RPG Comprehension Tools Product Roundup

Article ID: 20978

It's nearly always a daunting task to go back to try to analyze any program's source code, particularly if you weren't the developer who wrote that application originally. But when it's time to modify the old dogs to do new tricks or to update them to provide more than a green-screen interface, for example, the presence of some tools to help you figure out what's going on within a program's logic can be invaluable. What's more, given Sarbanes-Oxley and other government and industry mandates, figuring out and documenting how software works is often something other than optional.

Fortunately, there are tools that can help. Although there's not really such a product type as "source code comprehension tools," functions that can assist in this crucial decoding process are scattered across solutions from a range of product categories. These categories include software change management, documentation utilities, cross-referencing tools, and other solutions that can include code analysis, impact analysis, restructuring, and diagramming capabilities.

To focus on those solutions most useful to RPG programmers, this roundup surveys third-party development tools and utilities that work with any version of RPG and provide means of analyzing and organizing application source code and determining what other objects an application might affect.

Not included here are other RPG development tools, such as interactive development environments, code and application generators, and similar solutions. Also left out are code modernization or analysis services, platform migration tools, and products that convert source code from one high level language to another. Although these also might include comprehension aids, such offerings are geared primarily to translation functions and are therefore outside the scope of this article.

The information presented here provides a brief summary of some main features and whether or not the solution is capable of being a plug-in for WebSphere Development Studio client (WDSc). For more complete information, consult the vendor or product URLs included with each product summary.

John Ghrist is senior products editor for System iNEWS.


RPG Comprehension Tools
ABSTRACT
Help/Systems, Inc.
ABSTRACT is an application analysis system for measuring the impact of database elements or program changes. It works with applications written in CL, RPG, and ILE RPG (and Cobol). It also offers integrated WDSc and iSeries Navigator plug-ins and interfaces to CODE/400 and other third-party editing tools. Other features include a string search tool, flowcharting, file analysis, and a cross-reference database.
helpsystems.com

Aldon Lifecycle Manager (System i Edition)
Aldon
Aldon Lifecycle Manager is a process-centric software configuration and change-management solution for enterprise applications that span multiple platforms, including the System i. It automates and enforces business processes across the application life cycle and provides an interface to the WDSc interface and selected third-party change-management solutions.
aldon.com

ARCAD-Observer
ARCAD-Qualifier
ARCAD Software, Inc.
The ARCAD-Observer suite provides a set of graphical tools designed to navigate within the internal architecture of existing applications. All suite members generate various diagrams (e.g., calling chains, databases, program flows, workflows), produce technical documentation in HTML format, and work with CL and all versions of RPG source code, as well as with Cobol and SQL.
     ARCAD-Observer cross-references components down to the field and source-line level, handles discrepancies between native System i and PC application components (e.g., Visual Basic frames, database data), and provides screen shots and printer layouts that can serve as an entry point for impact analysis. ARCAD-Observer is the only suite member that includes a WDSc plug-in.
     ARCAD-Qualifier, primarily developed for managing application testing activity, includes a dynamic coverage analyzer that lets developers pinpoint lines of source code that don't execute and a scenario player that provides a complete list of program calls and file usages.
arcadsoftware.com

CA 2E Change Management Option
CA
CA 2E Change Management offers an automated environment for controlling and documenting changes to System i applications and objects over their normal life cycle. The solution enables change control for both the 2E model and traditional application environments. It supports the IFS and ILE versions of Cobol and RPG, provides a single work area for all change-management activities, and can manage concurrent development projects.
www3.ca.com

ChangeMaster
ChangeMaster for LANSA
Industrial Strength Software Company
ChangeMaster gives developers control over all software changes to applications, displays or runs reports against project history logs, provides version control for all objects and source, and conforms to any program development methodology. It's compatible with PDM and a number of third-party application software products and works for any language supported by S/36, S/38, and System i machines.
     ChangeMaster for LANSA is a version of ChangeMaster tailored to work with LANSA's suite of application-development tools.
industrial-strength.com

Docu-Mint
Business Computer Design International, Inc.
Docu-Mint provides users with software documentation, impact analysis, and cross-referencing for existing applications. It works with CL, all versions of System i RPG code, and RPG II and OCL code in S/36 environments. Docu-Mint generates overviews of job flow, commands, procedures, programs, menus, queries, files, and user profiles associated with applications.
bcdsoftware.com

Easy400
Simtech Solutions, Inc.
Easy400 is an integrated suite of development and system-management utilities for the System i. One utility is Data Detective, which lets users scan through databases for file and field descriptions that match a search argument and query the resulting files. Data Detective then shows how those files are used and what programs use them. The Object Usage Utility cross-references objects and shows how all the programs, files, and other objects interact with each other.
easy400.com

Implementer
MKS Source Integrity Enterprise
MKS, Inc.
Implementer and MKS Source Integrity Enterprise are part of the MKS Integrity Suite, a group of products that helps IT departments manage the complete application life cycle. Implementer controls software configuration management and deployment on the System i.
     MKS Source Integrity Enterprise handles software configuration management, version control, and distributed team development tasks across multiple enterprise platforms.
mks.com

MDCMS
MDXREF
Midrange Dynamics GmbH
MDCMS is a change-management system for the System i that includes tools for project management, analysis management, source and object management, and software installation and distribution management.
     MDXREF is an application navigation system for the System i that tracks and reports on the interrelationships of all files and objects in application libraries. MDXREF supports all System i programming languages and includes file-referencing, process-flow, object and library comparison, and journal-analysis functions. MDXREF is included free with purchase of MDCMS.
midrangedynamics.com

