Code for IBM i Fridays

Seiden Group hosts regular community gatherings for VS Code for i users who want to ask questions, share tips, and discuss open issues and potential improvements to the IDE.

NEXT MEETING: December 5, 2025, 2:30 pm ET

Sign up using the form on this page to 1) receive invitations to this and future meetings and 2) receive a link to the recordings of those meetings.

Sample Highlights

Below are just a few of the topics we covered in our first two years of meetings. Join us at future meetings as the Code for i Fridays community continues to exchange updates, ideas, and tips for getting the most out of our favorite IDE.

• Highlighted various VS Code extensions.
• Shared news and resources about Project Bob.
• Alan shared his screen to show a demo of the MORGANA outline tool, and Markus Litters updated us on his progress.
• The group looked at an issue with getting SQL to start from VS Code.
• A beta version of the Morgana Outline tool is now available.
• Shared update to Christian Larson’s Display File DDS Editor.
• Jack shared his impressions of Project Bob after returning from TechXchange.
• Discussed a debugger issue, as well as debugger setup generally and compatibility problems on IBM i (PTFs, certificates, version mismatches, and related barriers to using VS Code over RDI).
• Gave updates on Liam’s role shift, his AI/IBM i presentation, and news that a major Watson Code Assistant announcement is expected at TechXchange.
• Discussed getting the VS Code debugger working (PTFs, certificates, Pub400 limitations, Navigator requirements, service entry points), with troubleshooting tips and notes to clarify extension documentation.
• Christian demonstrated recent enhancements to his DSPF-edit project.
• Alan shared his approach for diagnosing connection problems by connecting via SSH.
• Julia talked about her recent release (2.17.0), highlighted some technical enhancements, and discussed other IBM projects she’s involved in.
• Alan highlighted a new Code for i feature, output parameter bind, which is ready but not yet released.
• Discussed SQL query handling in VS Code.
• Discussed experimenting with LLMs (Copilot, GPT) to translate and modernize RPG/O-SPEC programs, generate DDS/JSON, and improve code readability.
• Alan shared tips and shortcuts for using the 5250 terminal within VS Code via Code for i.
• Liam demonstrated the new DDS Designer and RPGLE signature support/enhanced content assist feature.
• Discussed current challenges with Debugger V2 vs. V3.
• Alan highlighted community-driven innovation in Code for i, showing how extensions from developers like Christian and Bob Cozzi expand its capabilities.
• Christian Larsen demoed his extension to edit the DDS of a display file.
• We compared SDA’s keyboard speed for experienced users vs. RDi’s graphical ease, and discussed pending VS Code enhancements like drag-and-drop screen design.
• Ricky recommended this extension for viewing spool files.
• Ravi demoed his new extension, Fast and PF-urious, built on pfgrep.
• Discussed Bob Cozzi’s CL syntax checker and RPG syntax conversion tool.
• Discussed IBM i 7.6 deprecation of the green-screen SDA. IBM i 7.5 can still be used. A Code for i replacement for SDA is in development.
• Reviewed solutions to several user questions, i.e. remapping keys in TN5250. Alan suggested Bisect extension to find extension conflicts.
• Announced monthly Developer Council sessions for Seiden Developer Support subscribers.
• Follow-up on Bob Cozzi’s RPG freeform converting extension and CL prompter. Markus Litters’ RPG Outline tool ready for beta testers.
• Discussed the challenges and progress of using AI tools for analyzing and assisting with RPG code. Ravi shared a technique of using Grok to generate optimized prompts for an AI tool (like Claude) when coding.
• Liam shared details about this week’s Code for i release (2.16.3).
• Markus Litters updated us on his outline tool, Morgana.
• Alan shared his TN5250 uninhibited input tip.
• Liam demoed how prefix commands like RPG: can now auto-generate RPG structures from SQL statements.
• Unit testing extension is now available, and we learned about several other upcoming enhancements.
