President's Message By Don Rima

Off the top of the bat, two IMPORTANT reminders: JAM this year is a month early. This year’s JAM is in NOVEMBER on the 8th. So if you’re thinking you’ve got a lot of time to wait to register for a December meeting, you’re going to be left in the cold! Registrations are already pouring in and you need to get yours in early to make sure you have a seat. This is going to be one super info packed day and you want to be there.

Secondly, since COMMON is during the week we usually have our WAM meetings, WAM has been pushed back one week to October 22. Details below.

Well, if you missed the September meeting, you missed one of the highest rated (according to the evaluations) presentations we’ve had in a while! And both Richmond and College Park attendee’s of the seminar walked off with a stack of handouts and a lot of good ideas to take back to the office with them!

In October we will be hearing from the other half of the Gantner/Paris duo when Jon Paris comes to town. Jon’s Seminar on OS/400 RPG: It’s Not Just for Green Screens Anymore will cover programming for a GUI interface in an OS/400 environment. Jon’s also going to be doing our WAM meeting in October. Those of you that have ever been to Jon’s presentations know you’re in for a packed and fun day of good useful information. Registrations are still being accepted for the daytime seminar in both Richmond and College Park.

JAM 2002 is going to be a SUPER PACKED day of the latest and greatest in the OS/400 world. Check the website and get your reservations in early to make sure that you get a seat.

Hope to see all of you folks at the seminar and meeting! Again, please register EARLY. We don’t want anyone to be left or to go hungry and not have a place to sit.

See you on the 22nd.

October 2002 Meeting

CODE/400 A Modern Programmer's ToolSet: IBM's best-kept software secrets is about to hit the big time!

The recent IBM announcements on pricing and packaging for Code/400 and VisualAge for RPG make them an essential toolset that even the smallest AS/400 shops can afford. After all "free" is a pretty good price!

Code/400 is a complete Windows-based programming environment for AS/400 programmers. It replaces PDM, SEU, SDA, RLU, and the various flavors of source view debuggers. It also adds its own unique features, such as a local code verifier that works even when you are not connected to your AS/400. You can develop and maintain your host-based green-screen applications much faster with CODE/400 and enjoy it more! It supports all the most popular AS/400 languages, both ILE and Original Program Model (OPM) versions. Not only that but it also supports editing of Java and HTML code.

Once you try it you will soon wonder how you ever coded without it! We'll demonstrate for you some of our favorite features in CODE/400, so you can see for yourself what it can do for you.

Interestingly enough, you’ve already paid for is with your AS/400 software licenses, so why not start developing with the new environment that you’ve already paid for and chances are already have installed on your system?

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 and a technical editor for eServer Magazine.

Tuesday October 22nd, 2002
Holiday Inn in College Park, Beltway and US 1
6:00 PM Networking/Cash Bar 6:30 PM Dinner 7:15 PM Presentation