MULTI Master
PGMREF Master
KST Software, Ltd.
MULTI Master is a collection of utilities that helps developers retrieve information about various types of System i objects, such as files, objects, libraries, data areas, sources, jobs, and spooled files. It also lets users compare objects such as libraries and source files.
     PGMREF Master is an object cross-referencing solution that provides information about programs, menus, copy specifications and queries, and even OCL/36 and CLP overrides in S/36 environments. Via program-tree mapping, cross-reference, inventory, and exception reports, PGMREF shows where all objects are located, how they interact with each other, and other information.
kstsoftware.com

Pathfinder
Hawkeye Information Systems, Inc.
Pathfinder analyzes files, programs, fields, and other system and user objects and cross-references their use. It also includes functions for software documentation and application impact analysis, as well as other utilities for managers, developers, programmers, and security officers.
hawkinfo.com

PDE/400
RPG/Externalizer
Applied Logic Corporation
PDE/400 is a facility for System i software development and maintenance that works with PDM and includes functions for change management, application documentation and cross-referencing, and intelligent object re-creation and compilation.
     RPG/Externalizer is an automated system that restructures RPG programs by using program-described data-file definitions (I-specs and O-specs) on the System i and modernizes the code to use external definitions.
alcsoftware.com

ReAL-i
Tata Consultancy Services, Ltd.
ReAL-i is an automation system for redesigning legacy System i applications in ILE RPG and other languages to work in a services-oriented architecture. It includes tools that analyze existing applications and objects and build a technology-independent framework that separates presentation, functional logic, database, and other layers.
tcs.com

Real-Time Program Audit (RTPA)
Harkins Audit Software, Inc.
RTPA works with programs written in RPG and CL (and Cobol) to audit their execution line by line but without setting breakpoints or interfering in the program's functioning. Any program to which users apply RTPA records every action the program takes to a special audit file that users can review to see the execution of source statements, record formats, data field contents, keys, key lists, and indicators. RTPA can help developers figure out what a program does, find bugs, and analyze what other software objects the program affects.
harkinsaudit.com

RPG-Alive
RPG-Alive GUI
RPG-Alive Indenter
Profound Logic Software, Inc.
RPG-Alive is an application development aid that adds graphical and organization features to IBM's SEU editor to help make RPG source code easier to understand. It also works in STRISDB and ILE STRDBG. RPG-Alive outlines RPG and CL structures, color-codes parameters and specifications other than C-specs, highlights comments, enables opcode selection from a menu, delimits subroutines and subprocedures, and includes other features.
     RPG-Alive GUI incorporates all of RPG-Alive's features in a graphical rather than a green-screen SEU environment.
     RPG-Alive Indenter lets developers browse and print CL or RPG code using an indented view. The indenter connects related RPG statements and delimits RPG subroutines and procedures. The tool integrates with the System i Programming Development Manager and can be accessed from the command line.
profoundlogic.com

RPG Decompiler
Jugger Enterprises, LLC
The RPG Decompiler reverse-engineers RPG/36, RPG/38, and RPG/400 program objects back into RPG source members, including arrays and subroutines, provided that the observable information hasn't been stripped out of the analyzed program objects.
juggersoft.com

RPG Toolbox
Linoma Software
RPG Toolbox is a collection of developer productivity tools for System i application development. It works with SEU and, among other features, color-codes application source, highlights comment lines, displays and prints nested RPG logic in an indented fashion, and shows connections between the beginnings and endings of control structures. RPG Toolbox works with CL, CMD, DDS, RPG III, RPG/400, RPG IV, and RPG/Free source.
linomasoftware.com

SEE/Change
Thenon Holdings, Ltd.
SEE/Change is an application life-cycle­-management suite that includes change-management tools for controlling and automating any software project. It works with applications written in Cobol, HTML, Java, RPG, or ILE RPG. Other features include functions for managing projects, development tasks, software testing, and application deployment.
thenon.net

SMI SuperVisor
Software Management, Inc.
SMI SuperVisor is a System i application modernization tool that supports analysis of deployed applications. Its more than 400 functions include impact analysis, integrity analysis across multiple System i systems connected via a network, object and source reconciliation, and identification of variations in system values between different System i machines. The product also includes a command interface to control product functions and manage results, the ability to automate necessary source-code modifications, and test-data management capabilities.
smisupervisor.com

TOTAL/400-DU
ADEonics, Inc.
TOTAL/400-DU is a documentation utility for applications written using RPG, ILE RPG, RPG/Free, CLP, CBL, and OCL. It helps developers maintain software documentation, do change-impact analysis, determine where and how applications are processing information, and cross-reference object use. Compatible with SEU, SDA, and PDM, TOTAL/400-DU documents menus, files, commands, fields, and data areas and includes a number of other programmer productivity aids.
adeonics.com

TurnOver Change Management
SoftLanding Systems, Inc.
TurnOver Change Management integrates change management, PC version control, and development tools with issue tracking, project management, and application deployment functions to streamline and unify the software development process. TurnOver is a WDSc plug-in and includes built-in cross-referencing, support for impact analysis, and code tracking.
softlanding.com

X-Analysis
Databorough, Ltd.
X-Analysis analyzes and documents applications from high-level visual diagrams right down to individual variables. It includes functions for data modeling, pseudocode analysis, impact analysis, data analysis, and business-rule extraction. X-Analysis is a WDSc plug-in and supports applications written in any version of Cobol or RPG, Java, SQL, CL, and OCL.
databorough.com

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