March 1999

• Buyers Guide: AS/400 Backup and Recovery Software -
• Display File Magic with Multiple Device Support, Part I - From DDS keywords to file attributes, the possibilities and complexities associated with display files are nearly endless.
• In This Issue -
• Letters -
• The iMac Strikes Back! - Robert Tipton says that with its simple approach to Internet access, Apple's new iMac takes sweet revenge on the complicated, general-purpose Wintel PC.
• Catching IBM Doing Something Right - Even a hard-boiled critic like Roger Pence can find a few things to love in OS/400 V4R4.
• COMMON, Meet Joe Black - Kris Neely, a former COMMON board member, explains why he believes COMMON was out of line when it raised its fees.
• And Now, the Facts about COMMON - David Hildebrandt and L. Gary Nakashian, two of COMMON's board members, explain why COMMON has increased membership and conference fees.
• Newswatch -
• Fast Forward: IBM Announces Hot New Hardware & V4R4 - Al Barsa, Jr., and Sharon Hoffman report on IBM's latest AS/400 announcements. Mixed-mode servers, new model 170s, and V4R4 enhancements to OS/400 system management, database, language, and e-business functions let users take their applications into the future.
• DB2 Goes Universal on the AS/400 - Kent Milligan outlines V4R4's DB2 UDB for AS/400, which extends AS/400 database technology to store and manage both traditional and nontraditional forms of data.
• From 1 MHz to 1 GHz - Frank Soltis, IBM's AS/400 chief scientist, looks at IBM's copper and silicon-on-insulator technologies, which will enable the computer industry to soon reach the next milestone in microprocessors: 1 billion transistors on a single microprocessor chip operating at more than 1 GHz.
• XML/EDI: A New Generation of EDI - Nahid Jilovec explains how the Web extensibility of XML/EDI may soon render traditional EDI transactions obsolete.
• Handle It - With RPG Exception Handlers! - Gary Guthrie reviews your options for handling exceptions in your RPG applications and introduces ILE condition handlers and cancel handlers, which enable robust, flexible exception handling that overcomes some limitations of RPG/400's exception-handling support.
• Rev Up Your Error Messages with Error Message Subfiles - Mike Cravitz introduces two techniques for implementing error message subfiles, which let you provide error messaging that's interactive, informative, and easier to use than the messaging provided by traditional DDS techniques.
• Boost Your Date Handling with Null-Capable Date Fields - By providing a robust and elegant way to handle dates that haven't happened yet, the null value opens the door to practical use of the date data type. In this article, David Robertson introduces you to working with null date values on the AS/400.
• Accessing Data with Java - In this final article of the Java for RPG Programmers series, IBMers George Farr and Phil Coulthard show how to code the Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) standard. JDBC programming lets you access data from any database that has a JDBC driver, including the AS/400.
• Using RPG with Net.Data - Jef Sutherland shows you how to build a quick and easy Web application that uses a Net.Data macro to call an RPG program and respond to a Web user's information request.
• Finding Decimal Data Errors with SQL - Decimal data errors are a great annoyance for AS/400 programmers. Ann Lewkowicz shows how you can use SQL to identify bad data without writing custom programs or waiting for your system to crash.
• Tales from the AS/400 CRYPT - Gene Gaunt presents the CRYPT program, which provides two-way Data Encryption Standard (DES) encryption in both OPM and ILE programs.
• Visual Basic Sockets Program Sets PC Clock - Terry Smith's complete time-synchronization utility teaches the basics of TCP/IP sockets programming and delivers SNTP client and server programs.
• Anatomy of a Sockets API - Mike Cravitz provides a look, through an RPG programmer's eyes, at a typical TCP/IP sockets API and shows how to translate the API's C prototype into RPG IV.
• "Operations" Updated for V4R4 - IBMer Carole Miner updates you on the latest V4R4 enhancements to Operations Navigator and Operations Console that make AS/400 system management easier for administrators.
• NETWolf Beta - Jim Hoopes reviews the beta version of Synapse's NETWolf, a TCP/IP-only PC-to-AS/400 connectivity product.
• Tech Corner -
• New Products & Services -
• Street Talk -
• PTF Watch - PTF Watch lists selected High Impact Pervasive (HIPER) PTFs that aren't — or aren't yet — part of a cumulative PTF package.
• Get a Running Start with the IFS - This article looks at how the IFS evolved, what kind of information is stored in the IFS, and system management issues such as security and storage.
• Data Compression Boosts Client Access ODBC Performance -
• Access Shared Folders via FTP -
• Eliminate CRTDUPOBJ Message -
• Removing Control Characters from a Spool File -
• Creating Source Code on a Budget -
• Binding ILE C Programs -
• ODBC, SQL, and Outer Joins -
• Scroll Bar Attributes -
• Transoft Launches Component Framework for App Building -