Development and Pipeline - Group home

IBM Developer for z/OS releases 15.0.4 and 14.2.7 are both live!

  
The transit authority seems to always be able to keep the subway trains going; there are regular and express trains with multiple routes to get you through the many stations, all to get you where you need to be.

isometric trains at a train station


IBM Aqua is like that too, and today the IBM Developer station is busy: we have two new version trains inbound at the same time with both IBM Developer for z/OS 14.2.7 and IBM Developer for z/OS 15.0.4 at their platforms, available to board on the Mainframe Downloads site now!
new IDz 14.2.7 and 15.0.4 on mainframe downloads site screen capture



IDz 15.0.4

The IBM Developer for z/OS 15.0.4 is where you'll find all of the new and exciting features and function...

Documentation

First up is the first thing when trying to conduct a train ... get familiar with your environment and read the manual so you know what buttons and switches to use! The latest documentation improvement provides a map to success by providing organized easy to follow steps about how to verify the installation, setup any source code access, configure the property groups, create a z/OS Project, and modify the editor for your preferences for your COBOL development or PL/I development workspace.
development workspace setup documentation screen capture


Property Groups

Keep everyone together as we board with these improvements to the property groups.
The MFS tab of a remote property group can now override the compiler options generated in the PARMS statement of the ELAXFMFS procedure.
MFS tab of the remote property group

There was also an update to the remote property group  in the COBOL and PL/I  tabs for the compile options to move the checkbox for appending the options to PARM to under the Compile options for some added usability.
COBOL tab of remote property group...


For macOS users,  you can now use local user macro files in the property groups.
User macros wizards on macOS


COBOL

COBOL parsing in IDz 15.0.4 has some updated support for the Special Registers to help connect your travels.
The DEBUG-ITEM special register provides information for a debugging declarative procedure about the conditions that cause debugging section execution. Want more familiarity? See the COBOL 6.1 or higher documentation for DEBUG-ITEM.
The JNIENVPTR special register, which references the Java™ Native Interface (JNI) environment USAGE POINTER and is used for calling Java callable services. See the COBOL 6.1 or higher documentation for JNIENVPTR.
The DEBUG-ITEM special register and its subfields as well as the JNIENVPTR special register are now supported in the COBOL Application Model Application Program Interface (CAM API), so they can be used  for your next stop at Custom COBOL Code Rules.  
abstract map of a subway


    DBB Integration

    There is a new IBM Dependency Based Build version 1.1.3 also now available for consumption; the big news is that DBB 1.1.3 has moved up to Groovy 4.0.
    Make sure your train isn't delayed on the tracks by reviewing the notes on the changes.

    The open source DBB- zAppBuild has also been updated in the new zAppBuild 2.4.0 release and is now     Groovy 4.0, too. 
    If you aren't sure what DBB matches what zAppBuild version, zAppBuild in 2.4.0 now validates the minimum required DBB toolkit version.

    Other reasons to move your User Build scripts up to the latest version include t    he optional dependencies file update to UTF-8 which IDz 15.0.4 matched to support, an enhanced PL/I language script to support building test case programs for PL/I zUnit test cases, and support the --debug flag to compile for debug, console output formatted to write verbose output to be more human readable, an improved the documentation for items like DB2 bind, and the options for zUnit runner are managed as build properties, and allow file level overwrites.
    two construction engineers in a tunnel looking at plans


    EWM Integration

    You may remember from the What's New in IDz 15.0.3 that we added a way in Engineering Workflow Management (EWM) integration in IDz to queue user build requests of multiple COBOL or PL/I sources in one EWM User Build action... we want the build boarding line to move faster so when you start an EWM User Build for multiple COBOL or PL/I sources, you can now apply your choice to either regenerate or resubmit the JCL to all selected sources.
    Engineering Workflow Management User Build multiple source resubmit


    Remote Connection Emulator

    One of the big news notices on the board in What's New in IDz 15.0.3 was the announcement and debut of the Remote Connection Emulator. Remote connection Emulator has removed some limitations and added some improvements for usability so like the turnstile, give it a new spin!
    image of TN 3270 host ISPF screen rendered using remote connection emulator in IDz 15.0.3


    IBM Explorer for z/OS Aqua

    Let's take a peak at the engine too, in the IDz 15.0.4-adopted IBM Explorer for z/OS 3.2.18, there is an added capability to Export Job Spool to remote data set (XDC) and Retrieve Data Set now provides a choice to include additional qualifiers or not. 

    T    here is also a new control for encoding determination for UNIX file transfers between systems to help you get from the origin to the destination safely.
    set what value to use for the encoding based on origin or target


    zUnit

    IBM z/OS Automated Unit Testing Framework (ZUnit) also has improvements to help you not need to run for closing doors. When starting a test run, you can choose to export the expected and actual test data and their comparison to a .json file, you have more flexibility in the high level qualifier in the playback file name, and you can now run several tests as one test set, to make sure you get off at the right stop and get to your destination.


    Debugger 15.0.4

    Plenty of updates and new features to read while in transit on What's new in IBM z/OS Debugger 15.0.4 as well.
    person holding a rail on a train in the subway with a mask on reading a cell phone.


    IDz 14.2.7

    The IBM Developer for z/OS 14.2.7 is there on Aqua 3.1 to keep you running with the needed security and technical internal component updates.

    Git™ Integration

    We don't really target new features for this station's tracks, but for this release we did upgrade the rails for the Git™ users and upgraded IDz 14.2.7 to Eclipse® EGit™ 5.10 and there were many the usability and capability updates in EGit 5.8, EGit 5.9, and EGit 5.10.


    IBM Explorer for z/OS Aqua 3.1 and 3.2

    In case you also integrate other products, many other products of the Aqua 3.2  and Aqua 3.1 stack have upgrade versions available to match with the IDz 15.0.4 and IDz 14.2.7 updates, so we encourage you to also take a look at the whole large subway map of updates on the product versions page.
    all of the new IBM Aqua based 3.1 and 3.2 product versions on March 11, 2022


    Finally, if you want to learn more about any of the products or gain more knowledge and experience, stop by the Information Booth and sign in for the Remote Learning!