Re: Get CHKLNK, CHKPFM, FNDSTR, etc programming utilities -- MIDRANGE-L




Thanks for everyone's input so far.  I have been assured that IBM will not
open-source utilties.  My main concern with the iSeries toolkit is that I
was thinking it should be hosted, protected, and advertised by IBM.  For
example, TAATOOLS (the version we have not paid for) has CHKIFSE to do the
same thing as the CHKIFSOBJ.  They charge for it but they give source.
Would they come collecting on our hides?  Let's say someone develops a
utility and charges for it.  Someone else develops something similar and
makes it free.  Why would someone pay for something if they could get it
for free and with source?  My philosophy is that if we develop something
that IBM should have developed in the first place, we should not charge for
it.    I feel like TAATOOLS is taking over IBM's role in developing
utilities and they are probably doing a good job developing utilities
except they are charging.  I realize they need to get paid for their work.
I also realize the iSeries toolkit might not have all the tools we are
looking for and do exactly what we want.  I was implying that it appears
the popularity of this toolkit is not high and tools may be underdeveloped.
I am under the impression that people don't use it very much.  As Scott
pointed out, if people don't use it that much then one person could be
developing all the tools.  I think it is true that David Morris is the one
developing almost all of these utilities since his name is there as the
author on about every program except maybe 1 or 2.  I never even heard of
the iSeries toolkit until now.  If I did, I probably looked over it and
said that there wasn't anything there we could use and skipped over it.
I believe it is very important to enhance and create utilities.  In the
example of making the object parameter generic on CHK* commands.  Sure, you
could do a DSPOBJD or DSPFD to an outfile to search library objects and use
access() API for IFS.  But, just encapsulating these in single programs and
commands as general utilities allows programs wishing to use these
functions to include just a single call or command reference.  CHKLNK has
helped other programmers do just that.  Then all the error-checking and
functionality is in one place.  Even just including generic object
parameters.  I know the object or file member starts with something.  I
check for IFS object existence just to be extra sure the objects got
transferred from one system to another.  I thought I heard that FTP could
complete without errors and not transfer anything.  I wouldn't want to
delete the from objects in that case and I need them to be generic so I am
checking the right objects.  Many different file names come in and I need
to check for the ones that start with a certain string.  Or checking
members in a file.  I know it will start with such and such.  Just do a
simple CHKOBJ with generic parameters.
It appears that the momentum on the iSeries toolkit is not picking up.  Is
it worth sticking utilities out there to have the fear of someone coming
back and trying to collect on my hide?  Not right now unless I am way off.

Thanks,
Craig Strong