midrange.com - In My Humble Opinion

COMMON 2010

It’s time for the COMMON Conference once again … this time in Orlando Florida. This conference will be especially auspicious because it’s the 50th anniversary of the COMMON organization. If you would like to say Hi, stop by the MKS booth on the expo floor. You can also pick up an official midrange.com button. I [...]

SQL Columns with CCSID 1200

I’ve recently been working on an ILE RPG program that needs to read a SQL table that has a VARCHAR column encoded with CCSID 1200 (Unicode). Since RPG doesn’t normally handle Unicode, it takes a little extra effort to process the contents. Here’s a quick example of how you handle this data … The key to handling Unicode [...]

Pete Helgren – COMMON BoD Candidate 2010

Editors note: This is the (hopefully) first in a series of posts by guest authors … all of whom are candidates for the COMMON Board of Directors. These articles will be posted in the order they are received, with no preference being given to anyone. I love the i and the Power platform and I have [...]

Quick Tip: API data lengths

Here’s a quick tip for troubleshooting API calls: If you are calling an API and notice that data you are expecting isn’t being provided, verify that you are allocating enough space for the return values and telling it how much space you’ve allocated. Many APIs require you to allocate space to hold the returned info – but [...]

New Years, CEF, & Al Barsa

The year end is approaching fast … and now is the time to get those pesky charitable contributions sent in in order to be considered for 2009. The COMMON Education Foundation’s Al Barsa scholarship is a charity I consider well worth an investment … and I encourage you to send what you can. midrange.com has just faxed [...]

COMMON Board Elections

Time for a little politisizing here … well, not really. With the COMMON conference a few months away, the COMMON organization announced the candidates for the next board of directors election. Running for the three board positions available are … Pete Helgren Jeff Carey Kevin Mort Jim Oberholtzer Ron Pilcher I’ve offered each of the candidates (with the exception of Ron, who I [...]

Another PTF Oops

Thanks to Bryan Dietz, we found another “oopsie” in a PTF cover sheet … Warning, this contains language that some might find objectionable … but most will laugh. \ Strangely, dealing with DBCS always gives me indigestion. Technorati Tags: language, oops, ptf

COMMON won’t be the same

As I mentioned in a previous post, there are going to be a lot of major changes at the next COMMON conference … and some of those changes are having impact: Jon Paris & Susan Gantner are not going to be presenting. I know for a fact that Jon & Susan are extraordinarily popular and good presenters [...]

Linux Desktop for IBM i Users

Aaron Bartell, and a few others, came up with a pretty neat idea: A Linux desktop for IBM i developers (and/or users). Based on Ubuntu, the desktop environment would provide tools that an IBM i developer needs. 5250 Emulator IDE Mail Web Etc… A list has been created to coordinate the project … LinuxDesktop4i. Check it out if you’re interested in moving away [...]

Promoting the i

Trevor Perry’s recent blog post Asleep at the wheel asks “How many of you have told someone outside this community about this amazing platform?” Well, I for one, can say that I did just that … and continue to do so as often as I can. I was at a party a friend of mine was throwing [...]