Brian Kelly’s Technical
Books Follow:!
This Book first
book (immediately) below is Kelly’s newest technical book. His main focus today
is patriotic Books. However, he is still asked to speak about his AS/400 (IBM i) Platform books... Any purchase of the books below are
most appreciated and they help finance Brian’s important work.
Lets Go Publish! produces books from various authors including the complete
works of Brian W. Kelly. At the present time, Mr. Kelly's books are
our primary focus. If you have an interest in writing a book for Lets Go
Publish! feel free
to send us a note at info@letsgopublish.com.
Since 1982, with the introduction of the
popular Ballinger / Harper Collins book titled The Personal Computer Buyers
Guide, written along with his best friends, Dennis J. Grimes, Brian W. Kelly
has written forty-eight books and many technical articles hosted by IT
Jungle, MC Press, News/400, and other
outlets.
In 2008, Kelly wrote the groundbreaking book
titled Taxation Without Representation, which was the first book
in the new millenium to compare the acts of our
National Legislative Body (Our Honorable Lot) as akin to the colonists plight
in the late 1700's, which prompted the Boston Tea Party and slogans such as
"No Taxation Without Representation!!!."
Taxation Without
Representation (edition I and Edition II) is written by a normal human
being—Brian W. Kelly, and it is published by a very small publishing house,
though it is available at AMAZON.COM and www.bookhawkers.com. For years the book had
been available at IT Jungle and MC Press.
It helps to note that its title, not just a
few key words within the book, actually is Taxation Without Representation, subtitled, "Can the U.S. Avoid Another Boston
Tea Party?" And, so, you can
understand why Brian began writing for the patriotic book readers and has not
written as many tech books as in the past.
Taxation Without Representation by the
way provides a full copy of the U.S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights and
other founding documents in its appendices.
If you want to buy any Brian W. Kelly book, please go to the www.bookhawkers.com site. When bookhawkers.com sells books for me,
since the processing is done by Amazon, it is always done right.
We are working with a new company that is not up yet called WWW.Booksnippers.com. It is being set up as we dialogue to be able to give chapters of
books away as well as make book chapters in popular LGP books available for
downloading as eBooks and eChapters. In the
meantime, if you would like to begin reading Brian’s most recent book for free,
take this link to Conservative Action Alerts.
http://www.conservativeactionalerts.com/2013/07/marco-rubio-explains-the-gang-of-eight-tyrants-plan/
Here is Kelly’s newest tech book from LGP:
The
IBM I RPG and RPGIV Tutorial & Lab Exercises!
A Combination Tutorial and Lab Book Designed for IBM i RPG & RPGIV based Application Development
Finally, there is an affordable RPG and RPGIV tutorial
for System i RPG & RPGIV programming. It is much
less expensive than other available self-study packages because it was built
first to be a lab guide. It is designed to help students learn RPG without
going broke.
Additionally, this book is designed to be used by
Colleges and Universities as an RPG/RPGIV course Lab book for RPG. The book is
packaged to be used with an IBM i library designed to
make learning as easy as possible. The book also has an optional set of
“talking” PowerPoint slide presentations that are based on the popular System i Pocket RPG & RPGIV Guide (text book). These slides
can be an effective lecture series when used with or without a Moodle CMS. Besides all that there is a sample syllabus as
well as optional quizzesto make the learning
environment complete.
In addition to the 1-2-3 type tutorial and lab exercises
in the tutorial/lab guide, it also provides lecture material that not only
helps you learn the language, the material helps you get your labs done right -
screens designed, programs compiled, programs executed, and output examined.
All IBM i Lab objects are
included in the downloadable material standard with this book package. The Labs
are well done and well documented and they are built so that you can complete
them successfully by visualizing the solution. Since nobody likes to key
programs from scratch, the lab exercises are already typed with enough
important material redacted to provide painless learning. You learn programming
rather than typing. The capstone lab is almost 500 statements of RPGIV
learning. By the time you finish the last lab, you will not be a better typist
but you will have learned RPG / RPGIV.
There are many RPG books and expensive self studies but
there has never been an RPG tutorial/lab guide as affordable and as well-done
as this. You won’t want to put down this comprehensive guide to learning IBM i RPG/RPGIV now that you’ve got your hands on it.
Considering the age of RPG, this book is almost 50 years overdue. In today’s IT
landscape, most IBM i System i
shops support both RPG and ILE RPG. Besides its easy-to read down-home writing
style, the major benefit of this book is that it is built to be a learning tool
and thus it can help anyone whose mission it is to educate/train new RPG &
ILERPG (RPGIV) programmers. Programmers are responsible for maintaining andextending the RPG programs that run businesses across
the world.
Programming in RPG helps get business applications
running sooner. Using this tutorial/lab guide help students, neophyte and
novices learn the language sooner. For those with a non-IBM i
IT background, this book has enough exercises to help you qualify for an entry
level position upon faithful
completion.
It’s in there...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The IBM I Pocket RPG & RPGIV
Guide
Order this book right here
This book is a
combination learn-by-example and reference guide for IBM I RPG & RPGIV
based Application Development. Finally, there is a Pocket Developer's Guide for
IBM I RPG & RPGIV programming. Yes, it is in big pocket guide form and it
is tutorial in nature. This guide is also packed with reference material so you
do not have to switch to a new book once you learn the language.
For example,
there is all the reference help you need to be able to use every op-code in
RPG/400 and RPGIV as well as every BIF that you may ever need to use. And the
new RPGIV keywords and the exclusive 'D' Spec?... Yep!
It's got that too! Moreover, instead of weighing you down with pounds of paper,
its convenient size will encourage you to "take
it along for the ride" rather than leaving it behind and having to guess.
