Re: WebSphere Development Studio Client for iSeries, V4.0

Sam, Phil ... some responses to your queries about WebSphere Development
Studio Client,
and some additional information I'm sure you meant to ask :-)

#1. This is the next release of WDT, and as usual we don't know how to ship
it to you
      automatically,   so you will need to order it via 5722-WDS, refresh
code 2655. You
      need V5R1 or higher to order it, but it will run against V4R5
systems.
      For those who bought WDT as a workstation product, and have passport
advantage,
      apparently it will be shipped to you automatically. If not, there is
an upgrade fee, as the
      price of the workstation product (versus getting it with WDS) has
gone up (way up).

 #2. It is built on top of WSSDa (WebSphere Studio Site Developer
Advanced). You do not
      have to pay extra for this! It is a built-in part of WDSC. To buy it
separately would cost
      $2000 per programmer. You are welcome!

 #3. Yes, it fully supports XP for both home and office. I believe WinME
support is gone, while
        Win98/NT is support is still there but not for long. Like
Microsoft, we are quickly moving to
        a point where only Win2K and WinXP will be supported...

 #4. Look at WDSc as a number of "plugins" to the IDE supplied by WSSDa.
Indeed, WSSDa
        is itself a number of plugin on top of eclipse. So, eclipse
supplies the core IDE and
        team-enablement, as well as the Java tooling (and the
infrastructure for snapping in
        plugins).
        WSSDa adds to this:
             - Web tools, including a WAS 4.0 test environment built-in
             - XML tools
             - Web Services tools
             - Java application profiling/performance tools
             - Database tools
       WDSc add to this:
             - RPG and COBOL tools
                    - a pdm/cpo-like remote system explorer and built-in
Lpex editor
                    - iSeries projects for more disciplined team-sharable
development
             - Java tools for iSeries
                    - remote import/export/compile/run/debug, program call
wizard, toolbox, beans, etc
                    - the program call wizard generates beans consumable by
the web services
                        wizard. Eg: quick way to expose an ILE procedure as
a web service)
             - Web tools for iSeries
                    - web interaction wizard, design-time-controls (web
widgets)
             - WebFacing, now tightly integrated into this and able to
exploit the built-in
                    Java and Web tools as well as the built-in WAS test
environment.

   #5. Eclipse and hence WSSDa and WDSc is totally extendible via plugins
written in Java.
          Watch for many additional tools coming from business partners.
The tools for writing
          plugins are all part of eclipse, so you can write your own too!

    #6. CODE/400 and VARPG are still available "on the side". Eventually,
these will disappear
          as their functionality gets totally consumed by eclipse plugins.
But, alas, that will take a
          few releases. In the meantime, they are easily launched from
within the WDSc IDE.

    #7. There are not too many enhancements in the "classic" CODE/400 or
VARPG products,
           but there are some tweaks to be sure. Mostly fixes requested
right here on this forum.
           Maybe we can get Hak and Michelle to list those enhancements.
However, our focus
           now is the new RPG and COBOL tooling inside the IDE, and
evolving that to catch up and
           then surpass the current CODE product's functionality. We are
not there yet, but we are
           intensely focused on it.

Watch the www.ibm.com/software/ad/wds400 website over the coming weeks for
more and
more information ... eg, we are just about to put up a bunch of
presentations. By June 28th, we
hope to have a number of hands-on labs and camtasia videos available too.

Also, the July issue of the IBM iSeries magazine (or eServer I guess its
called now) will have
3 articles on WDSc. And if you go to any conferences, like the upcoming
iSeries Technical
Conference in Las Vegas, we'll be doing numerous presentations and offering
numerous
hands-on labs to test drive various pieces of this exciting new product.

Oh, and please assume that once you get it, you'll have to get the first
service pack that will
be available coincident with GA ... business as usual :-)


Phil Coulthard, iSeries Software Architect,  IBM Canada Ltd.
coulthar@ca.ibm.com.