Re: iSeries Projects and (beginning) XP status report

[Duane Kehoe <dkehoe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Buck,

You can solve the library issue by modifying the build CL.  I have not 
played with the projects perspective in a little while but did find that 
things worked better when I told wdsc to create a generic build CL which 
I later modified to my situation.  In the couple cases I followed threw 
to finish it did work fairly well, but then again I do not have any 
version control system in place(can't convince the powers that be we 
should have one, yet!!).

Lately, I have been thinking about trying out projects again as I look 
to find a better development / organization model for code and objects.  
Historically our shop has used the QRPGLESRC, QCLSRC method of grouping 
by source types within a given library.  This is nice but can at times 
make finding all the pieces of a process more cumbersome, I still think 
that is better than a single source file for an entire library that 
contains many programs / processes.  More recently I have been 
contemplating a single file for all sources related to a given process / 
program, for example LIBRARY/PROJECT with all source members together.  
In my minds eye this would keep things organized and together allowing 
for easier modification especially if build CLs are used(which I have 
also been thinking about using as I get more modular in my design).  I 
am sure this may ruffle some of my coworkers thought processes but I 
think it may be a good direction to go at least for modular programs as 
it more closely aligns to the methods employed by other languages.  I am 
very interested in other developers opinions in this area, what are 
others doing / recommending?  Thanks in advance for any responses.

Buck wrote:
> Wanted to let the list know how it's going.  I'm trying to get some XP 
> (eXtreme Programming) techniques going in my RPG and CL programming and 
> I thought I'd give iSeries Projects a try, mainly for the SVN 
> integration.  I figured I'd keep many versions of the code as I went along.
>
> In general, I don't think iSeries Projects is a particularly good fit 
> for XP.  Not because there's something wrong with iSeries Projects, just 
> that it's probably not the right tool for the job.
>
> The Subversion integration is okay, but mostly manual.  That is, I don't 
> get a new rev every time I open a member for editing.  And by the way, 
> once you've opened a member for editing under iSP, don't open it later 
> with RSE or SEU.  Things get confused quickly, and the repository thinks 
> it's the member of record which will result in the loss of changes.
>
> There's a bug trying to look at version history.  If you click on a 
> member (say at version 14) and right click, team, history you see the 
> history.  Click on a different member (say at version 12) and it doesn't 
> show the history for that member.  You have to do it again.
>
> Compilation is a pain.  Again, iSP wasn't intended for a rapid edit, 
> compile, test cycle so I can hardly blame WDSC for my misuse of it.  I 
> found it unpleasantly easy to compile the wrong member (right click, 
> remote, compile, compile.)
>
> When ready to integrate, iSeries Projects deploys only to a single 
> 'test' library.  Not fun when one has a production deployment that goes 
> into multiple libraries.
>
> All things considered, I think I'll be doing the next iteration with RSE 
> and skipping Subversion.  I didn't get enough value out of the 
> experiment to stay with it for a project that is strictly RPG and CL. 
> If the whole shop used WDSC and Subversion, I might change my opinion, 
> but as a solo effort, it was more work than it was worth to me.
>    --buck
>