Re: APIs was Last RRN -- MIDRANGE-L

Nina,

Responses in line.

At 06:27 PM 6/3/00, you wrote:
>the lack of cheap and available manuals!  you can't go to hastings and
>buy as/400 for dummies.

I have been downloading the manuals and Redbooks in PDF format for several 
years now.  I just print them on a duplex printer on 3 hole paper and put 
them in a binder.  This works for me and is a lot cheaper than buying the 
hard copy manuals from IBM.

>and i haven't heard much good to say about ibm's on line manuals.  (i
>miss the old hard copy manuals.  those that i could pour over, make
>notes in, etc.)

I'm not too sure I like them either from what I have seen so far.  We now 
seem to have bits and pieces all over the place.  When you try to print the 
PDF manual for the APIs, you keep seeing whole sections that are missing, 
they just refer you to the info center.  I have printed a section of the 
info center API manual, but it just doesn't fit in with the rest of the 
manual.  Different page numbering and not included in the index or table of 
contents.

>which leads me to the next one, the cost of keeping current.  you can go
>to the vo-tech and take microsoft type computer classes, but as/400
>classes like this are now scarce.  the self study courses that are
>available are expensive, especially compared to things like 'learn vb in
>21 days'

What works for me is to try out the new stuff on my own time using the PDF 
manuals, Redbooks like the "Who Knew You Could Do That with RPG IV" and the 
News/400 and Midrange magazines. Just pick some project that is fun for you 
or maybe could help you out at work. There have also been several night 
classes offered at the local university - Object Oriented analysis and 
design, C++  and Java.  Common is a good deal too.  This is what all that 
"spare" time you have in the evenings and weekends is for, right? :)

>when you are wearing your contractor's hat, you go by the rules that the
>shop you're working for follows.  you can discuss new techniques with
>them, but if they tell you don't use them, well, they are the ones
>writing the check, and that have to maintain the code after you're gone.

I hear you on this one. I guess I have been lucky so far.  When I have 
asked my clients if I could write something in ILE/RPG, they don't seem to 
mind.  What I try to do with the newer stuff is keep the code as simple and 
self documenting as possible to start with and show them how easy it 
is.  Of course, there is still a bunch of the packaged vendor code that you 
can't do much about.

One of the things that really bugs me is that some of the clients don't 
even have manuals, or if they do, they are old RPG II or RPG III type 
manuals. How anyone can effectively run an IS department without any 
current manuals is beyond me.  What I have done is load the complete Book 
Manager CD on my laptop with bookshelves for most frequently used 
books.  If I want to see some detail about an op code, just bring up the 
ILE/RPG manual and search.  The search usually brings up exactly what I am 
looking for.  The Book Manager manuals are terrible to read through, but 
seem to work for looking up something you sort of know about.  I will have 
to start trying something new for this now that they are moving all the 
manuals to the Info Center.  I have not been too impressed with the Info 
center so far.


Dave Murvin
DRM Enterprises, Inc.
davem@drme.com

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