Java for RPG Programmers: 3rd edition - Softcover

Coulthard, Phil

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1931182299 ISBN 13: 9781931182294

Publisher: MC Press (US), 2006

Synopsis

As the roles of Java in business and e-business applications continue to grow, all iSeries and AS/400 IT professionals have a choice to make―learn Java or get left behind. Programmers, development managers, and architects who want to stay on the cutting edge of their careers must learn how to use and understand Java. IBM is not abandoning RPG, but more and more Java is finding a role in leading-edge applications. For an RPG programmer, learning Java can be daunting, but with the right help, it's a skill that can be mastered. This completely revised and updated edition offers that help by gently yet comprehensively teaching the Java language and core Java-supplied functionality.

About this title

About the Author

Phil Coulthard is the lead architect for AS/400 application development projects at the IBM Toronto laboratory. He has worked as a developer, team leader, manager, and general advocate of AS/400 application developments since 1986. He lives in Toronto, Ontario. George Farr is a tester, developer, team leader, technical planner, and development manager for AS/400 compiler. He is the coauthor AS/400 COBOL Programmers and Java for S/390. He lives in Toronto, Ontario.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Java for RPG Programmers

By Phil Coulthard, George Farr

IBM Press and MC Press

Copyright © 2006 International Business Machines Corporation
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-931182-29-4

Contents

Title Page, 
Copyright Page, 
Dedication, 
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS, 
FOREWORD, 
1 - THE WORLD OF JAVA, 
2 - THE JAVA ONION, 
3 - JAVA'S LANGUAGE AND SYNTAX, 
4 - STRUCTURED OPERATIONS AND STATEMENTS, 
5 - DATA TYPES AND VARIABLES, 
6 - ARRAYS AND VECTORS, 
7 - STRING MANIPULATION, 
8 - DATE AND TIME MANIPULATION, 
9 - AN OBJECT ORIENTATION, 
10 - EXCEPTIONS, 
11 - THREADS, 
12 - THE USER INTERFACE, 
13 - DATABASE ACCESS, 
14 - MORE JAVA, 
APPENDIX A - USING JAVA ON, 
THE System i, 
APPENDIX B - MIXING RPG AND JAVA, 
APPENDIX C - OBTAINING THE CODE SAMPLES, 

CHAPTER 1

THE WORLD OF JAVA

Since the very first edition of this book in July 1998, the world of Java has continued to gain significant ground. By now, everyone is aware of the industry's commitment to Java, of IBM's commitment to Java, and especially of the System i's commitment to Java. Way back in 1998, the options for System i Java programmers were exactly two: write Java applications that run on the System i or on a client connected to an System i, or write Java applets that run in a Web browser connected to an System i. Now, in addition to the expanded capabilities of both of these options, there are servlets, JavaServer Pages, JavaServer Faces, and Enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs). Java is now also a full-fledged option for writing Domino applications. Further, XML, with its Java affinity, has emerged as the new standard for business-to-business communication and is a favorite way to persist information needed by tools. A rapidly emerging new standard for reusable components, known as Web Services, also have tight affinity with Java.

Most vendors writing tools have switched to Java. Most package vendors have adopted Java or have a plan to phase it in. Java presentations at professional and technical conferences continue to fill rooms. Look at the agenda for the North American COMMON conference (www.common.org), and you'll see that Java and Java-related technologies permeate it.

So, while Java is still maturing and expanding rapidly, it is now an entrenched part of the System i application development scene. At the same time, IBM has proven it is not backing away from RPG or COBOL, and has continued to deliver significant new functionality in each release of both. Further, IBM's application development package, WebSphere Development Studio Client for iSeries (WDSC), offers modern tooling for everything from RPG to Java to Web user interfaces. That tooling includes WebFacing, an exciting option for quickly and cost-effectively converting 5250 applications into Web-enabled applications. WebFacing converts display-file DDS source into JavaServer Page source and JavaBeans (simple beans, not EJBs). The WebFacing runtime intercepts the display file input/output operations from an application and diverts them to the WebFacing runtime servlet, offering a Web refacing with no application code change. This awesome capability is possible due to the power of Java.

WDSC is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that includes tools for Web user interfaces authored in HTML and JavaScript, JavaServer Pages, and JavaServer Faces, and includes Java tools for applications, applets, servlets, and beans. Also included are tools for RPG, COBOL, C, C++, CL, and DDS development. Indeed, the tools can target i5/OS (aka OS/400), Linux and AIX partitions. A

Edition details

• Publisher: MC Press (US)
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1931182299
• ISBN 13: 9781931182294
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 800