What's new in Rational Developer for Power 8.0

What's new in Rational Developer for Power 8.0.3Skill Level: Introductory

David Dykstal ([email protected])Senior Software EngineerIBM

17 Jan 2012

IBM recently released version 8.0.3 of Rational Developer for Power SystemsSoftware, which provides integrated analysis, development, and debugging tools forIBM AIX, IBM i, and Linux operating systems. Although this is a service release, itcontains some significant new functions, which the developer describes in this article.

Installation

Installation remains essentially the same as in version 8.0 of IBM® Rational®Developer for Power Systems Software™ and its fix packs. There is now oneadditional installable feature for COBOL Development Tools for the IBM® AIX® thatcontains rules for code analysis.

New client platforms

There are several new 64-bit platforms that we now officially support.

Table 1. Platforms supportedClient operating system 32-bit 64-bit

Microsoft Windows XPProfessional

x

Microsoft Windows Server 2003SE and EE

x

Microsoft Windows VistaBusiness, Enterprise, andUltimate

x

Microsoft Windows Server 2008SE and EE

x new

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Microsoft Windows 7Professional, Enterprise, andUltimate

x new

Microsoft Windows Server 2008R2 SE and EE

new

Red Hat Enterprise LinuxDesktop 5

x new

Red Hat Enterprise LinuxDesktop 6

new new

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop10

x

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop11

x

Although the 64-bit platforms listed above are supported, the Java virtual machine(JVM) used by Rational Developer for Power Systems Software is still a 32-bitapplication. We will continue to evaluate moving to 64-bit JVM as the componentswe use become available in that environment.

Ubuntu clients are obviously missing from the list. While not officially supported, wehave had some success in running Rational Developer for Power Systems Software(hereafter, Rational Developer for Power) on Ubuntu 10.04 LTS and later. As youknow, in addition to developing code specifically for the operating systems runningon IBM® POWER®, we use components in the construction of Rational Developerfor Power that are obtained from several sources. Ubuntu is, unfortunately, notsupported by all of our suppliers. If you install and run on Ubuntu, any problems thatyou experience will need to be reproduced on a supported configuration before wecan begin work on them.

Non-administrator installations

We now support the installation of Rational Developer for Power bynon-administrators. These installations do not modify the common application areasof your client. Instead, they install into user-specific directories.

Non-admin install is not available from the IBM® Installation Manager launchpad. Todo a non-admin install, you must directly invoke the appropriate userinst procedurefor your client operating system. This is located on your installation media ordownload file.

Update existing installation or install from media

IBM provides a media refresh for the Rational Developer for Power 8.0.3 release. Asa result, you can get the full installation package either by ordering installation mediaor downloading. If you have a previous 8.0 installation, you can be upgrade directly

developerWorks® ibm.com/developerWorks




by using the IBM Installation Manager. For new installations, activation kits areavailable from IBM Entitled Software Support or from Passport Advantage,depending on your ordering and fulfillment mechanism. Check with your IBMBusiness Partner for more information about how to upgrade or purchase.

New license options

In addition to the Authorized User licenses and the Floating User licenses, we haveintroduced fixed-term authorized and floating user licenses for Passport Advantagecustomers. A fixed-term license is a special type of user license that expires after aspecific period of time.

IBM i enhancements

We have received many Requests for Enhancement (RFEs) of the IBM® i operatingsystem support in Rational Developer for Power since we opened the RFE processin April of this year. The improvements described in this section are a direct result ofthese requests. If you have a specific request in Rational Developer for Power forany IBM® Power Systems™ platform, please enter it on our developerWorks site(see the Resources section for a link), and we’ll try to respond to those that receivethe most interest from our community. If we end up rejecting a request due toresource constraints, please feel free to resubmit it at a later date. Problems, ofcourse, should always be reported through the normal service channels.

When you fill out the Search or Submit request forms, use the following selections(also see Figure 1):

Brand: RationalProduct family: Rational familyProduct: Developer for Power Systems

Figure 1. The correct entries for submitting a Request for Enhancement

RFE 10752: Prevent the saving of passwords

See this RFE.

You can now prevent the saving of passwords on connections defined to a particularIBM i system.

The "disable password save" policy is set at the IBM i system to which the client

ibm.com/developerWorks developerWorks®


http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/rfe/execute?use_case=viewRfe&CR_ID=10752



connects. Complete help for defining this policy is available in the product Helpsection.

