I've been writing programmer tools on the System/38 and
IBM i (a.k.a. iSeries & AS/400) platforms for
over two decades and the source files that you can downloaded from this
page are a sampling of that work. I've created and honed them over the
years at many different places of employment. With the advent of the
open-source movement I felt it was time to let them out into the world
and hopefully make a contribution. If you have any questions or problems
please feel free to contact me at my email address
.
The
Programmer Tools Read-Me File (v1.3.0): General instructions for
downloading, extracting, uploading, creating, using, and distributing
the tools.
DynamicArrays.zip
(v1.1.0): Provides procedures to support dynamic arrays (I.O.W. arrays
whose size can be automatically extended). Like real arrays this tool
requires the use of some kind of index to reference array elements, but
unlike real arrays it also requires the use of pointers in the calling
procedure. Some programmers would rather jump through burning hoops
than use pointers, but that is really the best way to take advantage of
arrays that can truely be extended, without have to constantly worry
about whether or not one has to re-allocate the space. In this tool it is
as simple as referencing an element that doesn't yet exit; the tool
handles it all.
MessageIdentifiers.zip
(v1.0.1): This tool is required by all the other tools. It contains two
source files that every tool copies during the compile phase. It also
contains a CL that must be executed prior to using any of the tools
(see the source comments of that program for more information).
MessageSubfileControl.zip
(v1.0.0): Message subfiles are wonderful things for communicating with
users. The users can page through the list, they can get help on
resolving problems, the messages are logged in the job log, etc. The
only problem is that doing things the right way so that you can have
all of these advantages is difficult. That difficulty is what lead to
this tool.
SaveNewSploolFiles.zip
(v1.1.0): Is a program that will save spool files that were created after
a specified (or assumed) date/time. Useful when you want to save new spool
files while also saving changed objects because the SAVCHGxxx commands
don't support the SPLFDTA parameter.
SubfileControl.zip
(v1.0.0): Self extending subfiles are also wonderful things for
displaying data to the users and allowing them to do all sorts of other
tasks. The problem is that coding subfiles to work really well and be
usable is not only difficult but copying that functionality to other
programs is even more difficult. This tool was created to make the
functionality of subfiles easily available to all programs.
SubfileExample.zip
(v1.0.0): The Subfile Control and Message Subfile Control tools are
very useful but without an example using them from scratch can be a
little overwhelming. This example program was created to illustrate all
of the functions of both tools. The example can also be copied and
changed to create other subfile and message subfile capable programs.
UserSpaceFunctions.zip
(v1.0.1): Provides functions to create and delete users spaces. When
created the user spaces will be changed to be automatically extended.
A pointer into the user space is then returned to the calling procedure.