There are lots
of RPG books but there has never been an RPG book like this. Instead of arguing
about the merits of RPG/400, the cycle, and the modern feel of ILERPG, this
book teaches it all. It is almost 50 years overdue. In today's IT landscape,
most IBM I shops support both RPG and ILE RPG. Besides its down-home writing
style, the major benefit of this book is that it is built to be an essential
text for anyone charged with the responsibility of maintaining and extending
RPG code at all levels.
And that means a
new approach to the historical cycle, RPG/400 operations from database to subfiles, basic and advanced RPGIV, Eval
and extended Factor 2 expressions, prototypes and procedures, free form RPG
and, of course embedded SQL. It's all in there.
Author Brian Kelly designed this book to show you how to use RPG by working with rich examples that you'll use over and over again. Additionally, for each example, there is the exact explanation you need to get a head start on being an RPG guru. This is the first RPG book to hand to your new developers and veterans alike
Table of
Contents by Chapter
Chapter 1
Introduction to the RPG Language.......................... 1
Chapter 2 The
History of the RPG Language.......................... 9
Chapter 3
Understanding the RPG Fixed Logic Cycle........... 25
Chapter 4
Developing RPG Applications............................... 47
Chapter 5 Your
First RPG Program........................................ 97
Chapter 6
Specifics of RPG Coding H Spec– by Example. 107
Chapter 7
Specifics of RPG Coding F,L spec by Example. 127
Chapter 8
Specifics of RPG Coding I
spec by Example...... 161
Chapter 9
Specifics of RPG– Strucs /Constants
Example... 203
Chapter 10
Specifics of RPG Coding– C spec
by Example 219
Chapter 11
Specifics of RPG Coding– O spec
by Example 247
Chapter 12
Decoding and Debugging RPG Programs.......... 277
Chapter 13
Introduction to RPGIV...................................... 295
Chapter 14 RPG
(/400) Operations...................................... 369
Chapter 15
RPGIV Operations and Built-In Functions....... 419
Chapter 16 RPG
Arrays and Pgmng
Structures (E spec).... 467
Chapter 17 RPG
Data Structures.......................................... 515
Chapter 18
String Coding In RPG......................................... 549
Chapter 19 RPG/400
& RPGIV Structured Programming.. 619
Chapter 20
Interactive RPG Programming........................... 645
Chapter 21 RPG
Subfile Programming................................. 693
Chapter 22 RPG
DBe & Inter-Program Ops/ Examples..... 743
Chapter 23
Case Study Part I RPG
Operations in Action.. 775
Chapter 24
Case Study Part II RPG Operations in Action.. 823
Chapter 25 ILE
& Static Binding........................................... 855
Chapter 26
RPGIV Procedures and Functions..................... 875
Chapter 27
Free Format RPG /FREE................................... 907
Chapter 28
Using Embedded SQL in RPG Programs.......... 919
Index ........................................................................................ 933
This is the best
book on RPG and RPGIV available today!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chip Wars is interesting reading for the technical and
non-technical alike:
Chip Wars
Please click here to order Chip Wars
The story of the ongoing war between Intel
and AMD and the upcoming was between Intel and IBM. This book may cause you to
buy or sell somebody’s stock. . www.bookhawkers.com
Brian Kelly a former Senior IBM Systems
Engineer wrote many technical books and then as he got older began to write
patriotic books to help America with it struggles with communism and socialism.
Mr. Kelly would be pleased to have you make a request about finding a book not
on the commercial sites since the three tech sites, IT Jungle, MC Press, and
News/400, aka 29th Street Press, aka Network/400. The last source
with all the aka’s appears not available since there
are no hits. All three of the former distributors of Brian’s books have either
gotten out of the business or have chosen to distribute only those titles from
their stable of authors. As an independent author, Kelly did not qualify.
IT Jungle was www.itjungle.com was the best source for
information but they too were forced for business reasons to not sell books.
Thus, Mr. Kelly’s books are no longer available at this prestigious site.
All is not lost, however. Now, you may go to www.bookhakers.com, and www. checkoutking.com
to get some or all of Brian Kelly’s technical and or patriotic books.
When you do not find what you want it more
than likely is still available. Write to info@letsgopublish.com and we will do our best to make it available
to you.
Kelly says the reason he never sold his own
books is because he liked writing books a lot more than selling them. Now, Mr. Kelly’s own company. Lets Go Publish! www.letsgopublish.com is pleased to offer all of the Kelly
Collection. Most of them are on www.bookhawkers.com
Thank you for your interest.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The All Everything Operating System
Lets Go Publish books written by Brian W. Kelly
are available at www.bookhawkers.com or www.checkoutking.com.
Is the “Best Deal In Town,” the best deal?
The All-Everything Operating System
Book
Description:
Sometimes the best deal in town is a bona fide steal and you’re the one robbed.
Any “low cost” server that fails more often than its equally low business value
would justify its worth no more than a bushel of pencils. The deceptive allure
of low pricing has played bandit in more than a few episodes of server
pillaging.
Fortunately, cost is no longer the paramount factor, now displaced by business
value and resiliency. Small and large businesses alike are fed up with their
systems’ chronic unavailability. There no longer exists the luxury of indulging
the whims and caprices of every unresponsive system or lingering down
situation.
Resiliency is the new paradigm. The new
business world operates in an exponentially more real time fashion.
Transactions and information flow with the currents of broadband. Transactions
execute immediately. Tolerance for downtime has dissipated. What can a
business, of any size, use to stay afloat? The all-everything operating system,
IBM i, is the best answer, short of a pencil.
