NEW COURSE!
WDSC for RPG Programmers

Take the first step on IBM's modernization road map.
(WebSphere Development Studio Client)
Step-by-step instruction
with illustrations
 

Introduction

With this new course, you'll learn how to use the features and functions of WDSC to edit and manage your iSeries source code. First, you will connect to your iSeries and see how the Remote System Explorer replaces PDM. You'll then use the LPEX source code editor, a super- charged replacement for SEU. Some of the features in LPEX, such as split-screen editing and code outlining, can dramatically increase your coding productivity.

If you’re an RPG programmer, then let us introduce you to your future: WDSC. IBM’s long-standing development tools, PDM and SEU, have all but been put out to pasture; no new development will go into these tools except to keep them current with syntax changes in the traditional iSeries languages. Now IBM is putting all of its tool development dollars into the new Eclipse-based tooling, including WDSC.

WDSC does everything its green screen predecessors do (including line-oriented commands and user-defined actions) and then takes them one step further: multi-file member lists, cross-library searches, source generation wizards, the list goes on! The Outline view and the Verify feature by themselves can make you more productive the first day you use them. And as more and more companies switch to WDSC, you’ll want this powerful tool in your toolkit as well.

WDSC is not just an RPG development tool! It is the most sophisticated and fully featured web application development environment available today. After completing your day-to-day work, you can use WDSC’s extensive help and tutorials to begin to learn everything from basic web development to Java coding to advanced Web Services design! And the more you use WDSC, the more comfortable you will become with this new generation of tools. So move out of the green screen paradigm and into the multi-platform, multi-language world of WDSC! My new training course, WDSC for RPG Programmers, is a good way to jump-start your RPG code modernization.

WDSC for RPG Programmers is a step-by-step manual, leading you through all of the options that you need to know about to use WDSC as a replacement for SEU/PDM. This module has many illustrations so you can see exactly where the options are, and what you need to do to make them work. Rather than spend hours of frustration trying to get started with WDSC, you can use this course to quickly become productive. In short, at the end of this course you will have gained the skills you need to use WDSC to Modernize, maintain and enhance your existing RPG code.

Compare WDSC's features and functionality to the old PDM and SEU:

Connections
One of the toughest things about switching to a PC-based tool is connecting to your host. The first thing you'll learn in WDSC for RPG Programmers, is how to set up connections customized to your work environment using library lists and initial programs. You'll even see how to have multiple connections and how they can be used to organize your projects.

Filters
WRKMBRPDM is a great tool, but it pales in comparison to filters in WDSC. Filters allow you to create sets of libraries, objects or members, and you can even create member lists across multiple files and libraries! You can have as many filters as you need and have more than one open in your navigator view. This course walks you through creating your own filter.

Tables
And if filters aren't enough by themselves, you will learn how to convert a filter to a table view. If you don't like the Windows Explorer style tree view, the table view provides a nearly identical interface to PDM; you can even drill into libraries and files. And in either view you can access user actions.

Actions
Another great feature of PDM is user-defined functions: those little two-character abbreviations we can use to save a library or reorganize a member, or even to invoke our own compile commands. Learn how to take your existing user-defined PDM options and reuse them as user actions.

Searching
FNDSTRPDM is another great green-screen command that WDSC has taken to heart and expanded its capabilities greatly. This lab shows you how to perform a search across multiple files and libraries and how to use the results view, both as a way to review the code and also as a way to launch the editor for those members that need to be changed.

LPEX Editor
Learn how the standard line-oriented SEU commands are still supported in addition to the newer mouse-oriented full-screen commands available in every PC-based IDE. This lab will explain the colorized syntax, show you how to define your preferences and will introduce wizards that will help you write your code. You'll even learn how to have multiple editable views of the same source member open simultaneously!

Outline
One of the most powerful features of WDSC is the outline view. In it, you can see every file, every field, every subroutine and every procedure. The outline mode shows you where every indicator is used, and where it is modified. This lab shows you how to use the outline: find a field, see where it is modified, and be transferred immediately to that line with a single click.

Verify
One of the more productive things you'll be taught is how to use the verify tool. Functioning like an interactive compiler error listing, this feature performs a complete compile-level verification of your source code and returns all the errors in a task list. You'll learn how to use that list to find the mistakes in your code as well as keeping track of the lines you've fixed; easier and more eco-friendly than a paper listing and post-it notes!

Compiling
Every compile command is available, from CRTPF to CRTBNDRPG. You'll see an example of using the compile commands to create your objects, and how to see the results of these commands.

Debugging
Last but by no means least, you'll get a complete step-by-step exercise of the debugging capabilities of the tool. WDSC is the only cross-platform debugging tool that handles RPG the same way it handles PC-based languages. Learn how to set breakpoints, display and even change variables while debugging programs running on your host.

Here's just some of the important techniques
you'll learn in the
WDSC for RPG Programmers module
:


    Chapter 1: Setting Up
    Chapter Goals
    Requirements
    Host Requirements
    Workstation Requirements
    WDSC Requirements
    Installing the Software
    First Things First
    Installing the Software
    Ready to Go!

    Chapter 2: Connecting to the iSeries
    Chapter Goals
    Start WDSC
    Create a New Connection
    Configure Connection Startup
    Option A for Configuring the Connection
    Dynamically Changing your Connection
    Option B for Configuring the Connection
    ConclusionsChapter 3: Migrating from PDM to RSE and the Table View
    Chapter Goals
    Filters
    Creating a Library Filter
    A Quick Guide to Using Filters
    Using Filters
    Deleting a Filter
    Creating a Useful Filter
    Tables
    An Introduction to Standard Actions
    Customizing the Table View
    More on Working with Tables
    Commands
    Actions Revisited
    User Actions
    SearchingChapter 4: Migrating from SEU to the LPEX Editor
    Chapter Goals
    Invoking the LPEX Editor
    Customizing Your Perspective
    Introducing the LPEX Editor
    Syntax Coloring
    Time to Meet the Program
    What You’re Going to Do
    Basic Editing Capabilities
    Using the Line-Oriented Commands
    Preferences
    Back to Work: Using Your Cursor
    Adding a Subprocedure
    Docking on the Right
    Advanced LPEX Editor Features
    The Outline View
    Split Screen
    Finding Matching Control StructuresChapter 5: Compiling Your Program
    Chapter Goals
    Verify
    Check Your Library List
    Performing a Verify
    Compiling
    Default CRTBNDRPG Execution

    Chapter 6: Debugging, the Final Frontier
    Chapter Goals
    The Setup
    The Way SETENVLIB Used to Work
    What We Want to Accomplish
    Testing the Assumption
    Debugging
    A Little Green Screen Setup
    Getting the Program Rolling
    The Debug Perspective
    Setting a Breakpoint
    Run it Again
    Step by Step, Slowly I Turned
    Changing Program Variables Dynamically
    And That’s It!

OS/400 V5R2 minimum is reccomended

Click here for printable order form

COURSE CODE : WDSC

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