RE: AS/400 shareware/utilities - was RE: File editor Freeware

I wouldn't agree that you need to be an expert programmer to use the
API's, although I would agree they take a while to set up in your code
the first time you use them.

-----Original Message-----
From: John Hall [mailto:jhall@hillmgt.com]
Sent: Thursday, July 15, 1999 7:20 PM
To: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
Subject: Re: AS/400 shareware/utilities - was RE: File editor Freeware


What we really need is something similar to the gnu libraries in unix/c

IBM has a ton of API's out there but you need to be an expert programmer
to get them to work (or copy an example)  A library of procedures to
make these EASY to use for everyone would go a long way towards
improving programmer productivity

John Hall

Joe Teff wrote:
> 
> >Simple wrappers for API's would be great start.  I've built a dozen
or so
> >myself and everytime I feel like I must be reinventing the same wheel
that
> >has probably already been written and tested in a hundred other
shops.  If
> >they were available in a package or as shareware, it would save
everyone a
> >great deal of time.
> >Maybe someone like Brad could keep them on his page and everyone
could
> >contribute to it.  I think I've seen him offer that before.  Or,
Cozzi has.
> >Even if a dozen different SendMessage procedures accumulated there.
They
> >would be like VB Tools where you can find forty-seven different
listboxes.
> >Pick your favorite, why rewrite it?  Why should I have to waste tons
of
> time
> >trying to figure out how to write the best random number generator,
it
> there
> >14 of them to pick from.
> >It would seem that after as many years as ILE has been out, there
should be
> >thousands of useful procedures available by now.  Where are they?
> 
> Actually, they are quite a few out there. You just have to know where
to
> look. I
> recently got into some CGI programming using RPG. I used Brad's MC
articles
> quite a bit. He referenced some procedures he used to wrap APIs. I
> downloaded
> this code and used his procedures. Along with it came a procedure to
convert
> an alpha field to a numeric feild. Now it's not a tremendously
complicated
> peice
> of code, on the other hand it is quite handy and I didn't have to
re-invent
> it. It
> would be great if there was a simple catalog that would list (and
describe)
> all
> peices of code available and give a reference to where they are at. I
would
> love
> to sift through all of the sites and compile all of the code in a
single
> place.
> Unfortunately, the time needed would be too great. I've saved all of
the
> code
> peices that have been posted to Dave's lists and still haven't found
time to
> catalog all of them. Any free time in the near future is going to be
spent
> on
> learning Java (and JavaScript for some web coding).
> 
> Joe Teff
> 
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