WDSc7: The Real Stakes!

In the life of a product, the releases of major versions are always important events, but some are more remarkable than the others, so much that they stand out as truly fundamental. This way version 7.0 could be one of the milestones that will durably define the future of IBM Websphere Development Studio Client.

The developer’s corner
Among the innovations, the integration of an analysis of the SQL language embedded in RPG LE code by LPEX parsers is an interesting feature, just like the access to contents of tables via the new “iSeries Data View.” The family of editors increases with the arrival of “Screen Designer,” allowing the graphic definition of DSPF (AE only). The possibilities of using the debugger on suspended programs (access to the “Call Stack” and to program variables on standby in “Message Queue”) advantageously supplement developers’ tools.

The product also is enriched by modules improving recognition of technical architecture in the form of diagrams (“AE” only). Thus, you can generate call diagrams (call graph of sub-routines and procedures) or structure diagrams (relationships between modules/service programs) starting from an ILE program (RPG or COBOL).

On the “Web” development side, JSF (JavaServer Faces) technology widely invests in all development sectors to improve coherence overall. “Web Facing Tool” and “HATS Toolkit” are not outdone with the introduction of interoperability between these two modules, enabling them to function within the same Web application (including a portlets container). “Web Facing Tool” benefits, moreover, from a clearly improved creation assistant, and from now on HATS is accessible via rich Eclipse clients (RCP).

And if true innovation was in the product strategy?
If we were simply to measure the impact of a new version by the number of additional functions, this one is certainly not out of the ordinary. Of course, the functions are of great utility, but the true innovation, is it not in the product strategy itself? Isn’t the real challenge to win permanent approval of the platform from an informed and sceptical public?

First of all, in terms of infrastructure of installation and use, it was advisable to have a tool able to hold its own in comparison with a 5250 emulator, not least in terms of ease of installation prerequisites. To propose a “light” version of WDSc, with reduced memory footprint (256 MB), offering a flexible installation, customizable and centralized from the “System i” frees it from the trailing principal objections of “monolithic heaviness”.

Secondly, the future of the “single station” is obvious. In spite of the quality of the development tools provided, how can an application based on a fixed version of the Eclipse platform be justified, when the strength of the latter lies in its capacity to evolve and extend? While making the integration of WDSc in an existing installation of Eclipse possible (version 3.2.1 or higher), IBM simultaneously offers freedom to manage the evolution of the development station “more closely” to the needs of each team, an indispensable precondition to building a common development base.

Finally, to be able to convince, promises must be kept and evidence of educational methods provided. IBM held its promise in making its CODE tools obsolete, thus giving clear notice, of its intention to position WDSc as the unifier and central platform of its strategy. Educational methods follow then with the “PDM and SEU Transition Guides,” revised and uniquely proposed as principal innovations.

A wager on the way to being won…
Part of a vendor’s success depends on its ability to anticipate. When in 2003, one year after the release of the first versions of WDSc, we presented our first prototypes of plug-ins extending RSE (Remote System Explorer), the dice were thrown.

Since the beginning of this project, we always stuck to this concept of “single station”, as the only viable way to unite teams around a methodology and common tools (for example, ARCAD Plug-in for Changer and ARCAD Plug-in for Changer Client).

The other governing idea was to propose an optimal integration of our solutions in the WDSc and Eclipse platforms like we had already carried out on the OS/400 to guarantee support and ease of adoption for users.

Current developments - those of the new version 08.06 and those in progress - are resolutely turned towards an integrated approach to processes and modernization tools. With ARCAD WDSc/Plug-ins, the System i or “new technology” developer profits at the same time from basic technical tools (debugger, technical diagrams of Eclipse/WDSc) and tools for context analysis (cross references or ARCAD “Application Mining” diagrams) to the service of a tested and integrated underlying methodology.

Today, almost five years after the first developments, it is invaluable for us to see at which point our sights converge and when our efforts serve the same stakes. It is for this reason also that version 7.0 of WDSc takes on such great importance, as it clearly validates our recent strategy and encourages our future direction.

