IBM i Advanced Features

The ARCAD-Skipper solution is far more than a simple software configuration management tool. In this solution, we’ve put all of our 20 years of expertise in the management of native System i applications. That’s the reason it is considered by our customers as more of a development and maintenance framework rather than a simple tool to track changes in the code.

THE SOLUTION

In ARCAD-Skipper, you get the benefits of:

• Having a powerful source compare (in both the native and graphical user interface), it can also automatically mark the source lines changed in your code,
• Having a source member header automatically inserted in your source code that shows the latest changes in your code,
• Having a pre-compiler to handle all the particularities of compilation, and run pre or post commands,
• Having a tool facilitate the unit testing by providing a pre screen to enter entry parameters and see the output parameters at the end of execution. This tool is perfect when developing ILE procedures because it runs also on procedures!
• Control the consistency of your changes. Thanks to its powerful cross-reference database, it allows you to automatically check the dependencies between files, programs, procedures, commands, etc.

ARCAD software also has a great reputation in the area of the management of SQL code and the ILE environment.

Thanks to ARCAD’s powerful ILE environment management functions, you can gain access to:

• A dedicated procedure repository
• Continual control of the consistency of parameter-passing between procedures and between programs
• Automatic management of signatures and bound directories
• Automatic ordering of recompilations

ARCAD offers similar functions for SQL component management:
• Management of creation scripts
• Trigger/program cross-references
• Automatic ordering of recompilations

THE ADVANTAGES

With this “developer” oriented approach taken into account in the change management process, the developer sees the tool as a huge improvement and help in his daily work rather than simply a tool to keep track of what he’s doing to the code. That makes a HUGE difference in the adoption of the tool and therefore in the productivity of the developer.