Trust the Casinos, who currently use IBM i. Any doubts of their pressing need for systems
reliability?
In IBM i, the company has made the finest, most
architecturally elegant, most usable, most productive, most affordable, and
least frustrating operating system of all time. Its IBM Power System, driven by
IBM i, is a “mainframe for the masses” because it can
be as large and big as a mainframe but it also fits just as effectively into a
small business. It’s highly secure, productive, granular, and affordable and
eschews the operational impediments that would diminish revenue, regulatory
compliance, and corporate reputation. The all-everything operating system is
designed to resist viruses and run smoothly at all times. Numerous customer
testimonials aver that and much more.
This book walks you through the story of this unique operating system from its
inception until today. It presents its underlying superiority, its rapid
customer acceptance, development history, and its probable future. Inside, its
unique architecture and interactions are discussed in easily accessible
layman’s terms. Upon finishing this book, you will understand why IBM is proud
to have built the finest operating system in the universe and why it deserves
the name, “all-everything” operating system. Its manifold improvements and
value implications are condensed here in a single collection of pages.
With a Foreword by Dr. Frank G. Soltis, IBM i
Chief Scientist
--------------------------------------------
The All Everything Machine
The All-Everything Machine is all
about IBM's best computer product. You will learn how this "secret"
stealth-level unit from IBM Rochester has more advanced computer science
notions built-in than even the most famous advanced computer research projects
of the day including guru Jonathan Shapiro's EROS and its latter day
incarnations.
LGP publishes some hard
nosed factual books and we also publish some very nice technical books
for your learning enjoyment.
There is no better kept secret in
the computer industry than the new IBM Power Computers running the IBM I
Operating System. Another secret of which most modern computerists are unaware
is that IBM makes the finest, most architecturally elegant, most usable, most
productive, and most affordable computer system of all time. That system,
again, is officially known as the IBM I for Power Systems. As one would speculate correctly, it is the
IBM Power System running the latest version of the IBM i
operating system. I like to say it is
the all-everything system running the all-everything operating system.
This
hardware / software phenomenon is really the all-everything machine. Though it
has had numerous recent rebirths with each release of the hardware and the operating
system, its advanced underpinnings go back to IBM advanced research projects
from over 40 years ago. That's an awful long time for any company to keep such
a secret, but my speculation is that at some point in the future, IBM will opt
to divulge its secret and begin to make money for its stockholders on such a
huge investment in technology.
Not only has IBM kept
the secret, but with the all-everything machine, it has kept the lead. That is
noteworthy but not quite as noteworthy as the fact that the machine
architecture that was conceived and delivered 30 years ago is still the best
that anybody has ever built. Using a 40-year-old
"nobody else can afford to build one" architecture, IBM continues its
technology lead by far compared with all the other machines of today, including
the mainframe.
One would have to
conclude that IBM is 40 years ahead of its competition and that's before you
factor in that during the 40 years since its conception, IBM has not stood
still. Each and every year, more and more capability and facility has been
built into the all-everything machine. Now, I am not suggesting that the
all-everything machine is 60 years ahead of the competition, but that is where
the math logically takes you.
If I had never worked
with other computers--mainframes, 1130s, System/360 Model 20s, Unix boxes, PCs, and so forth--I probably would not have
appreciated what a solid system the Power Server family has been right from the
start. The Rochester, Minnesota-built small business computer line from which
the Power Sserver with IBM I OS was spawned was
unusually easy to work with. In every other early computer platform, there were
cryptic codes to decipher and continual puzzles to solve just to get the
machine turned on. Programming was and still largely is even worse.
Of them all, at least
before I worked with Unix, I felt that the mainframe
was the most cryptic of the cryptic. Technicians carried special green cards
with codes and translations galore in order to program properly on a mainframe.
At the time I learned it, I was convinced that the mainframe had been slapped
together by bit-head engineers who expected just bit-head engineers to work
with it. Real people need not apply. Even today, I have great respect for the
technical acumen of the professionals who know the mainframe.
When IBM introduced the
first ancestor of today's Power Server with IBMi OS
as the System/3 in 1969, it was remarkable. It was as if IBM had sent all the
geeks home that day. There were no strange codes that were indecipherable. No
IBM green "HEX" card was needed. Programming the System/3 was almost
as easy as speaking in English. Maybe not that easy; but it was easy. IBM had
succeeded in using high tech engineers to build a system for regular people. I
don't know how they did it, but they did.
It was just a start, but
it was a good start. From that moment on, the Rochester style of computing
became contagious. Rochester wares were the most popular computers in small
businesses for decades. Each and every Rochester computer was built on the
principle of large system function with small business system ease of use. Each
model was substantially better than the preceding machine and IBM business
customers just gobbled them up and their businesses grew unimpeded by technology
and reboots.
|
Today, the IBM I for
Power Systems total machine is positioned to be sold
in small businesses, medium businesses and even up to the largest businesses
in the world. As a family of computers, with various capacities and costs,
the all-everything machine
handles workloads from the size of just bigger than Mom and Pop
organizations to the Fortune 500. IBM has recently labeled this complex a
"mainframe for the masses" because it gets as big as a mainframe
but it can be used effectively by a small business. |
This book walks you
through the story of this powerful system from the very beginning until today
2005. To read about IBM I technology after 2005, feel free to look up The
All-Everything Operating System which chronicles the IBM i
Operating System after it was joined with the IBM Power Systems that can also
run Unix and Linux.
In addition to telling a
powerful, compelling story, the book describes in layman's terms the technology
and computer architecture innovations that are part of every system combination.
When you finish this book, you will understand why IBM is proud to have built
the finest computer system in the world, and you may just find a place for a
particular size one of these rascals in your own business.
