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The EDITORIAL by Philippe MAGNE |
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For
over 6 years now, ARCAD Software
has been preaching the virtues
of the ILE environment. We can
safely say the effort has not
been in vain. ILE is becoming
more and more widely used, especially
of late. Why the upsurge in interest?
Because the ILE environment incorporates
state of the art development
concepts and code modularity
in particular. A high level of
modularity makes applications
easier to maintain, enhances
the reusability of components,
and facilitates the adaptation
to new business requirements.
No more monolithic blocks of
20,000
lines that no-one dares touch in
case the whole program collapses.
Instead we have series of simple
functions, non-redundant and maintainable.
Remember that before ILE, it was
impossible to have this level of
modularity without paying a high
price in application performance.
Today, thanks to ILE, we can mix
native and Java code, migrate step-by-step
towards a true 3-tier architecture,
manage our specific code efficiently,
and all this without penalizing application
performance. Wonderful, don’t
you think?
Yes
of course, but… any new architecture
means new needs for developers in
order to become proficient.
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This is why we have regularly
updated
the ARCAD suites with sets
of specific tools to make the
developer’s life easier.
We are entering a new phase
with the ARCAD Version 8.04,
which includes features such
as the procedure repository,
specific cross-references and
control tools for parameter
passing. To
find out more
In
this newsletter, we have decided
to go deep into the technical
details. In the current climate
of major technological mutation,
this kind of in-depth knowledge
is essential to clearly identify
needs and make durable strategic
choices.
The next edition will address another fundamental building
block of development today: the SQL language.
In the meantime, I leave you in the capable hands of our iSeries
product manager, Gilbert Fillatre, a true ILE expert.
Best regards,
Philippe MAGNE,
CEO
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AN
EXPERT’S OPINION : ILE with ARCAD
by Gilbert FILLATRE |
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Objectives
:
The main objective of ILE management from
ARCAD is to let application designers and
developers benefit from all the modular
development advantages of ILE, while delegating
the new technical constraints to ARCAD
itself.
The main points handled by ARCAD are as
follows:
Documentation:
The ILE documentation provided by ARCAD
includes:
- ILE Links: these are
managed in "source" form
of type ILEPGM or ILESRVPGM (or even directly
on the RPGLE, CBLLE, ...). Link update
is built into the compilation
process.
- Procedure repository: based on search
criteria, this new repository lists the
set of exported procedures, with their
respective parameters. Features can either
be entered or retrieved from the sources
to better document the objective of each
procedure and its parameters.
- Cross references at the Procedure
level: these cross-references reveal the calling
chains (calling/called) by procedure, including
OPM programs if any (it is still rare to
find a pure ILE application).
- For each Procedure, we can view its definition
(source code), declaration (prototype),
execution object (program of service program),
activation group and where-used (calls).
In addition, the procedure can be executed
in a unitary manner.
Development :
To ease the developer’s workload:
- When a compilation produces a Module,
all the programs and service programs that
include it are proposed for recompilation.
- When procedure sources or their prototypes
are modified, rather than just recompiling
the dependent module and service program,
some further optimisations are made on
the ensuing recompilations according to
the type of modification made by the developer.
. If only the procedure body has been modified,
no other recompilation is necessary.
. If the procedure parameters have been
modified, recompilation is requested only
for components actually using this procedure.
. If new procedures have been added, an
export source (BND) can be generated by
version to ensure forward compatibility
of signatures, without recompiling everything.
.If procedures have been deleted, then
a full recompilation is necessary.
Integration :
When a version is integrated into test
environments or transferred to production,
the same checks above are performed, this
time for all the components in the version.
In particular they guarantee that each
compilation of a source is indeed later
than the last modification of an included
source that describes a procedure prototype.
Furthermore, we can also request a parameter
consistency check (useful when procedure
calls are not all prototyped or when the
prototype is duplicated) with an additional
parameter check for OPM calls if needed.
First of all, the set of compilations is
automatically reorganized, so that the
service programs are compiled in a specific
order.
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ILE
AND THE PROCEDURE REPOSITORY |
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The
origins of the ILE environment:
The RPG language has evolved considerably over the years. RPGLE
today integrates new features, including modular programming in the
ILE environment, and is steadily replacing the old OPM mode.
Back in 1999, ILE components were already integrated into the Software
Configuration Management suite ARCAD-Skipper. As soon as the environment
emerged we focused on mastering the new ILE concepts and getting
to know its various implementations in the main iSeries languages.
ILE concepts and the
ARCAD advantages:
The concept can be summed up in two words: modularity and memory
residence.
Modularity implies source construction from modules interlinked into
a single program, with each module reusable as needed. It is rather
like an assembly of building blocks.
Making a service program memory resident significantly reduces the
corresponding object loading time and therefore the execution of
using programs.
Featuring all the concepts of code modernization, the ILE environment
has made major inroads in companies recently. This evolution of course
creates new needs for developers. For modularization to be well managed
and controlled, developers need to be kept aware of all relationships
between modules, procedures and using programs.
The added value provided by ARCAD for ILE resides in the cross references
held in the repository. They provide information about the links
between programs (resulting from the link editor) and modules used,
and vice versa. It is therefore extremely simple to identify the
programs affected by modifications to a procedure, a module or a
service program.
This makes the ARCAD functions a powerful aid, putting reusability
concepts into practice.
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ARCAD
NEWS : UPCOMING EVENTS |
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UPCOMING
EVENTS ...
In partnership with IBM,
we are holding a special seminar for
iSeries ISVs in
January 2006. Date and venue:
19th January 2006 at
the IBM Forum
During this seminar, vendors will get familiar with the steps towards modernization
such as those proposed by IBM in the "iSeries
Developers Roadmap". Together with
PKS, our Partner in Germany, we will
present our solutions to application
modernization which have already proven
their value across a wide spectrum
of industry including a large number
of software vendors:
ARCAD Software will present our
integrated software
management range:
- Version Control
(team coordination, management of customized
code, multi-language support),
- Multi-platform
deployment,
- Documentation production,
- Test automation,
- Technical support
management.
PKS France will present
:
- How to create a rich and reliable
graphical interface while preserving
your legacy applications,
- How to
produce a Unix version of your products
at a reasonable cost and timescale. |
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Don't
hesitate to ask for more information
from our sales department by e-mail to
: 
