Re: RDi source control -- WDSCI-L

One of the challenges with existing source control options (except for RTC) is they only support IFS directories but meanwhile most existing languages on the i don’t support the IFS during compiles.
RTC uses the iProject as a intermediate development environment and you can leverage that same model with other source control tools as they have windows extensions which allow you to manage the project folders in the eclipse workspace that contain any kind of native source.
But you are looking at a pretty crappy workflow prone to user error and you don’t have the Build function of RTC that delivers the changed source to a library and tags that build function with task ID (work Items).
That means building a release is a manual process, getting the source from the repository, compiling and deploying the objects to production.

We are adding support for Git to our Change Management system by automating the steps.
We’re using the Git web services to get and put source from the repository to/from an IFS directory and as part of that function we use the stream file functions CPYFRMSTMF and CPYTOSTMF for the checkout/checkin/compile.
To the developer they don’t know they are using Git, they are just right clicking.

My point is not that we have the only or best way but that automation is required to have a valid solution.
DevOps, the current buzzword, is ALL about automation.
I’ve been doing Change Management on the i a long time and in my experience, if it’s not relatively easy, or provides some benefit (ideally both) for the developer that will be a rationalization why they won’t use it consistently.
If you don’t use source control consistently then it’s irrelevant.
I’ve seen a lot of different excuses to go around source control/CM over the years and sometimes the only problem is to reconcile the changes but usually the exception is found because a problem comes up in production.
Most commonly the problem comes up, gets fixed outside of control then comes up again when that program is changed under normal circumstances.
a Change Control process (not a tool, but a process and everyone has one of those) should also accommodate deployment of hot fixes as quickly as possible so they happen under change control and can be incorporated into the normal Change Control process.

So whatever you do, think about process and usability and all the different use cases that need to be accommodated.
As Jim pointed out, at some point in building your own tool may not be competitive with buying one, especially if your company is growing.

Thanks
Jeff Tickner
Arcad Software

date: Tue, 29 Mar 2016 10:42:53 -0500
from: "Edmund Reinhardt" <edmund.reinhardt@xxxxxxxxxx>
subject: Re: [WDSCI-L] RDi source control

BTW, I am doing a talk at COMMON about Git on IBM i. Some exciting news
coming soon in this space.

https://commons16.sched.org/event/9c0241c59b86b92d2274de76fcc4a427

From: "Jim Oberholtzer" <midrangel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "'Rational Developer for IBM i / Websphere Development Studio
Client for System i & iSeries'" <wdsci-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: 25/03/2016 03:34 PM
Subject: Re: [WDSCI-L] RDi source control
Sent by: "WDSCI-L" <wdsci-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx>

Mike,

What your describing sounds more like source control than change management
so I really wonder if GIT might not be the solution for you. Several of my
customers are using it now and while it's a learning curve to get set up
and
running the way you want it, I think you could mimic your process described
below without too much problem.

That said, it might be just as easy and cost effective to pick one the
change management packages, although most of them have feature/function
well
beyond your stated needs at this point.

--
Jim Oberholtzer
Agile Technology Architects

-----Original Message-----
From: WDSCI-L [mailto:wdsci-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Mike
Cunningham
Sent: Friday, March 25, 2016 1:35 PM
To: Rational Developer for IBM i / Websphere Development Studio Client for
System i & iSeries
Subject: Re: [WDSCI-L] RDi source control

I did ask about check in/out controls but also version history. We need
something to replace a homegrown process we built into SEU. We put a
frontend on SEU that required a programmer to check out a source file for
RPG/CL/DDS source and at that time it made a copy of the source to a
secondary file (actually 10 secondary files that each version kept rolling
back to. When a new copy was made member in file10 is cleared and file9
copied to file10, file8 copied to file9, etc). Other programmers were
preventing from accessing the code in anything other what view mode in SEU.
Programmer had to check the file back in when promoted to production. That
worked great until we started doing some Java work but only had one java
person at the time. How we have 3 and newer hires are using RDi and the
older programmers are moving there too. So our SEU based system is dead and
we need something that provides that same check out, check in, version
history function. And we are still planning on using the traditional source
QRPGSRC, QDDSSRC, QCLSRC and all of our java code is in the IFS.

Mike C

-----Original Message-----
From: WDSCI-L [mailto:wdsci-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jeroen van
Lommel
Sent: Friday, March 25, 2016 9:23 AM
To: Rational Developer for IBM i / Websphere Development Studio Client for
System i & iSeries <wdsci-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [WDSCI-L] RDi source control

To do a build on IBM i you indeed need the Enterprise Extensions, but Mikes
question is just referring to source control (check out, check in, ...)
then
a 'normal' RTC would be sufficient I think.

Regards,

Jeroen Van Lommel
Competence Center Co?rdinator Systems
ASIST
Slachthuislaan 00.01 - 3000 Leuven (Belgium)
tel: +32 (0)16 271077 - fax: +32 (0)11 825244
mobile: +32 (0)494 343519
e-mail: jvl@xxxxxxxx - website: www.asist.be

-----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
Van: WDSCI-L [mailto:wdsci-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] Namens Mark Murphy/STAR
BASE Consulting Inc.
Verzonden: vrijdag 25 maart 2016 14:04
Aan: Rational Developer for IBM i / Websphere Development Studio Client for
System i & iSeries <wdsci-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Onderwerp: Re: [WDSCI-L] RDi source control

But the first 10 developers are not free in the Enterprise version right?
And that is the version required to connect to IBM i.

Mark Murphy
STAR BASE Consulting, Inc.
mmurphy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

-----Jeroen van Lommel <jeroen_van_lommel@xxxxxxxx> wrote: -----
To: "Rational Developer for IBM i / Websphere Development Studio Client for
System i & iSeries" <wdsci-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: Jeroen van Lommel <jeroen_van_lommel@xxxxxxxx>
Date: 03/25/2016 08:45AM
Subject: Re: [WDSCI-L] RDi source control

Hi,

I implement RTC/Arcad as source control. RTC has a plugin for both RDi
(RPG) and eclipse (Java). So both RPG and java sources are going to the
same repository.
RTC (Rational Team Concert) is free up to 10 developers, feel free to
contact me for more information.

Regards,

Jeroen Van Lommel - IBM Champion 2016 Power Systems
Competence Center Co?rdinator Systems
ASIST
Slachthuislaan 00.01 - 3000 Leuven (Belgium)
tel: +32 (0)16 271077 - fax: +32 (0)11 825244
mobile: +32 (0)494 343519
e-mail: jvl@xxxxxxxx - website: www.asist.be

-----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
Van: WDSCI-L [mailto:wdsci-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] Namens Mike Cunningham
Verzonden: vrijdag 25 maart 2016 13:14
Aan: Rational Developer for IBM i / Websphere Development Studio Client for
System i & iSeries <wdsci-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Onderwerp: [WDSCI-L] RDi source control

What options are available for doing source code control (check out, check
in, version control, etc) from within RDi in a mixed Java and RGP
environment?

Mike Cunningham

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