For the most part, this
book reads as a series of 20 essays. Each of 20 chapters is built as a short
story unto itself, with the sum of the chapters telling the story of the
all-everything machine. For the most part, you can pick up any chapter and read
it without having to read a prior chapter. However, you may want to read the
early chapters first to get a perspective on what the Power Systems running IBM
I are all about and their relevance in IBM history.
This book presents the
IBM all-everything machine, its underlying superiority, its rapid customer
acceptance, the IBM development history, and the IBM all-everything machine's
probable future. This is not meant to be a technical book at a detailed level.
It is written for those who have some or little technical background, who may
know lots or nothing about an eServer i5 machine or its predecessors. However,
there are a few chapters in which I do get just a little bit technical, hoping
that I can show the reader in reasonably simple terms how the i5 is a special
machine with a long and successful tradition.
When you finish reading
this book, regardless of your technical competency, you will have a good idea
of a number of unique computer science architectural attributes from which any
computer system, from any vendor, can benefit. You will also understand how
those attributes can help any company, such as yours, preserve its software
investment and permit the upgrading of hardware and software without forcing a
rewrite or a re-build, or a re-purchase. You will learn that not only has no other
computer company, of software or hardware heritage, ever created a machine with
all of these advanced architectural attributes, no computer company has yet to
be able to adopt even one of these powerful notions into their computer servers
of today.
This book is written,
then, to teach you what is unique about the All-Everything Machine, and why the
parts that are unique, are also good, not bad; and why you should demand these
facilities in any machine you ever choose to use for your business. I believe that
the computer system (server) actually does make a difference in the overall
value of IT to your business, and there is no system that has ever been made
that delivers value better than the all-everything machine. In this book, you
will learn why!
Note: You can
order The All-Everything Machine and other Lets Go Publish!
Books through www.bookhawkers.com
When he wrote this book,
this was the biography used for Brian W. Kelly as a staff writer for IT Jungle
(www.itjungle.com)
Brian Kelly retired as a
30-year IBM Midrange SE in 1999, having cut his eye teeth in 1969 on the
System/3 and later with CCP. While with IBM, he was also a Certified Instructor
and a Mid-Atlantic Area Designated Specialist. Kelly takes pride in having
announced the AS/400 at Marywood University in June, 1988. When IBM began to
move its sales and support to Business Partners, he formed Kelly Consulting in
1992 as an IT education and consulting firm. Kelly developed numerous AS/400
professional courses over the years that range from soup to nuts. He has
written dozens of books and numerous magazine articles and about current IT
topics; he has also developed and taught a number of college courses and is currently
an adjunct member of the graduate faculty at Marywood University in Scranton,
Pennsylvania, where he also serves as iSeries technical advisor to the IT
faculty.
Page down to see more technical books:
________________________________________________________________________________
Our most controversial book!
Can the AS/400 Survive IBM?
You tell me!
Please click here to order this book
Book Excerpt: 'Can the AS/400 Survive IBM?'
by Brian Kelly
This note is from IT
Jungle. Feel free to visit their site at www.itjungle.com. This article was published in May 2004 and it
is available at http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh100404-story04.html
Editor's Note: Brian
Kelly, a well-known speaker and consultant in the OS/400 market, launched a
book in May, 2004 called Can the AS/400 Survive IBM?. This book pulls no punches about the history of the OS/400
platform and the things that Kelly feels IBM needed to do back then to
rejuvenate the platform. A message is only as useful as the breadth of its audience,
and shortly after its publishing, Kelly gave IT Jungle (this newsletter) permission to
excerpt one of the chapters of the book to stir up the debate over what IBM
should do. Here is "Chapter 32, Suggestions for Improvement"
from Can the AS/400 Survive
IBM?
You can get a sense of
what is needed in the AS/400 line of computers by reading this excerpt.
-----
Chapter 32
At this point in the
book, Can the AS/400 Survive IBM? it is no secret that IBM's biggest AS/400 problem is that it
fails to market the machine. The company has restructured its business as a
services and software supplier, and that is at the heart of its problem.
Hardware, including the AS/400 does not count for much anymore. Some of us
think that a little care and feeding and marketing could have and could still
help that. If you take a trip to IBM's main Web site, www.ibm.com, it is
difficult to find anything about its hardware products, but there sure is a lot
about solutions. Though solutions may include hardware, the primary ingredients
are software and tailoring services.
"Solutions" is
a euphemism for the things that IBM thinks customers buy when they are shopping
for a computer system. IBM thinks it sells solutions in today's world. As
strange as it may be, the IBM Company does not sell application solutions
software. It is purposely not in that marketplace. It is not in that business.
So, why would solutions be important?
IBM sells hardware,
middleware, and services. The company has a dotted line relationship to its
independent Business Partners and it depends on their good will as to whether
IBM hardware is included in their partners' software solution.
IBM would like to think
that its Business Partners propose its products and only its products; however,
this is not the case. I have been in a number of sales situations where these
"loyal;" AS/400 solutions providers will gladly switch to a Unix or Windows solution if the customer balks at the price
of an AS/400. They say "it is the same software, why not run it on the least expensive machine." The moral is
that just like the Computerland stores of yesteryear,
IBM's Business Partners are not in business for IBM's benefit; they do not sell
just IBM; and they are quite independent.
IBM loves to sell all
kinds of services, as you would see from a trip to its Web site. Since most of
IBM's business is services and software, the company has apparently decided
that hardware is now in the drag-along category. Years ago, IBM would sell
hardware as a solution. Software products and services were the drag-along
business. Now it is completely the opposite.
Though IBM still [2004] makes
about $30 billion in hardware, until this year, the number has been dropping.
