Comparing ISeries Utilities to SAP

Well I thought I would go back to my roots a little to show people coming off the ISeries/AS400 etc how you do the same things you have been doing forever.

Lets Start with some simple stuff.
WRKQRY (One my personal Favs) In SAP there is a whole query engine but for most things all you need is SE16N Data Browser wonderful utility there are hundreds of pages on the utility so I am not going to explain it smarter people then me already have.

WRKACTJOB There isnt an exact replacement to this but SM37 comes about as close as I have found.

This is the initial screen from here you can choose to see only active jobs it will also allow you to view jobs that are scheduled and those that have finished. Play with it's a great utility. It does many of the functions that were several commands on the ISeries WRKJOBSCDE WRKJOB

In the ISeries world if you have been around as long as I have been you probally still use SEU to create DDS Specs. The replacement to that is SE11 in SAP.
From this screen you can generate simple data entry screen much like STRDFU Again these are all deeper discussion then I want to get into tonight I am a little to tired.
To run one of these DFU programs you will use Transaction SM30
WRKSPLF is SP01
Now then what about SEU well a simple editor is SE38.
But if your like me you always used STRPDM well SAP has something a whole lot better SE80 comparing the two really cannot be done PDM is just not as good take my word for it. It incorporates STRSDA, STRDBG, DSPPFM, and many others functions that I cannot even think of at this point.
STRRLU There are three replacements for this program in SAP SAP Script, SmartForms, and Adobe Interactive Forms. Books have been written on these subjects and I do hope to do a blog on two of them in the future take my word for it they are awesome. I know I am not being fair WDSC is great and very powerfull and is a greate replacement to the green screen utilites. But during my 20 plus years of doing AS/400 work mostly I have seen programmers only using green screen. The shop I work in only started using WDSC in the past 4 years and in most cases most programmers still go back to the old green screen when they have a quick fix to do.

Just so you don't think I am bashing the ISeries I still think it runs circles around SAP in speed and dependability. The speed that you can create code even though SAP has better tools and more powerfull tools I still think a decent ISeries guy can generate a program quicker then some one who is at the same skill level in SAP. But having said that I personally would still perfer to code in SAP. I love doing new and different stuff which SAP offers in Spades.

Well I think that is enough for tonight I hope to write a few more articles along these lines if you would like to know how to do something you have been doing on the ISeries drop me a line and I will be happy to share what little knowledge I have on the subject.