RE: RPG Migration

Raymond,

I get the impression that you don't have a lot of technical experience with the System i family.
Thus, I'll keep it short and sweet. If my assumption is wrong, let me know.

Basically, IBM puts considerable (some might say too much) effort into forward compatibility to
protect the investment of its customers

Thus, A program compiled at v4r2 will run at v4r2 or anything later.

But you're not even talking about the program object but the source itself. The only issue I can
recall concerning source that compiled successfully on one release and fails to compile on a later
release involved the embedded SQL pre-compiler. Since I doubt you RPGII programs have embedded SQL
you should be fine.

Moving forward to 6.1 is a non-issue as well. Just make sure when you compile the ILE RPG program
that you leave observeability on the program. (The only reason they wouldn't have it is if you'd
manually run CHGPGM RMVOBJS(*ALL) to get rid of it)

I'm not aware of any "conversions" when going to v5r3.

For the actual RPGII --> RPG IV conversion, I'd recommend taking a look at Linoma Software's RPG
Toolbox. http://www.linomasoftware.com/products/rpgtoolbox

The price is low and it actually converts to RPG IV syntax if you want it to (replacing ADD with EVAL
for example)


As far as moving the source from one box to another, assuming you've got them connected to the same
network, you could save the source and objects to a save file and just use FTP to transfer it.


HTH,


Charles Wilt
--
Software Engineer
CINTAS Corporation - IT 92B
513.701.1307

wiltc@xxxxxxxxxx

-----Original Message-----
From: rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Raymond Meade
Sent: Wednesday, July 09, 2008 3:01 PM
To: rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RPG Migration

Re: IBM Sys/36 (Advanced 36) and RPG-II migration.
       A question for all ye IBM RPG-II lovers (current and former),
       To convert from IBM RPG-II to IBM RPG-ILE



Over several years I have read many sources which have been revealing with
respect to IBM's continued phasing out of all "versions" of the Sys/36 and
IBM RPG-II code.  Here is a situation and a proposal for which I would
appreciate receipt of your ideas and comments that may provide information
as to our quest of RPG migration.

We currently have installed an IBM 9402-436 Processor which is used only
to run multiple M36 machines for production purposes.  The processor is at
release V4R2.  This old IBM processor can also function as any regular
as400.  I have converted and compiled several of the RPG-II programs to
RPG-ILE and they seem to compile and run okay in the 400 environment on
this old processor.

I am considering converting all of the RPG-II code to RPG-ILE which would
be done on this same old processor.  Do you think that it could then be
feasible to move this RPG-ILE source code to a later model processor (for
example one that was currently running on V5R3) and then recompile it on
the newer model processor? Our old processor has a 6390 IBM 8mm tape drive
which could possibly be read by an IBM 8mm tape drive on the newer
processor, which could then provide a method for moving the source code.
If this 8mm method of transfer would not work, hopefully there would be
available another method.

I am concerned if the above steps could be ignored or stopped if the
proposed V5R3 release level on the newer model processor were unable to
recognize or otherwise compile the ported RPG-ILE source from the old
processor.  These thoughts crossed my mind while I was reading two IBM
Redpapers, one of which dealt with conversion to V6R1 and another Redpaper
which dealt with conversion to V5R3.

Among the same general concerns pertaining to the recognition and
compatibility of ported RPG-ILE source to the proposed new processor is
that of license keys.  Would the presence of license keys on the new
processor pose a problem not dealt with in the above steps?

Please keep in mind that for current (ongoing) production purposes, the
RPG-II code would execute on our old processor only, and the RPG-ILE code
once completed and moved would execute on the new V5R3 processor only.  At
the stage when the move to the V5R3 processor is complete, it would become
the sole CPU in use.

Another concern about this proposal is the amount of elapsed time that
would occur until all of the RPG-ILE source code could actually be moved
to the target new processor.  Obviously it would be necessary to at least
confirm that several of the RPG-ILE sources from the old processor would
actually compile on the target newer processor, and that such
confirmations should occur at least every few months.  The elapsed time
also brings to mind concerns if the target new processor would be
available in the future at the target version level along with the other
"corresponding" supporting software that exists on the old processor such
as Advanced Function Printing (IPDS), to name just one.

The total amount of elapsed time would be several years in that the old
RPG-II sources on the old processor will have to be converted to RPG-ILE
before any porting, either partial or complete, should begin.

If you can, please let me know what you think.  If this is not feasible
than I am leaning toward a non IBM option for our RPG migration.  Your
consideration is most appreciated.




Sincerely,

Raymond Meade

E-Mail: paulwmeadeagency@xxxxxxxxx
Telephone: (405)-524-1541
Fax: (405)-524-6156



--
This is the RPG programming on the AS400 / iSeries (RPG400-L) mailing list
To post a message email: RPG400-L@xxxxxxxxxxxx
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options,
visit: http://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/rpg400-l
or email: RPG400-L-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives
at http://archive.midrange.com/rpg400-l.

This e-mail transmission contains information that is intended to be confidential and privileged. If you receive this e-mail and you are not a named addressee you are hereby notified that you are not authorized to read, print, retain, copy or disseminate this communication without the consent of the sender and that doing so is prohibited and may be unlawful. Please reply to the message immediately by informing the sender that the message was misdirected. After replying, please delete and otherwise erase it and any attachments from your computer system. Your assistance in correcting this error is appreciated.