Version 7.0 of WDSc is now available

Here some outstanding features and functions of this new version. You can consult the IBM site for more information: http://www-306.ibm.com/software/awdtools/wdt400/news/ga700.html

Some interesting ideas…

You will appreciate that V7.0 offers you the possibility to install only the functions needed for your RPG and COBOL development. You simply install IBM Installation Manager to prepare the personalized download of WDSc 7.0. Thus, “i5/OS development tools” (in the past “WDSc Lite”) requires only 256 MB of RAM and 1 GB of disk space to function.

The standard edition of WDSc V7.0 proposes nearly all of the tools necessary for 5250 development (RPG programs and modules, COBOL and CL, service programs, physical files, logicals, screens and printers, etc). It should be noted that even if CODE Designer remains available for DSPF or PRTF development, IBM will not maintain any more CODE/400 tools on the next versions of Windows (Vista, for example).

The principal new functions that are interesting for RPG developers in the standard edition of WDSc are:
• A view allowing posting of data of members of physical files,
• Better SQL support in the LPEX editor,
• Launching of the debugger on suspended programs, and
• The “PDM and SEU Transition Guide” to help new WDSc users with RSE and LPEX (instead of PDM and SEU).

WDSc also contains Java/Web tools that make it easier to create J2EE/EJB compatible applications. It is possible to make WebFacing applications and HATS cohabit and interact in the same environment (including in a portal application), using a single connection via EIM - Enterprise Identity Mapping (AE only). Creation assistants for “Web Services” were improved in the SOA applications development view.

Without really speaking about Application Mining, “Advanced Edition” proposes a new module, the “Application Diagram component,” allowing generation, starting from ILE programs, of diagrams of technical structure and calls of sub-routines/procedures.

This version also provides “Screen Designer,” intended to succeed Code Designer for designing DSPF. In the manner of the Eclipse Visual Editor, it allows the design of double entries (visual design and/or source code).

What are some saying ?
The much anticipated Version 7.0, holds these promises and reinforces the bonds between WDSc and Rational development tools. It includes many functions for RPG developers as well as advanced Java/Web tools. It is necessary to count an extra cost of “Advanced Edition” (AE) compared to “Standard Edition” of approximately 3500 USD per station, which did not fail to raise debate among System i developers.

Even if they were accustomed to this type of license, the distribution of functions did not pass unnoticed, and many voices rose in the System i community against the fact that these powerful tools are available only in the paid version of Advanced Edition. Since lBM would like them to leave SEU/PDM/SDA, developers propose that it would be logical for IBM to provide all the functionality that 5250 developers need in the standard edition.

However, in order to avoid purchasing AE only for the Designer functions, you can install CODE/400 which remains, this year, included in WDSc 7. IBM representatives made it clear that the fact that Screen Designer and Application Diagram are proposed in the expensive Advanced Edition is a provisional measure, and that modular functions will be available, in the future, at lower license prices.

Unit test your code thanks to ARCAD’s new freeware!

It is difficult for a System i developer to unit test programs, and procedures of service programs in particular, when working in the WDSc environment. He or she is obliged to have a 5250 session permanently at hand.

ARCAD Software proposes to you a complementary tool to unit test System i objects in the form of a plug-in integrated into the RSE (Remote System Explorer) perspective. It is accompanied by an editor allowing the opening a 5250 session in the WDSC environment.

Objects of the *PGM type can be tested individually, as well as the procedures of the objects of the *SRVPGM type. ILE developers will certainly appreciate this flexibility.

The tool opens a 5250 session and automatically provides a convenient interface for supplying entry parameters. No more tedious typing of hexadecimal values for numerical parameters.

It optionally makes it possible to start a debugging session on the source code. At the end of execution, the developer returns automatically in the parameters screen and can thus visualize the value of the exit parameters. This freeware is available for download on our site at this address: freeware