What's new

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This page contains recent and forthcoming additions of note to Model 204 documentation.

Model 204 Version 7.6 and RKTools Version 7.5

Rocket Software is pleased to announce the commercial availability of two new releases: Model 204 version 7.6 and RKTools Version 7.5.

Model 204 version 7.6

Model 204 version 7.6 has added new features and functionality to provide continuous growth and expansion of your Model 204 investment.

New performance features

64-bit storage This release continues the 64-bit enablement of the Model 204 infrastructure begun in version 7.4. By moving Model 204 “above the bar,” scalability, performance, and growth are limited only by the system architecture and memory. As of version 7.6, STBL, VTBL, and several other tables can now be placed into swappable or non-swappable server storage area above the bar. (This is in addition to FTBL, GTBL, NTBL, and QTBL, moved above the bar in previous releases.)

Note that using above-the-bar storage could bring new challenges to customers who have written assembly language functions for use within Model 204. Rocket Software provides a set of service offerings to help accommodate your upgrade and conversion needs. Contact Rocket Software for details.

zIIP offload (IBM z/OS systems only) Release 7.6 enhances zIIP (IBM System z Integrated Information Processor) support by making most of the Model 204 code zIIP tolerant. Almost all MP-capable code (Model 204 code that can run on an MP subtask) is offloaded to zIIP. Code that cannot be executed on zIIP uses the MP subtask or a maintask.

Note: While a limited version of this capability is available to all customers, the fully improved zIIP support requires an additional license. For more information, contact Rocket Software.

Fast/Unload The add-on feature Fast/Unload HPO (High Performance Option), new in Model 204 version 7.6, activates zIIP processing for the Fast/Unload Soul Interface (requires license for Model 204 zIIP processing).
High Performance FICON (zHPF) Model 204 version 7.6 supports IBM's High Performance FICON (zHPF) feature (for z/OS systems 2.01 and higher), which allows faster I/O by limiting the number of interactions between the channel and the device.

SOUL enhancements

Additional enhancements have been made to SOUL (formerly User Language), including:

  • Json class, for exchanging data with other platforms using the JSON format.
  • Private keyword for Class declarations.
  • Friend declarations for Class blocks.
  • New "SSL" string methods.

The preceding list is a subset of the new features and functionality within Model 204. Review the M204wiki Release notes for Model 204 version 7.6 page as well as the M204wiki main page to see the latest enhancements and improvements that Model 204 has to offer.

RKTools version 7.5

The first version of RKTools is now available. Formerly known as UL/SPF, these utilities now provide advanced features to enhance programmer productivity, encourage the use of Soul OO programming constructs, assist in debugging and problem analysis, and help increase Model 204 availability. The product release notes introduce its new features.

Note: RKTools 7.5 requires Model 204 7.5 or higher.

SirScan, SirMon, and SirLib

Highlights of this release include the following features:

  • SirScan now has higher scan limits, along with a new bookmarking feature and a more complete web implementation.
  • SirMon provides a greatly improved web interface.
  • SirLib change management enhancements include longer project names, a much faster change-application engine, and improved integration with the programmer tools in SirPro.

SirPro

SirPro is extensively enhanced for Version 7.5:

  • It now allows most procedure-filtering operations from the SirPro command line.
  • It includes SoulEdit, an entirely new Model 204 editor with hundreds of improvements over the traditional Model 204 editor, such as:
    • Advanced block commands
    • Sophisticated help
    • Integrated Xcompare
    • User-extensible macro development
    • Integrated procedure backup
    • A user-controllable profile
    For details, view the SoulEdit page, which also links to an introductory video.


Janus/TN3270 Debugger Build 64

On October 7 2015, Build 64 of the Janus/TN3270 Debugger Client was released.

Build 64 contains improvements and fixes for the Debugger Client IE Mode settings of mergedPac or NewPac which are used with a Microsoft IE browser.

Please consult the Debugger User's Guide for details (see Build 64 in the "Release Notes" chapter).