Right now, its $30 billion hardware business is still integral to the company's
success. But, in the long term, as services and software revenues climb,
hardware will have less and less of an impact. The hardware business has become
less important to IBM and the company simply has not been successful in
maintaining its hardware revenue or market share. In many ways the reason for
its decreased sales is because hardware is just not an area in which the new
IBM pays attention.
In late 2003, IBM
announced that its software division would focus its solutions on vertical
marketplaces as opposed to selling software to whomever
will buy it. Since the vertical strategy is already employed in Rochester, this
is not expected to affect the AS/400. However, I think that it will. When a
lumber company comes to IBM for its one stop shopping, IBM's Software Division
will direct them to a software package for the industry as well as try to
ensure that some of what is on the IBM software truck is sold.
Since the AS/400 software
truck is not as full as the other trucks, and since its most important AS/400
middleware comes with the machine, human nature says that if the software
division has a prospect, it is going to sell what it's got on its truck. Since
they get less compensation for an AS/400 sale, the AS/400 will not be sold.
Case closed. Therefore, you can bet none of these companies who contact the
software division will ever hear about the AS/400--other than perhaps an
acknowledgment that it is more expensive than Unix and
Windows.
The Grim Reaper
They say that in life
you reap what you sew. Unless IBM re-acknowledges that it is in the hardware
businesses before it fritters its server business away, just as it did the PC
business, the AS/400 and its hardware sisters and stepmother will be gone
before the company knows it. When that happens, the discussion about how to
save the AS/400 will be moot.
Though some may argue
with me about it, the best thing that can happen to the IBM AS/400 is for
Microsoft to buy the whole business from IBM or for IBM to donate OS/400 [now
IBM i] to the Open Source Foundation. There would be
no question that Bill Gates would highlight the product if it were his and he'd win the small and large server business by
killing both Unix and the mainframe. Eventually, he'd put a GUI on the AS/400
and would drive the box with Windows-like icons. In addition to making AS/400
customers happy this would make Microsoft happy also.
Microsoft's internal IT
staff would not have to be embarrassed anymore about running (or having run)
the business on the AS/400 platform. Besides peace internally, Bill Gates would
finally have a highly scalable and reliable platform upon which to run Windows.
Intel need not apply. Don't rule it out!
A donation to the open source
community would help IBM in a number of ways. AS/400 customers would get off
IBM's back because the software would be open and free. IBM would not have to
bear the cost of maintaining OS/400. The Open Source OS/400 may be tweaked to
run on many different hardware platforms, including all of IBM's servers.
Short of action from
Microsoft, or the donation route, if IBM chooses to save its AS/400 product
line, this chapter has a number of suggestions. It starts with the top nine
things the company can do and then generally discusses the problems that some
of the nine solutions would address. The suggestion list continues in Chapter
34, with another set of suggestions for how to attract new blood to the AS/400
and how to get them prepared for training. If IBM is ready to sell, sell, sell,
there is no doubt that the AS/400 can be saved.
To the IBM Vault?
What can IBM do to
prevent the AS/400 from finding its way into the IBM vault.
[Think of the Disney vault] Vestiges
from IBM's glorious and ignominious past are displayed in the vault. For
example, you'll find the Series/1, the 305 RAMAC, the DataMaster,
the 8100, the 1620, the DisplayWriter, and the Ford Edsel? Ford has its Edsel
there because it did not have a vault and Disney would not take it.
Unlike the Disney vault,
the IBM vault has an entrance but no exit. Products that go to the vault don't
ever get taken out for a new look – even after the kids that worked with them
have grown up. The list of suggestions to IBM then is intended to help keep the
AS/400 from getting tossed into the vault along with the dead products of
yesteryear.
In one form or another I
would suppose that others have given these recommendations to IBM over the last
ten years, but perhaps not all together as the list below and the education
list in Chapter 34. When I read this list I say to myself, "of course,
that will save the AS/400…yes, that's a good one, etc." But I am powerless
and you are powerless other than to suggest. Suggestions or no suggestions, in
the end it is IBM who must decide to what level its AS/400 has a role in its
company. Based on the IBM view, the AS/400 may hit the vault or not.
AS/400 Partial
Improvement List
1. Tell the world about AS/400 reliability and dependability.
Since most AS/400 users believe that the most important part of an AS/400 is
its reliability and dependability, IBM should tell somebody about it. Marketing
is not about best kept secrets.
2. Tell the world about the marvels of AS/400 integration. Since
IBM thinks that the most important part of the AS/400 is its integration
characteristics (as in iSeries), again, tell somebody about it, and begin to
integrate the many standalone products, such as WebSphere to keep the "i" in iSeries from meaning "disintegrated."
3. Position the AS/400
as a new account business computer. Since no business expands without some new
accounts, and new accounts don't come calling by themselves, again, IBM should
tell somebody that they want new accounts and that they can sustain new
accounts. A new accounts S.W.A.T. team would help in this regard.
4. Create a new baby
sized AS/400 server / personal machine. Since the PowerPC chip line is so
dominant in non-PC circles (almost all chips in game toys are IBM's), the
company should use this chip to create an AS/400 style machine to sell to new
accounts. There is really no reason to import OS/400 to the Intel platform if
this is done.
Again, if IBM were to
build it, the company would have to tell somebody about its new affordable
AS/400 server and development machine. The machine should be sold as an
integrated, affordable package at about $2,000.00 or less.
5. Give AS/400s away to
students and to colleges. IBM should have a lottery once a week, on a different
campus every week, in which they give away one or two small AS/400s to a
college student and the host college. To qualify for the lottery, a student
might be asked to bid a dollar and all the dollars would go to the institution
or to Student Government.