If password saving is not allowed, then passwords for this system that are stored onthe client are erased and the Enter Password dialog does not show the option tosave the password.

Figure 2. The modified Enter Password dialog window

The "disable password save" policy takes effect at the client immediately afterconnection, so there is the possibility that you could save a password when makingthe connection and have that password immediately erased.

Messages are logged in the .log file of the workspace if the client’s behaviorchanges as the result of reading the policy. If no policy is present on the IBM isystem, no change is made on the connecting client.

The policy is in effect for all connections to this system regardless of IP address orconnection name. If there are several connections to this system in a workspace, allof these will be under the control of this policy when the first connection isestablished.

RFE 11082: Add a preference to not expand the remote systems tree whenadding a member

See this RFE.

A new preference has been added to inhibit the expansion and selection of an objectin the Remote Systems view when a new resource is created. This is useful if youare creating several members into the same source file. The default is to expand.






Uncheck the box to change the behavior.

Figure 3. The new preference for tree expansion, Objects Subsystem view

RFE 11049: Modify Rational Developer Power to support secure sessions

See this RFE.

Rational Developer for Power now supports secure connections to IBM i systems.When an RSE connection is defined and opened to an IBM i system, several






underlying TCP connections are made. If the connection is secure, SSL is used fromthese connections except for debugging, which uses SSH tunneling.

SSL requires some certificate management, most of which is done by anadministrator on the IBM i host. Steps to create and manage the SSL certificates areexplained in the product Help section. If you use SSL at your location for otherreasons, you probably already have much of this in place.

SSH tunneling is transparent to the user and requires no setup on the client side,other than to set the "secure connections" property on the connection (see Figure 4).

Figure 4. The new option for upgrading the security of an IBM i connection

RFEs 11116 and 12282: Allow comment and uncomment of a block of selectedcode

See RFE 11116.

See RFE 12282.

The LPEX editor for RPG has been modified to support the block commenting anduncommenting of both free-format and fixed-format ILE RPG code. The default keysare Ctrl+/ to comment and Ctrl+\ to uncomment.

Figure 5. Before block commenting RPG code in LPEX







Figure 6. RPG code after the block comment action

RFE 10523: Allow a different editor to be associated with member

See this RFE.

DSPF and PRTF DDS members now default to the Screen and Report Designers,respectively, as editors for new files. Prior to this release, the file associations forthese file types were ignored. With this release, you can set the editor associationsfor these file types. The defaults are those respective designers.

Figure 7. Making Screen Designer the default editor for the .DSPF source type






RFE 10437: Content Assist - Show Decimal Positions

See this RFE.

The LPEX editor now shows the number of decimal positions for packed and zoned






variables when using Content Assist in ILE RPG. Prior to this release, only the totalnumber of digits was shown.

Figure 8. Content Assist now shows decimal positions

RFE 10152: Verify "Defines" can now be made sticky

See this RFE.

Prior to this release, the "defines" used in the verify operation were taken from thepreferences, but there was no way to modify the preferences directly from the verifydialog window. As a result, if you had a set of defines that you used several times,you would potentially have to re-enter them each time. With this release you cansave these preferences from the Program Verification Options dialog window.

Figure 9. Program verification options






Sort fields by position in screen and report designers

The Sort action can now be invoked at the record level in the Screen And Reportdesigners. This reorders the fields in the generated DDS by their positions on thescreen or page. This action had previously been available only when selecting afield.

System Entry Point easier to use

The debug server will now be started automatically if a System Entry Pointbreakpoint is added. This relieves the user from having to go look to check whetherthe debug server has been started. If the user is not authorized to the STRDBGSVRcommand, then adding the SEP breakpoint will fail.

Push enhancement

A comment now appears in the console log when the contents of a file are beingpushed from an IBM i project. Previously, there was no indication in the log if thecontents were being uploaded if there were no corresponding attributes being set.





This leaves a record of the push action in the console where it can be reviewed later.

Common AIX and Linux support

Reconciler updates

A pushpull project is one where the source for the project exists on both the remotesystem and the local workspace. Both the C/C++ support for Linux and AIX and theCOBOL support for AIX depend on a common component for maintainingsynchronization of resources for push/pull projects. This component, called theReconciler, has been changed somewhat in this release.

