At COMMON last week, we caught up with George Farr, who is now with the IBM Rational organization and is the overall product line manager for all System i application development tools. We were specifically looking for answers about the latest WDSc 7.0 brouhaha — and we got a few. . . .

So George, we heard about some major internal changes at IBM between Rational and WebSphere — what's all that about?

Application development tools for System i were moved into Rational in the last month or so, consolidating under one Software Group brand the development tools for all of IBM's hardware platforms. One benefit of this move will be a better alignment of Rational's suite of software development lifecycle tools with System i. As a result of the transition, Rational is currently in the process of evaluating the packaging strategy for System i tools. This is great news for System i customers. We expect to have a broad focus on the System i platform, and we are quite excited about better serving the needs of System i customers. All of the usual IBM System i evangelists whom System i customers are used to dealing with from IBM's Rochester and Toronto labs have moved to Rational, along with the outstanding tools they have built, so we won't lose a step in terms of the deep understanding that we have of the System i platform, technologies, and customers. We do hope to bring a fresh and bright perspective to the System i tools arena, though, and we will announce, along with the System i team in Rochester, the new System i tools strategy later this year.

Now that's interesting . . . OK, then, what is all the fuss about the screen designer in WDSc?

Immediately after Rational took responsibility for the System i tools, an issue arose that has concerned a number of System i customers. The inclusion of a "technology preview" of the new, WYSIWYG 5250 screen designer in WDSc Advanced Edition version 7.0, released on March 16, 2007, created a concern that we would only provide this feature in our top-end development tool for System i.

Before I continue, it's beneficial to understand IBM's purpose for "technology previews." When we have a component or feature that is not ready for delivery as a formal product — but is ready for and would benefit from customer feedback — we provide it as a "technology preview" with a related product or sometimes by itself if it is able to stand on its own. This mechanism also provides customers with a tangible demonstration of our future directions.

Including a "technology preview" of a feature with a certain product doesn't necessarily indicate that the tech preview feature will be included in that product when it is ready for IBM to release as a proper feature.

So, are you still saying that the screen designer will be left in Advanced Edition?

Since we are currently in the process of evaluating our packaging strategies, I can confirm that we do not intend to include the 5250 designer solely in an advanced edition development tool.

The new Eclipse-based 5250 screen designer is currently being "tech previewed" in WDSc AE. When it is ready for general availability, we're committed to delivering it as part of our entry-level System i development tools. We will discuss this in more detail later on this year.

For now then, what should customers use for designing 5250 screens and reports?

Let me assure you, nothing has been taken or removed from the recently announced release. Version 7.0 of the WDSc standard edition development tools contain exactly the same components as WDSc standard edition 6.0 and 6.1. Yes, indeed, version 7.0 continues to provide the CODE designer tools, which is part of the CODE/400 product, as the current tools for designing green screens and printer files. Version 7.0 did not include any statement about withdrawing any product or a component from an existing product in WDSc.

We've got a few seconds left . . . anything else you'd like to add?

After 22 years of service in the IBM Toronto Lab — I just celebrated my anniversary on May 1 — working on midrange systems in various roles, this to me just confirms the great set of customers that we have out there using the System i. We are absolutely thrilled to see such a vibrant and interested community of developers around System i! We appreciate the kind of direct, well thought out, and constructive feedback that we've seen over the last several weeks on this topic, and we look forward to interacting much more with the System i community. I am looking forward to continuing to work with all of our loyal customers. Thanks for your support!