Janus/TN3270 Debugger Build 63 with Model 204 Version 7.6

On July 6 2015, Build 63 of the Janus/TN3270 Debugger Client was released.

Build 63 contains support for HTTP: style URLs for PAC (Proxy Auto Config) files, for sites using a Debugger Client IE Mode setting of mergedPac or NewPac with a Microsoft IE browser. Previously, only FILE: style URLs were supported for PAC files.

When Build 63 is used with Model 204 version 7.6, two additional features are available:

  • Run Until, White List, and Black List processing is now done for procedures on daemon threads as well as for those on the master thread.
  • The Expand Object feature supports the JSON system object type, which was added for Model 204 7.6.

Please consult the Debugger User's Guide for details (see Build 63 in the "Release Notes" chapter).


Fast/Unload Version 4.7

Highlights of this version include support for EAV (Extended Attribute Volume) disks, CHUNK fields (introduced in version 7.5 of Model 204), and FILEORG X'200' (files with 48M records).

The main features in this release (December, 2014) are described in Release notes for Fast/Unload V4.7.


Model 204 Version 7.5

Version 7.5 of Model 204 (December, 2014) follows the acquisition of the Sirius Software product line and integrates the Sirius and Janus software products into the Model 204 nucleus. One of the more exciting results of the integration is Simple Objective User Language, or SOUL. SOUL adds object-oriented programming to, and replaces the name of, User Language. It comes with no additional cost, and it is backward compatible with existing User Language applications.

Release notes

The main features in this release of Model 204 are summarized on this page and described in greater detail in the version 7.5 release notes.

SOUL

Here are some of the new SOUL features:

  • Mixed case User Language support
  • Generic User Language sorting, searching, and subsetting facilities
  • Improved syntax for setting/retrieving large object (LOB) values (directly to/from longstrings)
  • Enhanced printing and auditing statements
  • Implicit concatenation
  • The Assert and Loop Next statements
  • A macro language
  • Data types:
    • Longstring (including image string items > 255 bytes)
    • Unicode
  • Full OO programming capabilities including:
    • Class and object definitions, methods, public/private class variables, inheritance, polymorphism, etc.
    • Support for exceptions such as Try, Catch, and Throw statements
    • Support for named parameters
    • Support for method variables, that is, variables that can be used to dynamically invoke functions or subroutines
  • Shorthand right-side assignment operators:
    • %a = @ + 1
    • %a = @ * 1
    • %a = @ / 1
    • %a = @ :div(1)

Note: These features were formerly part of the Janus SOAP product. In version 7.5 of Model 204, these features were incorporated into Model 204 such that SOUL applications continue to work as they always have. Janus SOAP remains as an add-on product that provides support for XML processing.

64-bit enablement of the Model 204 infrastructure

Model 204 moves “Above the Bar” to increase scalability, performance, and growth potential. With this release of Model 204, 64-bit addressing becomes the de-facto standard for all subsequent versions. This might bring new challenges to customers who have written assembler language functions for use within Model 204, and Rocket Software has prepared a new set of service offerings to help accommodate upgrade and conversion needs.

Physical field groups

Model 204 supports non-relational, denormalized data structures, and its efficient processing of multiply-occurring fields provides significant cost and performance benefits. This processing is enhanced by the availability of physical field groups, which let you view and process groups of fields as logical entities.

Range searching by Ordered Index (OI) chunk

The new CHUNK attribute of the DEFINE FIELD command offers significantly more efficient searching on Ordered Index numeric (ORDERED NUMERIC) field ranges. The storage for the file's values of these fields is automatically maintained, divided into ordered sub-ranges ("OI chunks") whose interval-size is part of the CHUNK definition. Finds of value ranges of these fields search by OI chunk rather than by individual value, so they entail fewer scans of the Ordered Index entries.

Expanded file-record limit

In version 7.5 of Model 204, the record limit per file increases from sixteen million records to forty-eight million records.

New debugging tools

Developing web and screen applications that use Model 204 is made easier by newly acquired debuggers: Janus Debugger, TN3270 Debugger, and SoftSpy.


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