Welcome.

PowerCL: CL for Files (CLF)

When Time is Money ... CLF Can Save You Both

The IBM i Control Language (CL) is a very powerful and productive language that virtually all programmers and operators of the system are familiar with. It allows you to run your system, write application programs to automate system operations, and write application programs work with the product you may have installed on your system. CL, however, does have limitations in terms of its ability to work with the business databases that run your company and its ability to provide information to users in the form of interactive applications and printed reports. These limitations often result in you having to write multiple programs and work in multiple programming languages -- all of which take time.

The PowerCL: CL for Files (CLF) product addresses these limitations and does so in a manner that maximizes the productivity of your operators and programmers. CLF supports the use of System i files directly from CL applications.

With a rich set of CL commands CLF allows your CL developers to directly work with file types such as database, display, and printer. System operations and application developers can experience significant productivity enhancements as they no longer need to work with multiple languages in order to use the flexibility of CL and the database support of high level languages such as RPG, COBOL, and C. CLF provides a superset of the file support found in these other high level languages, and this superset is accessible entirely through CLF provided command interfaces.

CLF provides a common, consistent interface to your System i resources.

Summary of Features

• Supports physical files, logical files, DDM files, and SQL views

  • Externally described data in addition to program described

  • Keyed access and access by relative record number

  • Read, Write, Update, and Delete

  • Dynamic changes in sequential read direction

  • Commit and Rollback

  • Support for null fields, variable-length fields, extended data types, control reuse of deleted records

  • Logical files can be single format, multi-format, or join

• Supports display files

  • Externally described data in addition to program described

  • Subfiles

  • Read, Write, and Write/Read support

  • Multiple device support

• Supports printer files

  • Externally described data in addition to program described

  • Override of spool file name, user data

• Two command interfaces provided

  • Traditional CL syntax such as:

    • OPNFCLF to Open a File using CLF

    • POSDBFCLF to Position a File using CLF

  • Free-form RPG-like syntax such as:

    • OPEN to Open a File using CLF

    • SETLL to Position a File using CLF

  • Can intermix the two syntax styles to maximize development productivity

• Extensive on-line help for commands and menus

• CLF file commands can co-exist with traditional CL file commands

  • Add CLF function to existing CL applications with minimal effort

  • Greater productivity by not having to use the OPNID of traditional CL DCLF support when using more than one file in the CL application program

• Elimination of need to write RPG/COBOL/C programs to meet input/output needs of CL application

  • Less programs to develop/test/maintain

  • Easier application development by staying in one application language environment. If 95% of the function is best served by traditional CL why introduce RPG, COBOL, or C for the remaining 5%?

• Supports both Integrated Language Environment (ILE) and Original Program Model (OPM) CL program environments

• Sample databases and complete application examples provided

• Capability of writing non-trivial input/output applications entirely in CL

• Supports up to 1000 concurrently open files per activation group, over 32000 concurrently open files per job

As you can see, with CLF you can work directly with database files, display files, printer files, and more. All with CLF provided commands, extensive online help, and a large number of practical examples to get you started. Learn how you can tap into the NEW Power of CL!

Download PowerCL CL For Files by clicking here.

 The zip file contains:

• vc2clf.savf - a save file containing all CLF options
• CLF Installation Reference manual
• CLF Programmer's Guide for the CL Developer
• CLF Programmer's Guide for the RPG Developer
• CLF Run-Time Generation Tools Guide

For more options on downloading the Free Trial click here.