• IBM’s Steve Will confirmed with Alan that VS Code is the strategic direction for IBM i
• Discussed Code for i’s debugger, Ricky Thompson’s RPG End Code Blocks extension,  Christian Larson’s RPG structure extension, Bob Cozzi’s RPG to RPG free conversion tool
• Sanjula demoed work-in-progress on the test extension, designed for writing, compiling and executing tests in RPG and COBOL
• Demoed how to view connection details in response to questions on where to find error details, job logs, etc.
• Calvin demoed the latest version of TN5250, featuring a toggle for cursor control
• Discussed Java version compatibility, selecting which syntax checker to use, tools that convert fixed-format RPG to free-format, etc.
• Covered issue with GitHub Copilot inserting random code
• Scott Forstie updated us on the database extension release (1.12.0) and shared some insider tips
• Discussed prerequisites for Code for i debugger versions 2 and 3
• Explored debug issue
• Answered questions from several attendees
• Demoed how to generate a sample insert statement from a table
• Liam demonstrated the screen design renderer and showed some screenshots of the upcoming testing extension.
• We shared updated minimum system requirements for Code for i.
• Scott Forstie told us how to identify which releases/TRs are needed for table functions and other Db2 Services.
• Scott reported that IBM built the dependencies that you have within your SQL statement into the SQL parser.
• We discussed questions and enhancement requests related to debug, BOB, IBM i search, SQL results view, and pfgrep.
• Talked about how people are using AI and compared various tools.
• Ryver site has been replaced with chat.ibmioss.org.
• Discussed improvements to Code for i debugger that will require the latest PTFs.
• IBM is working on an official testing extension to VS Code.
• Discussed (and solved some) issues and answered questions.
• Liam showcased Db2 and AI integration
• Shared several tips, including managing multiple SQL jobs simultaneously and filtering and sorting the outline view.
• Previewed upcoming 3.0 release
• Addressed user connectivity issues and enhancement requests
• Patrick previewed an upcoming feature to compare code on two different partitions directly from within Code for i. Also reviewed two other work-around methods that can be used now.
• Compared debugging in RDi vs. VS Code: differences in speed, workflow, and job debugging.
• Calvin demoed several enhancements to his pfgrep command.
• Smarter search in Code for i using F2 and right click/rename.
• Liam Allan filled us in on the Code for i refactoring project and showed how the SQL syntax checker helped him develop procedures to manage ILEastic API endpoints.
• Demonstration of Code for i’s “IBM i: Go To File” as having similar functionality to RDi’s PDM perspective.
• Scott Forstie gave us a sneak peek at IBM’s latest Db2 extension work-in-progress—contextual syntax error information.
• Scott also demoed content assist, hover, and the new editable cells support, and he asked the group for other ideas on enhancing the database extension.
• Attendee Ravi demoed how to get the prompt screen to show username, server name and current working folder.
• The latest release of the RPGLE language tools, with improvements for fixed-form RPG
  https://github.com/codefori/vscode-rpgle/releases/tag/0.28.0
• Editable cells in the Db2 extension
  https://github.com/codefori/vscode-db2i/releases/tag/1.7.0
• Alan demoed Calvin’s new pfgrep tool, used to search source members.
• Liam showed upcoming Code for i enhancements for fixed format RPG.
• RPG Outliner for VS Code was demoed by Markus and Gerhard of Litters Consulting.
• Discussed whether to add references to VS Code outline view and how to use the same workspace for multiple systems.
• Adam Shedivy, an active contributor to Code for i, gave us a sneak peek at the upcoming AI enhancements to the IDE’s Db2 for IBM i extension.
• “BOB” for IBM i Demo with Edmund Reinhardt
  Edmund provided a complete demonstration, start to finish, of how to use BOB to compile source in VS Code; prepare a make file from scratch; and to use Source Orbit.  These tools can help developers who wish to use Git with stream files instead of traditional QSYS-based source members.