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

Colin,

Well I think you need to be a little bit beyond the novice stage to use them
properly rather than just getting them working, so that you avoid the kind
of release to release problems that cropped up in the LSTFFD utility for
example. Not that I'm suggesting that Brad is anything other than A1, of
course. In this case I think he was working with inherited code, but it
illustrates that there are traps in coding for the APIs. If they can bite
Brad they can bite anyone.

I think Dean has also highlighted occasions in the past where his client
company ran into release problems because their technical programmers
thought they knew how to use  APIs but apparently didn't.

A set of wrappers that make the APIs easier to use, and more importantly
force you to use them correctly, could be a serious productivity aid IMO.

Dave Kahn
Johnson & Johnson International (Ethicon) France
Phone : +33 1 55 00 3180
Email :  dkahn1@jnjfr.jnj.com (work)
           dkahn@cix.co.uk      (home)

-----Message d'origine-----
De: Colin Williams [mailto:Williamsc@technocrats.co.uk]
Date: 16 July 1999 10:26
À: 'MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com'
Objet: 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
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