AS400 RPG Simulator

Question

I have a urgent requirement to call an RPG Program from java. As suggested in this Accessing RPG on iSeries from Java question. I am planning to use JTOpen. But unfortunately I

Answer 1

You used to be able to get free access to an iSeries at Innovative Systems (this service has been discontinued as of March 21 2012). On their machine you can experiment with RPG.

Some other remarks,

• You can call iSeries programs from java including RPG programs. But if you really want to interface (use parameters/arguments) you better use ILE RPG. ILE RPG supports anything you need to interact with java including the correct datatype (including pointers)
• JTOpen is the open source class library. That one runs fine on the as400. But in the iSeries world the normal way to install this class library is as an "License Program". Don't be scared by the word License. It is just the iSeries way like apt-get on Linux. See IBM Infocenter for more information
• At last but not least, JTOpen is a regular java class library. You can test and try that library on your local machine. Ofcourse, you can not open a iSeries data-area but you get the feel for this class library.

BTW I think you can forget about a RPG simulator for Windows. There may be some compiler may be around that I don't know of but that is not the specific thing about RPG, it is the fact that it runs on a iSeries. And unfortunately no iSeries emulator is available.