If IBM were to create
this inexpensive AS/400 I would recommend giving at least one to every college
and community college as a good will gesture during its kickoff period. Of
course, the company would also be compelled to tell the colleges why the AS/400
should have value to them. To do this, again, IBM would have to let somebody
know about the system, as in all other scenarios. Additionally, the company
would have to let the general public know that these little AS/400 boxes are
coming to a college close to home so the public has the opportunity to learn about
the alive and well AS/400.
6. Add a standard GUI to
the AS/400 operating system box (MAC OS). Since the AS/400 looks just like the
tired old legacy system that Microsoft and the trade press
have it painted to be, IBM should buy the Mac GUI from Apple and adapt
it as the GUI for the AS/400. The MAC and the AS/400 both use PowerPC processor
technology. Academia would automatically like the AS/400 since they love the
Mac. By the way, the Mac and the Apple PowerBook use the same family of chips
as the AS/400. Again, IBM would have to tell somebody about this.
An alternative would be
to rebuild the OS/400 front end to use an HTML or better yet, an XML driven
GUI. The AS/400 command structure could also be rescued to participate in the
resolution of the commands.
7. Create a hybrid
futuristic Mac/AS/400 PC. Along with Apple, IBM should build a PC that has the
outward look and feel of a Mac and the inner elegance and full application
facilities of an AS/400. If IBM were to perform this magic, it would create another
PC revolution. To ensure success, Apple would have to market the device.
8. Take advice from Mark
Twain and announce that the AS/400 is not dead and that it is not even tired.
Since no business wants to install a server or even upgrade one that is dead,
and the trade press has declared that the AS/400 and green screens are dead,
and IBM behaves as if the AS/400 actually is dead, the company, like Mark Twain
should announce that the AS/400 is not dead and that the reports of its death
have been greatly exaggerated. Again, IBM must tell someone about this.
9. Add generic aliases
to the IBM server line, making the AS/400 the "IBM Business System."
Rather than have IBM embarrass itself by discarding the eServer umbrella, add a
generic primary differentiator name to the eServer brand so that the system can
be known by a generic alias. Generic aliases for the other systems are already
unofficially in place--IBM Mainframe Server; IBM Unix
Server; IBM PC (x86) Server. The IBM Business System or even the IBM Business
Server moniker would properly position the AS/400 and clear up its primary
purpose.
10. etc.
The list continues.
The Absence of AS/400 Awareness
In order to offer
suggestions for improvement, you must examine the problems
that the AS/400 platform is currently experiencing that makes it an
at-risk-system in the 21st century. Most of my peers with whom I communicate
share the thought that IBM's biggest problem with its AS/400 line of computers,
besides IBM per se, is buyer awareness. Other than the AS/400 professionals,
the IT folks who manage, develop, implement, and operate AS/400 systems on a
regular basis, there is almost no awareness of the product.
There is even less
awareness of its new pseudonym, iSeries.
Interestingly, this is
not much different than the early days of computing when only the insiders knew
what an IBM 1130, a System/3, or a System/38 might be like. In the early days,
very few people knew anything about any computer, other than those people
working directly with computers in their businesses. That is not the case
today. More people know about computers today than those who do not know about
them. More importantly, ordinary people know computers today from things they
do and see outside of their workplace. Just like the days gone by, not many
people, other than those directly involved, know anything about the big back
room computers that do the companies work every day.
Who are the people then
who know little about their computer at work but are very aware of computers in
the rest of their lives? You already know who they are. They are my neighbors
and they are your neighbors. Four out of five of them are likely to have at
least one computer at home and nineteen out of twenty are likely to have a
close relative with one. This same percentage of people is on the Internet
every day or so, looking for an email from a son or daughter or parent or other
loved one, or perhaps an acknowledgment that their last big purchase, such as a
digital camera, CD, or cell phone has been shipped.
|
These people are
Firemen, Accountants, Nurses, Police, Food Service Workers, Maintenance
Personnel, Doctors, Plumbers, CEOs, Store Owners, Sales People, Secretaries,
Street Cleaners, Teachers, Linemen, Clergy, Cable Workers, Bankers, other
government workers, other school workers, and other industry workers. Please
don't forget the retirees, because many of us continue to persevere in the
job marketplace. Of course we can't forget the computer geeks and the
students from high school to college to graduate school. All of these people,
you and I included; know much more about computers in our home lives than
people ever did before. Opinion's Count. But? … |
The Living Room CEO
You don't have to be
technical to understand this. But the computer mindshare battle - no matter
what size computer--must be fought in the living room. The living room CEO
becomes the boardroom CEO again every Monday morning. They are one and the same
people. People can be taught the meaning of PC, Unix,
Mainframe and AS/400 in simple terms by IBM ads if IBM chooses to fight. IBM,
you got that? "In the living room!" And down
the road, maybe IBM can actually set the stage for something that gets IBM
machines back on the desktop, and in people’s minds.
Brian Kelly is an IT consultant who heads Kelly Consulting, a
practice based in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Brian is a well-known author
and an AS/400 and iSeries expert. E-mail:info@letsgopublish.com. To read
this article in its entirety, go to http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh100404-story04.html
___________________________________________________
LETS GO PUBLISH! Books:
LETS GO PUBLISH! is
proud to announce that more AS/400 and Systemi books
are becoming available to help you inexpensively address your AS/400 and
iSeries education and training needs: Our titles include the following:
email info@letsgopublish.com or go to the referenced
sites for ordering information
All of these books are
available at www.bookhawkers.com. Before they went on their own, these books
were available at www.midrangecomputing.com and MC Press, and a select group of WebSphere books were
available from Penton (System i Network) .