If you define a push/pull project, you have two copies of the file that you can workon: a local copy and a remote copy. If both of these are edited without synchronizingthe file between edit sessions, the two copies of the file conflict and must bereconciled. In this release, the software detects these conflicts and shows them inthe Remote Reconciler view. This allows you compare the two files and takeappropriate action to synchronize them.

Conflicts are detected either when a Synchronize action or a Push Selected actionis taken on a resource in the Reconciler view. If this occurs, the file is not transferredin either direction, and a conflict decorator (icon) is shown on the file in both theProject Explorer and the Remote Reconciler views, as Figure 10 shows.

Figure 10. Conflict decorator in the Project Explorer

The same function can be used to detect whether an update has occurred on aremote file. When this happens, the file is shown in the Remote Reconciler view andthe Project Explorer view with a "remote changes decorator.

Figure 11. Remote Resource Changed decorator





If a file or folder is new on the remote system, the decorator will show a plus sign toindicate that the file or folder is new.

Figure 12. The New Remote Resource decorator

Automatic synchronization can be turned on to have the synchronize action executeperiodically. This enables the Remote Reconciler view to remain up-to-date.

Push/pull projects have had a Push on Save capability. In this release, we haveadded a Pull on Remote Update capability, as well. When a remote update isdetected for a project with this attribute, the remote file is downloaded to the projectduring a synchronize action if no conflict has been detected.

Figure 13. The new Pull on Remote Update setting for projects





You might find it desirable to hide various folders in your project from push/pulloperations. You can now disable synchronization for a folder from the RemoteReconciler view by using the Ignore action.

Figure 14. The new Ignore Folder During Synchronization setting





You can also set this for a folder in the Project Explorer by using its Remote FolderProperties page (see Figure 15).

Figure 15. The "Properties for data" page equivalent for "Ignore Folder DuringSynchronization"

Finally, as a convenience, you can now start a terminal as well as a shell directlyfrom the Remote Reconciler view.

Figure 16. The new "Launch Terminal" action





The terminal is started with the selected folder as the current directory.

Figure 17. An example of a terminal view

Launch configuration updates

When you use a launch configuration to run a program on a remote AIX or Linux





system, you can now specify that you want to run that program in an SSH terminal.

Figure 18. The new "Run with SSH" option of the launch configuration

COBOL on AIX

New COBOL editor

A new editor has been created for COBOL on AIX systems. This new editor isintegrated more deeply into the Eclipse editor framework than the Remote SystemsLPEX editor, and it provides functions that are not available in the LPEX editor:





• Capitalization and Indentation Formatter

• Quick Fix

• Surround With

• Task Tags

• Mark Occurrences

• Range Indicator

• Hex Editing

These are described in some detail in the subsections that follow.

The Remote Systems LPEX editor remains the default editor for AIX COBOL, butyou can select this new editor as the default for .cbl and .cpy files if you prefer. Thiseditor will be the one enhanced in further releases of Rational Developer for Powerfor AIX COBOL.

Capitalization and indentation formatting

These are controlled by preferences affecting this editor and can be applied from theSource context menu in the editor. The Content Assist feature also respects thesesettings.

You can find the indentation and capitalization setting under Windows >Preferences > COBOL > Editor > Formatter.

Figure 19. AIX COBOL editor Formatter preferences





Figure 20 shows a selection in the editor where we will apply a set of indentation andcapitalization formatting preferences , to illustrate this option.

Figure 20. COBOL source code before formatting for capitalization





Pressing CTRL+SHIFT+F or selecting Source > Format from the context menutransforms the above selection into the one below.

Figure 21. COBOL source code after capitalization

Quick Fix

You can hover your cursor over the highlighted line on the text or the light bulb iconin the editor margin associated with a warning or an error to get a Quick Fix pop-upwindow that suggests fixes. Selecting a fix will apply it to that portion of your code.

Figure 22. Quick Fix example





Surround With menu

The Surround With context menu in the editor offers a choice of configurabletemplates that you can use to augment your code.

Figure 23. Surround With example

Task tags

You can now insert tags into comments in your code. These are parsed by the newCOBOL support and added to the Tasks view. Double-clicking on a task takes youimmediately to the appropriate line in the COBOL editor. You can use this forreminders to go back and finish incomplete or questionable implementation in yourcode. The FIXME and TODO tags are predefined, but you can add new ones in





Windows > Preferences > COBOL > Editor > Task Tags.

