August 1999

• In This Issue -
• Timesharing Circa 1999: An ASP in the Grass? - Robert Tipton says timesharing - reincarnated by application service providers - may be back in vogue, but before you go IT retro, remember that a one-size-fits-all infrastructure delivers zero competitive advantage.
• Welcome Back, Microsoft! - Roger Pence writes that, after disappearing from the AS/400 scene for a time, Microsoft is returning to try to reclaim a portion of the OS/400-NT Server integration market from IBM.
• Newswatch Listings -
• Hot New Products -
• Exploring Management Central - Sharon L. Hoffman highlights Management Central's new and enhanced features, such as PTF management and object packaging and distribution, and discusses IBM's strategy for the graphical systems management tool.
• The Changing World of AS/400 Change Management - Pam Jones reports on what SCM vendors are doing to provide a variety of change management features for distributed, heterogeneous, client/server, and Web-based application development.
• Data Warehousing Helps Canadian Clothier Make Its Mark - In this case study, John Ghrist discusses how Canadian clothing retailer Mark's Work Wearhouse, Ltd., gained more benefits than it expected when it added an AS/400 data warehouse.
• Outsourcing Your e-Business Solution - Nahid Jilovec discusses the benefits that commerce service providers (CSPs) bring to companies that want to outsource their e-business operations.
• Exploring Client Access Express - Michael Otey shows you how to easily set up Client Access Express and explains how it solves many of Client Access's performance problems.
• Exploring Web-based Java Terminal Emulators, Part 1 - Jim Hoopes begins a series of reviews of Java-based 5250 emulators by examining three product offerings: WRQ's EnterView, Hummingbird Communications' Jump and HostExplorer Web, and IBM's Host On-Demand.
• Ease Client Access Administration with Policies - Brian Singleton explains the basics of Windows system policies, which let you control users' access to system functions, and how to use the System Policy Editor to create a sample policy for Client Access Express users.
• Shareware and Freeware TN5250 Terminal Emulators - Brian Singleton surveys three TN5250 emulators available as freeware or shareware.
• One-Step AS/400-to-Excel ODBC Transfer - Brent Smith shows you how set up a file transfer that lets users download AS/400 data into an Excel spreadsheet with meaningful column headings in one step.
• Using Java Commands in AS/400 QShell - QShell Interpreter is the AS/400's version of a Unix-style shell environment. Dan Darnell shows you how to use QShell to enter Java commands and view their output.
• 10 Things You Need to Know About RPG IV Prototypes - Other languages have supported prototyping for some time, but not RPG - until RPG IV. Bryan Meyers provides 10 key points to help you take advantage of this useful programming construct.
• Programmer's Notes - Jef Sutherland offers advice about coding RPG programs with multiple screens and using the RTVJOBA (Retrieve Job Attribute) command to self-submit a CL program by determining whether it was called during an interactive or batch job.
• Y2K Roundup - Richard Sweetman presents a collection of new and past NEWS/400 Y2K tips to help readers who are late in addressing their Y2K concerns catch up before the millennium arrives.
• Retrieve AS/400 Data with Access - Brian Singleton explains how to import or link AS/400 tables to a Microsoft Access database table and discusses a technique for adding long column names to tables.
• The Case of the Time Bomb in Tombstone - After some low-down varmints program a CPU time bomb at Okay Leather Goods, performance marshals Dan Cruikshank and Jim Stewart must saddle up and solve the case.
• Tech Corner -
• PTF Watch - PTF Watch lists selected High Impact Pervasive (HIPER) PTFs that aren't — or aren't yet — part of a cumulative PTF package.
• Street Talk -
• Letters -
• RPG Indicators -
• Spool Files - Objects, or Not? -
• AS/400 Spool Files to Adobe PDF? -
• Statement Identifiers in Call Stack -
• Date Fields in Access -
• Multiple Physicals into One Logical -
• Can't Install CA Emulator -
• Returning Database Information from Service Programs -
• Speed Up Access Queries -
• Obtaining Spool File Information -
• AS/400-to-Mainframe File Transfer -
• Limiting Adopted Authority -
• Client Access Silent Install -
• Ending Active Sessions -
• Limiting Access to WRKOUTQ Function -
• Executing SQL From a CL Program -
• In Focus: In London, the AS/400 Message Travels the Streets -
• In Focus: AS/400-Specific Ads Do Disappearing Act? -
• In Focus: Storage Area Networks Appear on AS/400 Horizon -