Do you want to know
how to develop code on the IBM Power Systems for IBM I, a.k.a
the all-everything operating system. The book described below is all you need.
It’s in there!
The IBM i Pocket Developers’ Guide.
Please click here to order this book:
Please click here to order this book:
This is a comprehensive pocket guide to all
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get a big bonus with chapters on rchitecture, work
management, and subfile coding.
This book is designed to be your pocket guide for learning and using the
standard development tools available with just about every AS/400 and iSeries
server. Author Brian Kelly used his standup classroom courses as the basis for
these self-contained QuikCourses.
This book is based on 20 years of classroom experience and more than 30
years of experience with System/3X products. It is chock full of hands-on
tutorial exercises. When you experience this very real, easy-to-understand
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This is the first book to hand to new developers. With a little help
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not months. Moreover, existing developers can gain valuable insights,
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The IBM i Pocket
Database Guide.
Please click here to order this book:
Finally, there is a Pocket Database Guide for native AS/400 and iSeries
database development. Yes, it is in big pocket guide form and it is tutorial in
nature. You'll be pleased with all the valuable examples.
You won't want to put down this comprehensive guide to DB2/400 when you
get your hands on it. As you may know, there typically is no DB Administrator
position in AS/400 shops. The database job is up to you - the AS/400 and
iSeries Application Developer.
Though rich in content, IBM's reference manuals are not built to teach
you. They are for reference. This pocket guide is different. It is your
teaching/learning vehicle to the native database. It is your new tool to help
you solve programming problems more efficiently with database coding - rather
than have to work harder building program code.
Complete Pocket Guide to iSeries integrated
relational database (DB2/400) physical and
logical files and DB operations - Union, Projection, Join, etc. Written
in a part tutorial and part reference style, this book has tons of DDS coding
samples, from the simple to the sublime.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The IBM i Pocket SQL
Guide.
Please click here to order this book
Finally, there is a
Pocket Developer's Guide for IBM i SQL database
development. Yes, it is in big pocket guide form and it is tutorial in nature.
You'll be pleased with all the valuable explanations and examples. You won't
want to put down this comprehensive guide to learning iSeries SQL now that
you've got your hands on it. This book is 20 years overdue.
In today's IT landscape,
most shops support heterogeneous systems with numerous client and server PCs,
and even Unix boxes. Ironically, all of these non-IBM i platforms, from the smallest to the largest have one
thing in common in the relational database area.
They all use SQL as
their data language. That's a big change in the database landscape. Nobody even
tries to deny that SQL is now the industry data / query language standard. IBM
backs SQL 100%. A quick look at the SQL function list for V5R4 gives a good
indication that SQL will have an even more important role in the iSeries
future.
IBM has been chipping
away at all the little things and the annoying things over the years so that
SQL is no longer a lesser function cousin on iSeries to DDS. It certainly is
not yet the time to throw in the DDS towel but the new SQL functions are more
and more compelling with each release. So, today, it makes little sense for an
iSeries professional to not be on board by warming up to SQL — at least for
functions that return sets of data.
This Pocket Guide has an
example for just about every type of common SQL function you can imagine - from
creating tables & views to performing simple and complex selections, column
and scalar functions, sub-queries, all the way to unions and joins.
Author Brian Kelly
designed this book to show you how to use SQL by working with rich examples
that you'll use over and over again. Additionally, for each example, there is
the explanation you need to get a head start on being an SQL guru. This is the
first book to hand to your new developers and it is a natural for the veteran
development team. More importantly, rather than seeing Oracle as the only
database taught at your local Community Colleges, Colleges, and Universities,
finally there is an up-to-date SQL Guide as the right sized text to use as a
teaching vehicle for a modern iSeries database course.
Complete Pocket Guide to SQL as implemented
on IBM i. A must have for SQL developers new to
System i5. It is very compact yet very comprehensive and it is example driven.
Written in a part tutorial and part reference style, this book has tons of SQL
coding samples, from the simple to the sublime.
The IBM i Pocket Query Guide.
Please click here to order this
book:
Finally, there is a Pocket Query Guide for training IT and non-IT
personnel for Query/400. Yes, it is in big pocket guide form and it is tutorial
in nature! You'll be pleased with all the valuable examples, especially result
fields, selection and output options. You won't want to put down the first
comprehensive guide to Query/400 now that you have your hands on it. This book
was overdue 20 years ago, when Query/36 was the offering of the day.
As strange as it may seem, there has never been a Query book such as
this...ever. Yet, there are tons of expensive Query classes. It is difficult in
most companies to get someone to step up to the plate to learn Query. Moreover,
OJT is a tough learning experience and an inexact science at best. How do you
know if you're ever right?
The biggest cost of Query work may be impossible to quantify. The
inaccurate answers that are returned from important queries, done by well
intentioned, but inexperienced knowledge workers, can be costly. Making
important decisions on erroneous information, however, can be even more costly.
Then there is the employee turnover issue. Just when they get good at Query,
they're gone. There is always another person or a team of people to train.
IT is continually training users on the same Query product. Training by
any source is expensive. From IBM classes to expensive self-training systems,
there is no cheap alternative. It is always expensive, but it doesn't always
work. It's difficult to achieve the objectives.
Moreover, history suggests that one thing about Query training is always
true. In a year or two, you will be doing it again. Not anymore! There is no
magic in the Pocket Guide, but everything you need is in there! In addition, it
is easy to read. The objective is for the users to train themselves.
The IBM i Pocket Query Guide, a little help
from co-workers along the way, and a careful evaluation by IT is all you need. The Guide has an example for just about
every type of Query you can imagine — from major result fields to File Joins.
