r/IBMi

▲ 9 r/IBMi

Interactive vs Batch with an ERP or scheduler

In my mind, I've always thought of Interactive jobs as being the jobs where a user is actively interacting with the screen, i.e. the program is awaiting their responses and proceeding when values are received. I've associated batch jobs with something where my CL has a SBMJOB command, and things run in the background.

When we bring the idea of an external ERP or a scheduler, I'm curious if my mental model still holds. If I have a program in an ERP where, say, a user enters a few params and then clicks a button to call my CL and execute the program, is that still interactive? I'm not 100% sure what goes on under the hood, but seeing as my CL just gets executed directly, there's no SBMJOB command in it, and the user has to wait a few secs (i.e. unable to do something else while it's processing), it feels like this would still be interactive.

Similarly, if a job scheduler calls my CL every day at a certain time, is that still "interactive" with the "user" being the scheduler itself? I'm not sure it's accurate for me to reduce the distinction of batch/interactive to the existence of a SBMJOB command in my CL program, haha! But just reading the definitions of these jobs isn't getting my head fully there on what happens in practice with these kinds of situations. Many thanks for any helpful thoughts!

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u/Iguanas_Everywhere — 21 hours ago
▲ 16 r/IBMi

My shop got us all Bob licenses, and I have to say his humor is a bit lacking.

u/manofsticks — 5 days ago
▲ 81 r/IBMi+1 crossposts

I've been testing IBM Bob 2.0 as an IBM i developer. Here are my first impressions.

I've been using IBM Bob since the new 2.0 release became available, comparing it with the previous version, and my overall impression is that it's a noticeable improvement.

The first things I noticed were:

  • Faster responses
  • Better overall performance
  • More accurate answers
  • Better self-correction when refining prompts

The biggest addition, though, is the new Premium Package for IBM i.

It adds IBM i-specific capabilities such as:

  • Understanding RPG, CL, DDS, COBOL and SQL
  • Direct IBM i connectivity
  • RPG fixed-format to free-format conversion
  • SQL modernization suggestions
  • Documentation generation
  • Unit test generation
  • Refactoring assistance

As someone who works with IBM i every day, what I find most interesting isn't just that it uses AI. It's that IBM is trying to build decades of IBM i knowledge into the assistant instead of treating IBM i like just another programming platform.

I've only been using it for a short time, so I'm still exploring its capabilities, but my first impression is very positive. There is still room for improvement—as with any AI assistant—but compared with the previous version, the progress is clear.

Has anyone else here tried Bob 2.0 or the Premium Package? I'd be interested to hear how it compares with the AI tools you normally use.

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u/Character_Read_5563 — 6 days ago
▲ 8 r/IBMi

IBM i Migrate While Active RedBook gives example of how to use the IBM Migrate While Active tool, MWA, to copy your partitions to another system.

#IBMi #rpgpgm #IBMChampion

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u/RPGPGM — 6 days ago
▲ 15 r/IBMi

What actually happens when an IBM i shop migrates off the AS/400 (the data part nobody demos)

Every "AS/400 migration" article I can find is written by a company that sells migrations, so I wrote up the version I wish existed when we started looking at this.

The thing that surprised me most: code conversion gets all the demos, but data is where projects actually die. On IBM i the database and the OS are effectively one thing, and a lot of integrity is enforced inside the RPG programs rather than by the schema. A field is valid because the program refuses to write anything invalid, not because a constraint exists. Move that data to a platform that expects the schema to enforce it and you find out in production which rules were never documented.

Then there's packed decimal and EBCDIC, which don't move as-is, and the precision loss converting packed decimal to standard NUMERIC is a real reconciliation and audit problem if you miss it. And record-at-a-time I/O that ran fine for decades on Single Level Store can fall over on x86 where RAM and disk are separate. You end up refactoring chatty I/O into set-based SQL before you can migrate, which nobody budgeted for.

My takeaway: for most shops, modernizing in place on current Power hardware beats a rewrite, and since IBM's roadmap runs to 2035 the platform isn't the deadline. AI (including IBM Bob now) is good at explaining old code and documenting logic first. It will not reconcile your data.

Curious what others here have seen go wrong on real migrations. Full writeup if it's useful: https://prompteddev.com/blog/as400-migration-what-actually-happens

u/ibmi_dev — 12 days ago
▲ 6 r/IBMi

Where do you find part-time IBM i (AS400) gigs in 2026?

I’ve been on the IBM I for about 10 years at this point and have a pretty solid full time gig but I’m looking for opportunities to use some of my other skills. What’s the best place to find some part time contracts for modernization work?

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u/MoyBoss — 12 days ago