Happy New Year and Welcome to the #IBMi update.
For the start of 2024, in this update, I’ll be discussing the top three articles from the 2023 IBM i Updates.
You can watch the video below or read the full article underneath.
Watch the Video:
Full Article:
#3 Coding and Developing using AI
Now, in 2023, the third most read and watched article from the IBM i update was from the June blog post.
In this edition, I visited the beautiful city of Prague and joined Common Europe for their summer conference.
There were a number of interesting vendor presentation but AI seemed to be the hot topic.
As such, one particular session, hosted by Remain Software CTO Wim Jongman discussed how it could be possible to use ChatGPT within RDI.
Wim first gave a brief history of AI, then went through a practical exercise in real-time of creating a simple Java program using ChatGPT. Further on, he explained how ChatGPT can support your development activities, from crafting SQL instructions to creating and decoding legacy code.
Here he introduced a dedicated API for RDi Eclipse that allows you to write code faster and more efficiently all within the one GUI. It was all very impressive. You can view this section from 0:27 in the video.
#2 Pros and Cons of Modern Web Languages on the IBM i
The second most read and watched articles from the IBM i update also came from the June blog post.
Alan Seiden, principle of Seiden group discussed the pros and cons of modern web languages to use to code in on IBM i.
Alan provided an unbiased opinion on the open source web languages choices for API and web development.
His parameters for qualification were threefold:
- The language could provide and consume API services
- The language could drive web applications
- Tthe language can both call and be called by both RPG and COBOL
Now, I encourage you to review his presentation in its entirety, but the three qualifying languages were PHP, possible the most popular web language on the planet, Python the most modern and clean and Node.JS, an efficient javascript runtime.
When looking at each language he applied some objective criteria in which you should use to select the language that right for your business.
These included the stability and support of the language, it’s longevity – not just on how long it’s been around but how well established it is too, any ‘superpowers’ it has – or, what’s it REALLY good at and the real litmus test, how simple it is to great a ‘hello world’ script.
Alan went onto explain that the rate of change in a language and stability are two opposing forces. Considerations therefore should be made to strike the correct balance for your business that provide the correct amount of certainty and longevity of code.
Alan left the decisions on what language was appropriate to the audience but went through some of the considerations.
With PHP, you’d enjoy the most established web language on the IBM i with a wealth of support, repositories and frameworks to choose from with a continually growing community.
Python is a dependable, clean language with exciting prospect but does have some compatibility issues if you’#re looking to push the envelope.
Similarly with Node.js this is stable but still evolving but could be a favourite if you’re familiar with Java script already.
To view this section, please view from 1:37 in the video.
#1 Artificial Intelligence and It’s Coding Capabilities for RPG Development
The most read and watched article from 2023 was from the March blog post.
In that we covered artificial intelligence… namely chatGPT, and discuss what it can do, its coding capabilities, how we can harness this and how it will change what we do.
Within the update, I introduced a piece of work that Roberto De Pedrini of FAQ400. He investigated how OpenAI could help support RPG development.
First, he asked ChatGPT to write him a simple ILE RPG program and results were fascinating.
You’ll need to watch the snippet of video to learn of his thoughts and the results he gained.
You can see his review of RPG on ChatGPT at 3:58 in the video.
To summarise, 2023 was not only a wonderful year for IBM i but also it’s birthday too – Happy 35th IBM i!
Thank you for taking the time to read and watch the blog posts, I hope to have plenty more stories and insight in 2024.
Should you wish to view any of the articles featured in full, please check out our IBM i blog here.
Catch our previous December IBM i Update here. Alternatively, if you’d like to receive the latest IBM i Update hot off the press to your inbox, subscribe to the newsletter version on LinkedIn here.
Posted by Rob on 11th January 2024.