On 2/3/2017 10:44 AM, Matthew Qualls wrote:
I took my first ILE class a few weeks before my son was born. He's now 22. I don't think you should expect that kind of support from RDi. If you are paying support for a package that still uses outdated code, then complain to your vendor.
I agree with this in principle. The issue is this: What does 'support'
mean? If IBM are still selling OPM compilers, and it is IBM's stated
intent to position RDi as the IDE of choice, then why can't RDi debug
OPM 'properly'?
The answer is an awful case of finger-pointing. RDi doesn't have a
debugger per se. It has a very cool navigator that's built to use the
Debugger APIs which are provided by the operating system. (Apologies
for simplifying this so much!)
The IBM i people in Rochester have provided primitive APIs to debug OPM
- 20 years ago now. And because IBM's strategic efforts are to enhance
ILE, they have not created/enhanced the OPM debugger APIs.
Because the basic operating system continues to have primitive support
for debugging OPM, that means that RDi does, too. The upshot of this is
that if we as a community want IBM to spend money to enhance RDi to have
debugger parity between OPM and ILE, we'll have to put in two RFEs. One
for the Rochester team to enhance the Debugger APIs, and one for the
Toronto team to have RDi use those enhancements.
Personally, I'd much rather have Toronto add more RPG refactoring to RDi
than to add 'new to 1996' features, but I deeply understand why other
people have different priorities.
If anyone is still reading, there is some nice example code describing
the Debugger APIs in the Knowledge Center:
http://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/ssw_ibm_i_73/apiref/apiexusdeb.htm
The basic Debugger API page is here:
http://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/ssw_ibm_i_73/apis/debug1.htm
And there is another debugger that few seem aware of (Hi Vern!): the IBM
i Debugger. The GUI face is part of JT400, and is described here:
http://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/ssw_ibm_i_73/rzamq/rzamqmain.htm
midrange.com
