Re: WSDc "helpless" ? (was Re: Documentation) -- WDSCI-L

Phil

There were some posts recently in this list about not being able to get
help in CODE400. Also, it shows up in a Web browser and may be hidden
behind your edit window.

I recommend staying on WDT V5R1, if you can. There are a few new things in
WDSC v4 for CODE (like GUI CL prompting) but not enough to mean much. And
communications is supposed to better in WDSC. From the RSE perspective
there is automatic CODE server, but I don't trust those - or ones I create
in Communications Properties - as much as STRCODE.

RSE (Eclipse) is dead slow, but it is the direction IBM is forcing us in. I
don't use it much yet - it's designed to cover all waterfronts - Websphere
app server servlets, other Java stuff, putting legacy programs in wrappers
that are callable in WAS, etc. The focus is away from legacy code, although
there are still folks like Phil Coulthard, Hak, and others from Toronto,
that are trying to help us.

If you use the WDSC client (RSE), you need at least 512 meg, preferably 1
gig, of memory to do OK. If you use the CPO and CODE editor only, you can
do well with 256, maybe 512 meg. But to get the help, you need the pig running.

Yet this Eclipse project shows some promise of good things. Being Java,
however, it suffers from the performance problems attendant to that
environment. But the project perspective, although not adequate yet for my
needs (probably need a full-blown change management system), looks
interesting. The hooks are not consistent, however, between the 2 perspectives.

We're _supposed_ to do our work out of an RSE perspective, and if you use
the LPEX editor in RSE (very limited function for now - CODE is supposed to
get subsumed into RSE), you'll probably be able to get some help. I don't
remember if F1 is really contextual there.

Nonetheless, I prefer to work out of CPO (CODE Project Organizer). It's
clearly faster, less resource-intensive.

Although this whole exercise (of using IBM's GUIs) has been frustrating
ever since I first looked at things (c. 1997, 1998), I _am_ trying to go
with it. The debugger is pretty nice, although some things take more steps
than they so in STRDBG on green screen - IBM developers, the rule applies
here - developers are the worst testers. Please use the tools that you are
changing in real-world scenarios - internal development tools like CMVC do
not help you appreciate how good SEU & STRDBG are, until you really wring
it out yourself, until you have to depend on it.

Installing WDT on XP is risky - you can set the setup.exe to run as if
Win98 and maybe get it to work. I had problems.

JMHO and some experiences.

Regards

Vern

At 09:03 PM 12/4/2002 -0500, you wrote:

I cross posted this because IMO it belongs on both lists.

Vern,

you mean there is no context-sensitive help - I can't press F1 on an opcode,
for example, and have the help open up to that part of the documentation?  I
just tried it on my home pc install of WSDc and it doesn't work, and the
links in CODEEDIT under ILE RPG Help don't work either.

The help included with WDTS 5.1 is a major selling point.  It's the single
best 'PRO' I have found to get people (my coworkers) to migrate away from
seu!  I talk it up every chance I get at work.  I've been working hard to
get it installed on programmer's PC's (a bureaucratic hassle to say the
least), I help them get set up, give them Jon Paris's quick start guide,
yada yada yada.  Then an upgrade comes out that takes things away!

I've been working with WSDc casually at home to learn it.  The other day I
worked from home and found it to be much quicker to use CODE and CPO then
RSE.  I'm hoping it's because I haven't used it enough yet. (I didn't need
help, though, so didn't come across that problem.)

This is very frustrating - it's like 1 step forward and 2 steps back.  It's
no wonder seu has stood the test of time.  There are only a handful of
people willing to spend more time configuring their pc software than
coding - everyone else is using seu and leaving the building by 5pm!

I really, really hope there is simply something I have to configure.

Phil


----- Original Message -----
From: "Vern Hamberg" <vhamberg@centerfieldtechnology.com>
To: <code400-l@midrange.com>
Sent: Wednesday, December 04, 2002 2:07 PM
Subject: Re: Documentation


> Sam
>
> If you take the 'Help contents' from the Help menu of WDSC RSE, look at
the
> lower left corner - there's a tab for Classic Tools, and the CODE stuff is
> there. You can't get to this from inside CODE/400, I believe - it tells
you
> to go back to RSE. Yuk! java is a killer of performance!
>
> I really want a Web source of the manuals, too, but it seems to not be in
> the works.
>
> HTH
>
> Vern
>


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