RPG’s *INnn indicators can be mapped to a DS and given names. Increase efficiency by forcing specific fields into a Data Structure simply by listing their names in the DS. Find out how these and many other related techniques can add powerful new weapons to your RPG toolkit. Plus, gain insight into the extensions to RPG’s data definition capabilities made in the V5 releases, as well as details of the other useful features added in the V6R1 release.

Working with IFS Files from RPG
Overcome the challenge of processing non-iSeries data, speed up development, and add more power and control to your RPG IV programs with IFS files. Find out how RPG IV’s ability to prototype C-type APIs opens the door to processing IFS files directly in your RPG programs. From preparing XML files to building comma-separated value (CSV) files for import into Excel spreadsheets, this capability enables you to go far beyond those of CPYxxxIMPF and CPYxxxSTMF. Examine the basic differences between “C style” I/O and traditional RPG methods; learn how to open, read, and write basic IFS files; bridge the ASCII-EBCDIC gap; check for the existence of files in the IFS; and learn how to process directories and subdirectories. Whether you want to process CSV files in an RPG program or produce files for use by Excel, this session shows you how RPG applications can directly access PC-type data.

Beyond the Basics of RPG IV — Subprocedures
Investigate practical ways to leverage subprocedures in your business applications. Discover the various parameter options (i.e., *NOPASS, VALUE, and CONST) that can make your subprocedures more versatile and find out the safest way to provide default values for those parameters. Explore the fundamentals of call-back processing, and see how the technique can add versatility to your utility subprocedures. Take part in a discussion on how to leverage subprocedures to mask application complexity, ease program maintenance, and more. Also, hear all about the exciting new subprocedure enhancements that were announced with the release of V6R1.

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