A Seminar on RPG IV -&- RPG V with Jon Paris -
on May 26, 2005 at the Holiday Inn in Ft. Washington, PA.


RPG: What's New, What You Should Be Using, What You May Not Know


This one-day seminar explores the issues regarding the development
and deployment of the latest in V5R2 RPG and the latest in
techniques and tools in developing RPG for GUI and web applications.

We start the day out with: RPG IV: Did you know... (Prototypes,
Compiler Directives and other features and functions you may have
missed)

As we travel around the world talking to RPGers, we often find that
even experienced RPG IV programmers have "missed" a few gems along
the way. This session is designed to fill those gaps. Examples?
How about Prototypes? Many people know that you need prototypes
when defining and using Subprocedures, but many fail to appreciate
their other uses. For example, did you know that you can use
prototypes to call PGM objects? Or that a prototype will defend
against passing incorrect parameters? Or that in some cases they can
take care of the differences for you?

Did you know that you could conditionally include source lines based
on a parameter to the RPG compiler? A great way to include/exclude
additional code needed for testing without having to delete or
comment it all out. There are many other uses for this great
feature too. How about mail-merge function? Did you know that
through the combination of two of the latest features of RPG IV that
you now have an easy way of blending customer names and other
details into text templates? Additional tidbits include new
performance optimization options and effective use of pointers in
RPG trigger programs. Even if you have been programming in RPG IV
for some time, you will likely learn something new in this session.

Then we move on to: Exploiting RPG's V5 Power Features.

With free-format RPG stealing all the headlines, it was easy to
overlook some of the other powerful features introduced in the V5
releases of RPG IV. This session will show you how to make the most
of them to power-up your RPG programs.

Major topics to be covered include:

- How to use the new MONITOR function to simplify error handling
- Ending the decimal data error blues by combining MONITOR with new
I/O features
- Many Data Structure enhancements, including Qualified and Nested
DSs, DS Arrays and new BIFs that help you to structure your data to
match the real world
- How to code RPG "methods" for use from Java and how call Java
methods from RPG

Which is followed by: /Free Your RPG!

With the V5R1 release of RPG IV IBM has "liberated" the language.
In this session we will explore the essentials of /free-form coding
including:

- The basic syntax rules of /Free RPG (or "How I learned to love the
semi-colon")
- The new Built-in-Functions designed to replace unsupported
operation codes, including the new BIFs to manipulate dates and
times
- Coding alternatives for the defunct MOVE operation
- New operations you can ONLY use in /Free form

Then it's on to: RPG IV Subprocedures - Beyond the basics

This session gives you some practical examples of how subprocedures
can be used in your business applications. We will show you how some
of the optional prototype keywords can be used to make your
procedures more versatile. In addition we will also discuss how
subprocedures can be used to mask complexity and modularize I/O
functions to simplify the task of changing the database design.

And finally, we end with: Brewing Up Mixed RPG and Java Applications

The Java Native Method (JNI) support in RPG IV opens up a whole new
world of possibilities. We can now write Java methods in RPG, and
invoke Java methods from RPG.

These days there is a wide range of Java utility software freely
available. Examples include: XML parsers, PDF creators, e-Mail, and
Excel spreadsheet creation to name just a few. In this session we
will introduce you to the basics of using these facilities from
within your RPG programs.

Knowledge of RPG IV prototyping is assumed, some Java knowledge is
helpful but not essential.

Jon Paris has been involved in the data processing industry for over
30 years. In 1988 Jon joined IBM's Toronto Lab, where he played a
major role in the planning and design of the new RPG IV language. In
1994, he moved to the AS/400 Application Development Tools Market
Support Group, where he was involved in producing educational and
other support materials and services related to AS/400 programming
languages and development tools, such as COBOL/400, RPG IV,
CODE/400, and VisualAge for RPG. Jon left IBM and is now one of the
principles in Partner 400, a Consulting company specializing in
iSeries Application Development education. Jon is a frequent speaker
at user group meetings and conferences around the world.

This course starts at 8:30 AM and ends at 5:00 PM and will be held
on May 26, 2005 at the Holiday Inn in Ft. Washington, PA.

The course fee is $275 for non-user group members and $250 for user
group members. This fee offering is a special arrangement between
Washington Area Midrange Users Group and MidAtlantic Midrange.
Members of other AS/400 User groups may also apply under the user
group rate.

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Please circle the date of the session you plan on attending.

Please mail completed form with check to: MidAtlantic Midrange,
Conference Services,

12023 Blackberry Terrace., North Potomac, MD 20878.

For any further questions or reservations, contact K.B. Soni at 301-
590-7121 or by email.