ISeries 101

People who move to the 400 from other computing environments and backgrounds have some common areas of misconceptions and concepts difficult to grasp at first. Understanding these problem areas can assist HELP DESK personnel grasp the roots of some personnel problems.

Multi User Queue Theory

Many users come to the 400 from a Desk Top reality where they were the only people using some computing resource. Such people can have trouble comprehending

• a multi-user environment in which
• Jobs can go to JOBQ to not run right away, but send Message to MSGQ upon completion;
• Reports to Printer OUTQ wait in line behind other people's reports;
• Reports from multiple people can be accessed.

Compiled Objects

Many users come from a PC environment that makes heavy use of scripted and interpretive languages that read a line of code and execute it. For such individuals, compiled programs can be a foreign concept.

Members

• Almost everything on 400 is an object.
• All objects are in a Library.
• All 400 Libraries are in a root QSYS Library.
• Files and other objects are in Libraries.
• Files can have more than one Format Layout.

All files have at least one format.

• Members are in Files. All files have at least one Member.
• Records are in Members. Each row of a table is another name for a Record.
• Each column of a table is another name for a field of a format layout of a file.

Source

• Files in Libraries
• Software source in File by type of programming language.
• Each member is a different program.
• Each line of the member is a line of code for the program.

Data

• Files in Libraries
• Each File format is different layout of data in that file.