So if you regularly check the product versions page
https://ibm.github.io/mainframe-downloads/product-versions.html (which you should!) then you may have seen some color highlights have changed positions and numbers have gone up overnight...
Aqua 3.2 (IBM Eclipse SDK V4.8 Photon-based, on Java 8) updated on 18 November 2022 and now there is a new set of versions:
Fixes and Updates
IDz 15.0.6 incorporates several updates and fixes from IBM Developer for z/OS and Explorer for z/OS.
For the complete listing of IBM Developer for z/OS (IDz), IBM Developer for z/OS Enterprise Edition (IDzEE), and Application Delivery Foundation for z/OS (ADFz) fixes, you can see those here: https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/713185#1506
As a reminder from my earlier community post,
If you had an old bookmarks or found an old link to the lists for APAR fixes for IBM Developer for z/OS (IDz) and IBM Developer for z/OS Enterprise Edition (IDz EE), then you may find they suddenly no longer work....
Here is the correct link: https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/fix-list-ibm-developer-zos-and-ibm-developer-zos-enterprise-edition
Fix list for IBM Developer for z/OS and IBM Developer for z/OS Enterprise Edition
- COBOL and PL/I Editors
- In IDz 15.0.5, we added support for COBOL 6.4, PL/I 6.1, and CICS® 6.1. Hopefully you didn't miss the a blog post on that but if you were so deprived of the experience the first time, see https://community.ibm.com/community/user/ibmz-and-linuxone/blogs/gerald-mitchell/2022/05/26/ibm-developer-for-zos-1505 .
- We have now enhanced the IDz 15.0.6 parsing and editing, and analysis capabilities to lift several limitations in that support.
- For more information on what limitations there are, review the now smaller Limitations in COBOL 6.4, PL/I 6.1, and CICS 6.1 support.
IBM Documentation for Menu Manager
The documentation for Menu Manager has been relocated in the table of contents, streamlined, and jazzed up to make it much easier read and understand and implement.
Even if you think you know what IDz Menu Manager can do, go ahead and take a look you may be surprised and learn something new!
You can open the Menu Manager topics at Creating menu actions in Menu Manager.
This reconstruction of the information provides helpful information and illustrates the information in an easy to read, informative manner.
IBM Documentation Offline
- IBM Documentation has introduced tooling for installing the IBM Developer for z/OS documentation on a workstation for offline access.
- I talked about it a bit in the other blog but just wanted to point out it is also available for IDz 15.0.6.
- Do not forget to login with an IBM ID on the documentation page so you can find the download button!
- To learn more and to download the IBM Documentation Offline go to https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/offline.
As usual, the full What's New for IDz 15.0.6 is in the IBM Developer for z/OS Documentation for the release stream:
https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/developer-for-zos/15.0?topic=zos-whats-new-in-developer
There is more than what I covered in this blog post so I highly encourage giving the documentation a read to learn about the z/OS Automated Unit Testing Framework (ZUnit) improvements and new abilities like test cases that support dynamic link library (DLL) programs and new test case template wizards.