V5R5 Wish List

V5R5 (assuming they call it that) is due out sometime in 2007. The IBM Toronto software development team is in charge of all application development products associated with iSeries. This includes PDM, WDSC, all compilers, SQL and the complete suite of traditional green screen tools. If you had their complete attention for just 15 minutes, what enhancements to the development toolkit would you ask to added in V5R5?

My wish list (none of which are back breakers, eh) include:

• Now that RPG calculation specs can be entirely freeform, turn attention to the data specs. There is still a lot of wasted real estate on "D" specs and I believe these could be easily transformed into freeform. This would really help RPG shed its fixed form image and appear more like Java. This is a good thing folks, trust me.

• The 5722-ST1 licensed program (SQL Development Kit) should be folded into the Websphere Development Studio (5722-WDS). Currently, ST1 is a separate chargeable feature, but it is required in order to embed SQL in host languages. If IBM balks at the loss of revenue, why not stop shipping all those 70 day time bomb features that nobody uses ?

• Update the RPG documentation on InfoCenter such that no fixed form examples are shown. This only encourages newbies to adopt 40 year old habits.

• Allow RPG and CL source to extend beyond column 80. For goodness sake - every other language on every other platform can do it. Can we please just bury the punched cards mentality ?

What are your wish list items ?

Thanks, Chris.