Article Type
Spotlight - Insider's software critique

Title
Adding Some Life to SEU

Author
Don Rima

Topics
Application Development
RPG
Utilities

Vendor
Profound Logic Software, Inc.
http://www.rpgalive.com
phone: (937) 439-7925
fax: (603) 849-7757

Adding Some Life to SEU

Back when Sunday morning cartoons were worth watching, there used to be a cartoon called "Underdog." One of the main characters was Sweet Polly Purebread who used to pine, "Oh where, oh where, has my Underdog gone?" when all heck was about to break loose and it was obvious that there wasn't any cavalry to come along and save the day, much less Sweet Polly.

Well, we've all had similar experiences from time to time when working with source entry utility (SEU) and trying to hammer out some code or debug a compile or logic issue. At this point, I'm usually muttering something along the lines of "Where, oh where, has my ENDIF gone?". Well, that's the family version of what I'd be muttering.

At any rate, there are times when it's nice to see such more of the structure blocks rather than just examining lines of code. For instance, sometimes it's nice to be able to graphically see the DO/IF blocks actually "blocked out" in SEU so that I have a path to follow. Other times it's helpful to be graphically prompted for the indicator I'm using for a LOOKUP.

Then there are the folks that have newbie programmers who are still learning syntax or coders and just want the software to prompt them for the fields they must fill in and allow them to ignore the rest of the stuff they're faced with.

Well, I may have found a possible solution to these kinds of problems. Let's examine RPG-Alive from Profound Logic Software (www.rpgalive.com)

Installation

Not a problem. If you can connect to the AS/400 via Client Access or any of the other supported interfaces, then you're in business. The product puts an icon on your task bar and when you enter SEU, the functionality appears.

Ease of Use

OK, I'll get into this more in the functionality section, but if you can read and have a junior programmer's idea on what RPG is, then you should be able to use RPG-Alive. Actually, whether you're a novice or an experienced programmer, this tool can help you quickly enhance your productivity.

Documentation

When you're installing the product and have a question, you typically find documentation on the install CD. With this product, the documentation wasn't there, which is a major disadvantage. Currently, documentation is only available from Profound Logic's Web site.

Once you get to the Web site documentation, there's not that much there. While this isn't a complex package, some screen captures and examples are definitely in order.

Certifiability

The product does what it says it will.

Functionality / Usefulness

This little add-on can help you match up your loops in real time on the screen. It also does a nice job of helping you with the prompting for required fields and those indicators that can sometimes be a challenge to remember after a long day and several interruptions. It also offers built-in function (BIF) indexing and information. For those who want to learn RPG and the environment or those who can't or don't want to remember what field is supposed to go where and which indicators are matched with which opcode, then this product is for you.

RPG-Alive has a small footprint and runs over existing Client Access, which can help make your life easier. It runs in real time locally on your desktop so you don't have to worry about communications and other performance issues.

The product has its own method of prompting you for syntactical entries. It's similar to how visual languages work in that you start keying the opcode and it starts guessing which opcode you're looking for. Once it determines what you want, it provides only those fields relevant for that opcode.

However, if you're familiar with the SEU prompting, be aware that this package doesn't provide the capability to overlay screens. At first I found this to be more of a concern than it actually turned out to be. I admit, it took a bit of talking to Profound Logic's tech support folks to get me to see the light the way they do. The company selected its method to mimic the Visual Basic (VB) world, and it works. For us gray hairs who are used to the old prompt methods and cut-and-paste coding techniques, we may find this a bit different, but it has merit. You can mix and match if you wish, using some SEU prompting and some of RPG-Alive's prompting.

One of the things that really caught my eye was the way the product graphically shows the DO blocks. Each type is color-coded so that you can tell if you're working with a IF, DO or whatever. This is a great feature and, in some cases, may be worth the price of the product, especially if you've either just bought or inherited a system of some sizeable programs. This interesting feature alone makes it worth the time to download and demo RPG-Alive.

And since I wrote my first draft of this article, Profound Logic has added support for free-format (OS/400* V5R1) coding. This means that you can have an IFEQ opcode in a C spec in the old format and the ENDIF in free format or all of the code in free format and the software should hit the matches. Also, there's color coding on the ELSE so that you can see where the ELSE blocks are. Nice.

Caveat: RPG-Alive doesn't run on a 5250 device. It only works with an emulator on a PC.

Support

Support staff members were cordial and knowledgeable about their product. I had no problem getting my questions answered.

What I'd Like To See in the Next Release

• Documentation on the CD so that I don't have to find a Web connection in a secure environment.
• Extend the RPG-Alive prompting features to overlay the SEU-supplied prompting screens.

Summary

This product provides a different way of skinning the cat than most of us are used to. Perhaps that's why I had to look at it twice to see the product from Profound Logic's perspective.

You'll find it's a decent teaching aid for your rookie programmers and the new prompting mechanism is an interesting and useful way of doing the age-old job of cranking out the code. But don't be too surprised if some of the old timers go back to the standard prompting schema.

The graphical outlining of code blocks is nice. And, in many shops this could be the justification for buying the package.

If you test drive this package, I recommend that you have the tech support explain the product from the company's perspective in terms of design and intended usage. If you hit it from a 5250 frame of mind, you may miss a few things that may come in handy later.