Bucking the trend of releasing development tools that require increasing levels of memory and high-end PC processors to simply run, IBM has finally offered the PDM and SEU killer version of WebSphere Developer Studio Client (WDSc) for the System i.
“With this release, everyone using PDM and SEU should start using WDSc version 7,” says Kou-Mei Lui, IBM’s marketing manager for WDSc and System i development tools.
The key reason, IBM says, is that you can selectively install a lean and mean version that can run on only 256 MB of memory. IBM previewed a rudimentary version of this feature early last year at COMMON in Minneapolis, calling it WDSc Lite. Attendees at that event indicated a lot of interest in using the lightweight WDSc, leading IBM to an even better version now.
Of Course, There’s Much More
In addition to the lightweight features of WDSc 7.0, IBM has beefed up its Advanced Edition and is also announcing WebFacing Deployment Tools 7.0 with HATS. IBM says there are five key reasons customers will want to use each of the new releases.
WDSc 7.0:
- If you’re working with RPG or Cobol, you can use selectively install features to run a lightweight version requiring only 256 MB of memory and less hard disk space, plus you can install more than one version. For example, you can choose a lightweight type for your day-to-day RPG programming and a full-featured version for training and evaluation purposes.
- IBM is providing new help to get you started, including an installation welcome page as well as a PDM, SEU transition guide.
- You can do your RPG programming job faster because IBM added ILE RPG SQL support in the text editor, a new iSeries Data Table View tool to display the content of file members, and CL support.
- You can build all sorts of new applications with WDSc for the Web, Web Services for SOA, WebFacing and Hats applications, rich UI, Java, and XML. “Those kinds of new applications . . . you can do them all with WDSc,” Lui notes.
- You already have WDSc if you are using PDM and SEU today.
WDSc 7.0 Advanced Edition:
- IBM has a new Application Diagram Component for working with RPG and Cobol programs, showing you the structure of your applications.
- You can now build portal applications using WebFacing HATS or Portlet Tool.
- WDSc 7.0 makes it easier to build J2EE applications.
- IBM provides built-in support features, including IBM Enterprise Identity Mapping (EIM) support in your applications for single sign-on, as well as increased problem determination support via Log and Trace Analyzer tool.
- You can use this one WDSc Advanced Edition IDE to work with all of your applications, no matter where they are located — on an i5/OS, Linux, or AIX partition of your System i.
WebFacing Deployment Tool V7.0 with HATS (WDHT):
- You can now combine your use of WebFacing and HATS into one Web app. “You can do your UI modernization based on your DDS source, or you can dynamically transform your 5250 datastream . . . and they can be linked — it’s one Web application with both technologies,” Lui notes.
- You can transform your 5250 applications into Eclipse-based rich clients.
- You can deploy your WDHT applications and run them without OLTP, starting with V5R4.
- You can get started quickly with integrated tools. “Within two hours, you can get your first Web app — just take one application screen and try it,” Lui says.
- WDHT helps you build Web services and SOA-enable your applications.
You can get your hands on WDSc 7.0 staring March 2 from IBM (electronic delivery).
Editor's Note: This article has been updated slightly from the original version.
