You can still program on IBM i with SEU and PDM, and many do. But there is a technical fact: SEU is part of ADTS, which IBM's modernisation Redbook says has been classed as legacy tooling since 2008, that is since V6R1, and since then has had no updates, including support for new RPG features.
Anyone writing syntax that arrived later in SEU sees correct constructs flagged as errors. This is not an opinion about editors: it is why, at some point, you change tool.
The three routes
SEU and PDM. The integrated editor and manager, inside the 5250 session. They remain the only thing available everywhere, with nothing to install, and for a quick fix on a system you have just connected to they are still the fastest route.
RDi: Rational Developer for i. IBM's Eclipse-based environment, for Windows and macOS. It is complete: an editor that knows the language, a graphical debugger, navigation across sources, integration with compiling.
VS Code with Code for IBM i. The extension that brings development on this platform into VS Code, Microsoft's free, open-source editor: source members open as though they were files, you compile from the editor, errors appear on the line, and you navigate objects and the database. Newcomers already know the editor.
Tip
the choice is not exclusive and does not have to be made for the whole department at once. Anyone wanting to try the new way of working can install VS Code on their own PC and connect to the system without asking anybody and without changing anything on the system: the sources stay where they are, and compiling produces the same objects.
What genuinely changes when the tool changes
It is not aesthetics. It is three things that do not exist in a 5250 session.
Searching all the code in a second. Finding every place a field is used, or every program calling a procedure, is something that with the traditional tools takes dedicated commands and patience.
Seeing the error on the line. Compiling with OPTION(*EVENTF), the editor reads the
events file and puts errors where they belong, instead of leaving the spooled listing to be
consulted separately.
Having the source under git. With sources on the IFS you get branches, history, diffs and review requests as in any other project. It is the point at which development on this platform stops being a world apart in the way the work is done, too.
The rest of the toolbox
ACS: Access Client Solutions. The program you connect with: 5250 emulator, IFS browsing, file transfer, and above all Run SQL Scripts, the environment where queries get written and tried. It runs in Java on any operating system, is free, and has replaced the old Windows client.
Automated build tooling. The gap left by the absence of a project file has been filled by community tools that compile a whole application following its dependencies, and that integrate with git and with continuous integration systems. They are the answer to "how do I rebuild everything in the right order without a hand-written CL".
Package managers. IBM i runs a wide collection of open source software — Python, Node, Git, Bash — installable and updatable as on any Unix system. It is why you can now automate something on the system without writing a CL.
How to start, if you are starting now
The least-friction order, for anyone wanting to change how they work without asking for a project:
- ACS, to get Run SQL Scripts. On its own it changes how you look at data.
- VS Code with Code for IBM i, connected to the system. The sources stay where they are.
OPTION(*EVENTF)on compiles, to get errors on the right line.- A new application with sources on the IFS and under git, to try the full flow where nothing can break.
Note
none of these steps touches the production system, and each can be abandoned without a trace. It is the only realistic way of introducing new tools in a department where something has to run tonight.
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