Figure 24. Task tags in Comments example

Mark Occurrences option

You have the ability in the editor to select an item and have all of its occurrences inthe source file highlighted. You can toggle this with the new Mark Occurrencesbutton in the tool bar.

Figure 25. Mark Occurrences example





Range indicator

A range indicator in the new COBOL editor shows the range of the containingparagraph or division. This indicator is on the left side of the editor window. A





following EXIT paragraph is included in the range if it is present.

Figure 26. Range indicator example

Hex editing

You can turn on the hex editor table by clicking the Toggle Hex Editing icon in thetoolbar.

Figure 27. The Toggle Hex Editing button

When hex editing is turned on, a table appears at the bottom of the editor windowthat allows hexadecimal entry in the current line.

Figure 28. The Hex Editing table





New structured COBOL comparison editor

You can compare two files directly to each other or compare a file to previousgenerations of its local history. In Eclipse-based tools, these comparisons are doneusing a "compare editor." Prior to this release, the compare editor for AIX COBOLfiles was a simple text comparison. In this release, we have introduced a structuredCOBOL compare editor. This editor understands the structure of a COBOL programand can isolate changes to a particular structure if the files are similar enough.

Figure 29. Comparing COBOL source files

New COBOL code analysis

A new static analysis engine has been added to Rational Developer for PowerSystems. In conjunction with language-specific support, this engine is capable of





rules-based analysis of the source code in projects. The AIX COBOL support takesadvantage of this new engine to provide code quality rules, such as requiringPERFORM statements to not have a THROUGH clause or disallowing the use ofGOTO or ALTER. These rules can be gathered into sets and applied to a single file,a set of files, a project, or the entire workspace. Individual rules can be selected tobe included in the set, and multiple named sets can be constructed.

There are new views and actions that take advantage of this.

Tip:The code analysis feature is not installed by default. You need to select the featureduring installation or add it by modifying the current installation, using the InstallationManager.

To use this feature, you construct a software analyzer configuration and then run iton the workspace, a working set of files, or a single file.

Figure 30. The Software Analyzer menu

The configuration editor presents dialogs that allow you to collect rules that will beemployed in an analysis. This collection is referred to as a configuration. The rulesthat Rational Developer for Power supplies are developed to enforce certain codingstandards, and because internal standards vary from company to company, thereare rules in the set that appear to conflict with each other. You can select those rulesthat meet the standards for your project, team, or company. Rules are categorized toassist with this selection.

Figure 31. Software Analyzer Configurations window





You can add custom rules based on templates and organize these rules intocategories of your own. These new rules are added in Windows > Preferences asshown in Figure 32.

Figure 32. Preferences for custom rules





Running the analysis produces a report in the Software Analyzer Results view.Figure 33 shows an example. Double-clicking an instance of an infraction will bringup the COBOL editor and position your cursor at the offending line.

Figure 33. A Software analysis report





New split/join behavior when editing in LPEX

Prior to this release if you were editing AIX COBOL in the LPEX editor pressingEnter in the middle of a line would cause the line to split and the new line to begin inthe leftmost column. With this release the new line will be indented to the same levelas the original line. Likewise, prior to this release, joining lines by pressing the deletekey at the end of a line could result in the joined line running past ending column.With this release the line is joined, but could again be automatically split near theend if it would run past the ending column. String literals, variable names, andreserved words are always left intact.

C/C++ on Linux and AIX

Remote GNU C Tool Chain support

The GNU C compiler (gcc) is now supported when connected to a Linux server thatis running on a Power System. You can select Remote Linux GCC Tool Chainduring project creation or in the project Properties view after the project has beencreated.

Note:This support is for Linux servers only, because the tool chain is not available on AIX.

XL C v11 compiler options support

Version 11 of the IBM XL C compiler has added a number of new options. These arenow supported.

Offline indexing support





The indexing component of the C/C++ support is responsible for gatheringinformation on the use of entities such as variables and functions in C/C++programs. These are used to construct the call hierarchy and type hierarchy viewsand Content Assist options.