You'll see how to do it with examples that you'll use repeatedly. Additionally,
for each example, there is a detailed explanation as well as the theory you
need to get a head start on becoming a Query/400 guru.
If you have been spending money for years
educating your Query users, and you find you are still spending, or you've
given up, this book is right for you. This one QuikCourse
covers all Query options.
www.bookhawkers.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Additional
Lets Go Publish! books
written by Brian W. Kelly
The following books are out of print but the
LGP warehouse still has a small supply of them. You may purchase any of them by
sending a note to info@letsgopublish.com, and we will send you information for how to
place your order:
The price for any of these vintage issues is
just $6.00 each or two for $10.00 mix and match titles.
Getting Started With The WebSphere
Development Studio for iSeries . Your introduction to
the new IBM strategy for Application Development. Includes a case study and
examples of UI / Logic separation and CPW savings techniques.
Getting Started With The WebSphere Development Studio Client for iSeries
Your one stop guide
to ordering, installing, fixing, configuring, and using WebSphere ExpressClient Server and the Web. Your
introduction to the client server and web development tools. Includes
CODE/400, VisualAge RPG, CGI, WebFacing, and
WebSphere Studio. Case study continues from the Interactive Book. , Apache,
WebFacing, System i5 Access for Web, and HATS/LE.
The System i5 Express Web Implementor’s
Guide.
Your one stop guide to ordering, installing,
fixing, configuring, and using WebSphere Express, Apache, WebFacing, System i5
Access for Web, and HATS/LE.
The iSeries Pocket
WebFacing Primer.
This book gets you started immediately with
WebFacing. A sample case study is used as the basis for a
conversion to WebFacing. This interactive 5250 application is WebFaced in a
case study format before your eyes. Either learn by reading the book or
read while working along on your own system.
Migrating to WebSphere Express for
iSeries: Your Roadmap for Migrating Applications to WebSphere Express
A Comprehensive guide designed to be your
Roadmap for moving to WAS Express for iSeries. It is loaded with examples and
structured for easy learning. Through an easy to understand sample case study,
you experience a real migration, and you learn the gotchas
before they getcha! This book is designed to be
a companion to all of your WAS Express migration efforts in the iSeries
environment.
Getting Started with WebSphere
Express Server for iSeries: Your Step-by-Step Guide for Setting Up WAS Express
Servers
A Comprehensive guide to setting up and using
WebSphere Express.
It is filled with examples, and structured in a tutorial fashion for easy
learning. The book is designed to take you to a point at which you
understand the notion of a servlet server, what
WebSphere Express is, where it came from, how to order it, how to set it up,
and how to make it work in your shop.
The WebFacing Application Design
& Development Guide:
The Step by Step
Guide to Designing Green Screen iSeries Applications for the Web. This is both a
systems design guide and a developers guide. Using this guide, you will
understand how to design and develop Web applications using regular workstation
interactive RPG or COBOL programs. When you learn the tricks, and observe
the sample code in action, you might choose to develop all your applications
using this approach. www.bookhawkers.com,
The
Best Damm Web Builders' Series
In the
fall, 2008, Lets Go Publish released our Best Damm
Web Builder / Joomla! Series. Five of the books are about Joomla! per se on all platforms,
including IBM i, and the other two have to do with
installing and programming PHP / MySQL on IBM i. Click on the image below to see the
descriptions for the Best Damm Web Builders Series,
featuring Joomla! for all
platforms and PHP/MySQL for IBM i.
The
same two-for deal applies to the five Joomla books
below in the “series photo.” The IBM i books can be book # 2 of a two-for $10.00. If you choose
to buy them alone, they sell at list price.
Don’t forget to email info@letsgopublish.com to begin a dialog
about buying the books not hosted on www.bookhawkers.com
Lets Go Publish!'s (LGP!) Best
Damm Joomla! Web Builder
Series
shows you how to get Joomla! up
and running, and looking good regardless of your system type or ISP, in
the shortest time possible.
Seven is a lucky number and there are seven books in this
series. Check them out!
Whether you use Windows, Unix, Linux, IBM i,
a mainframe, or you use a hosted facility such as godaddy.com, if you want to
learn about Joomla, we have the book series for you
-- from a generic Joomla tutorial -- the bast damm tutorial in the
business to how to build an intranet, to working with templates -- even how to
install Joomla on multiple platforms. This is
the book series. Enjoy picking your first book from this seven book series.
Within this intranet learning specialty that LGP now provides
via these books we now foster, you will find a number of books on Joomla! In case you had not heard, Joomla! is phenomenal! It is
an open source framework and content publishing system designed for
quickly creating highly interactive multi-language Web sites, online
communities, media portals, blogs and eCommerce
applications. Best of all, it runs on all platforms including IBM i, and we have a book with special chapters that show
you how to install on IBM i. This same book also
shows you how to install on all other platforms, including your desktop.
Joomla! provides an
easy-to-use graphical user interface that simplifies the management and
publishing of large volumes of content including HTML, documents, and rich
media. Joomla! is used by organisations of all sizes for Public Web sites, Intranets,
and Extranets and is supported by a community of thousands of users. If you
give it a spin, you may be a Joomla! user on your desktop and on your server system, sooner
than you think!
It's the easiest way for anybody including IT pros to set up
their own Web site and have it look great and be functional, right out of the
box. And, Joomla! is free!
For more information on the above $5.00 books, click here.
Thank you for your interest in my books.
Sincerely
Brian
W. Kelly
Yes, I may run for Congress again or perhaps Mayor of
Wilkes-Barre, PA. 18702 or something!
God bless you all and God bless America.