Re: ODBC connections and QAQQINI

Patrick: Very interesting. When I had a bigger business we bought 150's for
our developers so they could work from home. It was very productive for us.
I loved mine. I recycled it when I got a used bigger machine I think but
the software wasn't licensed properly. I never really used it and finally
scrapped it too. By that time VPN's and quick internet was the way to go.

Art

On Fri, Sep 6, 2024 at 7:43 AM Patrik Schindler <poc@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hello Art,

Am 06.09.2024 um 03:25 schrieb Art Tostaine, Jr. <atostaine@xxxxxxxxx>:

Patrick: Love reading your posts. Care to share what you are doing with

the 150? Hobby? Small Business?

Thanks! I appreciate your interest!

My private machinery is all about hobbyist things.

I found myself receiving a model 400 running V4R4 as a gift in 2007. First
I was just curious and it nicely fit into my other "old computing" area of
interest. After some tinkering with it I quickly came to the conclusion
that without any application and just the OS, a machine quickly becomes
boring. So I learned and taught myself about programming the machine from
public sources, and came up with my back then primary use case: A stock
keeping application about my radio valve collection. At least, the platform
was meant as a database machine, yes?

I learned that the model 400 lacked the necessary license to use SEU, and
maybe even use compilers, so I took some research and learned that the
model 150 was an ideal substitute for the 400, mainly because it requires
no lickeys (with V4) at all. So I obtained one.

I was utterly surprised how almost effortless can create full screen text
applications on that platform, compared to Linux with the ncurses library.
Hence my strong opinion that for me, 5250 is *the* main reason to use the
system. Bolting together some web UI to query database content is something
which I did on Linux before. I see no benefit for me in using OS/400 for
that purpose. What's more, I feel text UIs often appear to be quicker in
responding to user requests than web UIs. Others may disagree but everybody
is allowed an individual opinion, yes?

From my effort developing the stock keeping application evolved my subfile
template:

https://github.com/PoC-dev/as400-sfltemplates Find more things I've
published so far on my GitHub page, which I run on/use on my 150 for.

(Interestingly, the stock keeping application is still not in a finished
state and ended up being the most neglected part of my work.)

Besides that I find joy in exploiting ways to give more or less meaningful
work to the machine. A common feature is communications/networking. Having
disparate computers talk with each other, utilizing common TCP/IP only if
there is no (other) native protocol available. One particular source of joy
was my ability to eventually obtain a copy of SNA•ps:
https://try-as400.pocnet.net/wiki/Apple_SNA.ps

Unfortunately, I ended up with so many ideas and so many half-finished
projects that I'm only slowly progressing towards finishing those. In
general, the more unusual the use case, and the weirder it seems to do
*that* with the machine, the more rewarded I feel. :-) Because I'm
frequently rescheduling what I work on next, I often come up with questions
which seems to be completely unrelated to anything I've asked and described
before. Or I pick up on a topic I've discussed Months ago. Maybe this feels
somewhat erratic to people.

Example projects in my queue:
- I want to have my email antispam database (Spamassassin Bayes) located
on my 150 which might require extended effort — though establishing a
custom client-server protocol and utilizing classic but very efficient file
access APIs — if SQL queries from Spamassassin prove still to be too
demanding with my newest findings about possible optimizations.
- Finish my information providing applications for the Fallout Gaming
franchise, and come up with a way to present those "read-only" without any
sign-on screen to select tn5250 clients connecting "in a special way" to my
machine from the outside world, but directly be presented with a menu and
no way to gain access to a command line.
- Finish my dual-personality groceries shopping list application: 5250 for
home, web access for when I'm at the shop. It's meant to have features I've
not yet found on any existing application for iDevices.
- Cleanup and port my crude "home automation" from Linux to OS/400. Need
to come up with supporting talking to SNMP- and Modbus devices and a
proprietary protocol from a Wiesemann&Theis 12-port digital I/O device to
tap power meters. Main goal is to have a beautiful full screen "panel"
showing all the relevant settings and obtained values from sensors, etc.
through the described protocols.

Usually, I publish what I learn and program, sometimes with considerable
delay. A hobby unfortunately does not pay the bills and should provide
positive feelings, and not feel like a grind through some annoying
obligation. I've learned that providing basic functionality in an
application is relatively easy. But to enable others to use it needs help
texts and documentation how to get it to run. I sometimes procrastinate
this final step. :-)

Hope you enjoyed reading. If you feel like one of my projects sounds
interesting enough to collaborate, I'm all ears. :-)

:wq! PoC

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