Prior to this release, an index would be reconstructed when files were added,changed, or removed in a project. Therefore, indexing large remote projects couldtake a considerable amount of time. With the new offline indexing support, indexescan be constructed in the background on the remote Linux or AIX system and thenused by the project. Both the IBM XL and GNU C/C++ parsers are supported. Thisgreatly improves the responsiveness of project creation from existing directories onthe target system.

To run the offline indexer, run the offlineIndexer.sh shell script, which islocated under the RDp server directory on the remote server(/opt/IBM/RDPower/8.0/rse). After the index is constructed, it can be imported intothe workspace for the project. By using this support, you can share a previouslycreated index from a remote project directory with others. (A Help section for thisfunction is available, as Figure 34 shows.)

Figure 34. Help for offline indexing in C and C++





Associate or remove local location wizards

You can work with a local copy of a remote project and have that local copysynchronize with its remote counterpart. This synchronization can be done manuallyor set up to take place automatically. You might want to do this to take advantage ofan Eclipse-based source control manager, such as IBM® Rational Team Concert™.You can also define your projects so that you are working directly on the remoteresources.

New Associate and Remote Local Location wizards have been defined so that youcan control this remote and local relationship. Thus, for example, you can now takea project that had been defined as remote-only and turn it into a synchronizedremote and local project.

Offline support

You can now take a workspace offline. That is, you can temporarily detach theremote C/C++ projects from their remote location. Projects that are remote-only willbe associated with a local location. Projects that were already remote and local willbe synchronized. From that point, the project changes will be made locally andtracked. When the workspace is taken back online, the changes will be reconciledwith their previous remote location.

You can take the workspace offline and back online by using the Offline/Onlinebutton in the Remote C/C++ perspective.

Figure 35 shows the location and appearance of the "go offline" button. This is thedefault location for this button, but it can be moved to other locations on theworkbench.

Figure 35. Location and appearance of the Go Offline indicator

While offline, you can edit the files in the projects in your workspace, but you cannotbuild or debug your project until you reconnect to the remote system.





Resources

Learn

• IBM Rational Developer for Power Systems Software provides integrateddevelopment environments for the major development workloads on IBM i, IBMAIX, and Linux, including Java, C/C++ on AIX and Linux, COBOL on AIX, andRPG, COBOL, C, and C++ on IBM i. To learn more, start with thedeveloperWorks page, and then review the Rational Developer for PowerSystems Software product information, features and benefits page, as well asthe product line overview. For support or documentation, see the RationalDeveloper for Power Systems Software Information Center.

• You can enter new Requests for Enhancement any time. When you fill out theSearch or Submit request forms, use the selections shown in Figure 1.

• Visit the Rational software area on developerWorks for technical resources andbest practices for Rational Software Delivery Platform products.

• Stay current with developerWorks technical events and webcasts focused on avariety of IBM products and IT industry topics.

• Attend a free developerWorks Live! briefing to get up-to-speed quickly onIBM products and tools, as well as IT industry trends.

• Watch developerWorks on-demand demos, ranging from productinstallation and setup demos for beginners to advanced functionality forexperienced developers.

• Improve your skills. Check the Rational training and certification catalog, whichincludes many types of courses on a wide range of topics. You can take someof them anywhere, any time, and many of the "Getting Started" ones are free.

Get products and technologies

• Download the free trial so you can evaluate Rational Developer for PowerSystems Software, or try the Power Systems software in the online sandbox.

• Download a free trial version of other Rational software.

• Evaluate other IBM software in the way that suits you best: Download it for atrial, try it online, use it in a cloud environment, or spend a few hours in the SOASandbox learning how to implement service-oriented architecture efficiently.

Discuss

• Join the Rational Developer for Power Hub forum to ask questions andparticipate in discussions.

• Rate or review Rational software. It’s quick and easy. Really.



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• Follow Rational software on Facebook, Twitter (@ibmrational), and YouTube,and add your comments and requests.

• Ask and answer questions and increase your expertise when you get involvedin the Rational forums, cafés, and wikis.

• Get social about thought leadership. Join the Rational community to share yourRational software expertise and get connected with your peers.

About the author

David DykstalDave is a lead architect for the Rational Developer for Power SystemsSoftware product, with an emphasis on its IBM i function. He has beenwith or around IBM for more than 34 years and was on the originaldevelopment team for the IBM System 38.



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