Rational developer for I on Mac

[paolinosal]

Hi all,

I have a mac book with Big Sure, I want to try Rational developer for I, but there's no way to install it.

I look into infocenter and I'm surprise to see than RDI on mac need version High sierra and jdk 1.6. Could it be possible?

My preferred pc is MAC I won't buy a windows pc to have Rational.

Is there anyone that have experience on RDI on Mac?

Many thanks.

[Scott Klement]

Yeah, I haven't been able to get the installer to work on Big Sur, either.

I think I was still running Mojave when I installed RDi, and (eventually) upgraded to Big Sur and RDi still works, but I can't install updates because the IBM Installation Manager doesn't seem to work.

You could try the info at the following link. I have been meaning to give it a try, but haven't had a chance:

https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/unable-install-ibm-installation-manager-macos-catalina

[JonBoy]

There are issues with Installation Manager that prevent it from operating on Big Sur. It struggled a bit on Catalina but the workaround Scott pointed to deals with that as long as you don't update to the latest IM version.

I have been told that they hope to have this resolved when the next release comes out which should be in a month or two with luck.

Until then I'm staying on Catalina.

Only other option (sadly) is to use Windows in a VM like Parallels.

[Scott Klement]

I'm really surprised at the lack of urgency from IBM on this. I know an awful lot of IBM i experts who use MacOS. Why doesn't this light a fire under IBM? Why should it take months to resolve this problem?

[JonBoy]

I agree Scott - but it is sadly a much more complex issue than it appears on the surface. I know a more than I'm permitted to say right now - but it is being addressed - hopefully we'll have a solution before long and the changes that are in the works should avoid such problems in the future.

[paolinosal]

Hi, I've open a case, I'll inform you if someone have a solution.
Many thanks

[yellowcat]

I'm really surprised at the lack of urgency from IBM on this. I know an awful lot of IBM i experts who use MacOS. Why doesn't this light a fire under IBM? Why should it take months to resolve this problem?

IBM released a new version of the Install Manager in November 2020. And that is broken for me too. I could not get IBM Install Manager to install.. constant pop ups about security. I am surprised they wouldn't have at least tested that the installer works on the supported versions of macOS after posting the release. Or warned users that it doesn't support Big Sur!

Since IBM made the executive decision to stop supporting SEU and they haven't fixed RDI for Big Sur; what do they expect developers to do??? Now we will have to wipe an entire OS and install older versions of operating systems to support IBM's software. This is all time that could have been spent solving business problems instead we have to fight the tools. What's that? "Don't upgrade to the latest OS then, dingus!" Well.. when you buy a brand new device from Apple it ships with the latest version of the OS...

I guess not all of IBM's divisions have embraced macOS like they claim to have https://www.computerworld.com/articl...roductive.html

[Scott Klement]

Since IBM made the executive decision to stop supporting SEU and they haven't fixed RDI for Big Sur; what do they expect developers to do??? Now we will have to wipe an entire OS and install older versions of operating systems to support IBM's software. This is all time that could have been spent solving business problems instead we have to fight the tools. What's that? "Don't upgrade to the latest OS then, dingus!" Well.. when you buy a brand new device from Apple it ships with the latest version of the OS...

I spoke to an IBMer about this last week, and he said "what do you mean, it works fine on macOS! As long as you're not running Big Sur..." and I pointed out that Big Sur is what everyone runs. Sadly, the word "dingus" was not used in the conversation.

On the bright side, there's now an open source plugin for VS Code aimed at IBM i development. I haven't had a chance to try it on macOS, yet.

https://github.com/halcyon-tech/code-for-ibmi

[Liam Allan]

Thanks for the shoutout

[Vectorspace]

I would install that VSCode extension right now, if only company internet filters didn't block VSCode extensions (downside of working for a Financial company, software install is massively locked down).

[Vectorspace]

Shame though that it does not lock open members or respect source line dates (I do recognise those get less important all the time, but not all shops are there yet). But being open source it wouldn't surprise me if someone contributes those features before long

[Liam Allan]

I would install that VSCode extension right now, if only company internet filters didn't block VSCode extensions (downside of working for a Financial company, software install is massively locked down).

Fortunately, there is a way around that. Check out the StackOverflow answer attached. Also about the locking and source line dates: I'd love someone to come and tackle the issue of source dates. It was hard enough in ILEditor 2 and the way we did it there isn't a direct port to Code.. so that's why I haven't bothered yet.

Also, you should see what happens in Code when someone has a member open that someone else is working and saves - the editor instance automatically updates with the changes when they have saved. Pretty magical.

[Vectorspace]

Unfortunately it's not that simple. Company internet filters block download of any and all compressed files, which is what VSCode extensions are. And I can't manually build with npm i because we have to have npm pointing at Azure with a very limited catalog of modules.
The compressed file block only happened recently and people way above me are looking at it - as they gave VSCode to people who they didn't want to buy an IntelliJ licence for, but VSCode is unusable for many kinds of dev without extensions

[Jonylund]

Hi,
Any news on this?

[jtaylor___]

FWIW, in the past IBM support has pointed me to IM requirements, saying that RDi has the same requirements. https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/sy...kaging-utility

[JonBoy]

FWIW, in the past IBM support has pointed me to IM requirements ...

Part of the problem is that RDi's Mac install won't work properly with the current IM. You _have_ to use the version packaged with RDi - apparently the group who own IM made changes that it is difficult/expensive for RDi to comply with until they move to a new version of Eclipse. This is just an issue with the Mac version I believe. The net is that the support advice on fixing Java issues is still valid but you cannot upgrade IM to deal with other issues.

[jtaylor___]

My (Windows) IM shows version 1.9.1.1, which isn't current. The IBM link shows Mac support for 10.7-10.9 and 10.14, which seems to fall in line with what you said.

[JonBoy]

Unfortunately it's not that simple. Company internet filters block download of any and all compressed files, which is what VSCode extensions are. And I can't manually build with npm i because we have to have npm pointing at Azure with a very limited catalog of modules.
The compressed file block only happened recently and people way above me are looking at it - as they gave VSCode to people who they didn't want to buy an IntelliJ licence for, but VSCode is unusable for many kinds of dev without extensions

Does the company prevent you from downloading MiWorkplace? Has a trial license and I believe does all the usual locking that VS code does not. Since Remain took it over they have done a lot of work on the product and are pitching it as a low cost alternative to RDi.