Welcome to the Hobo home page!

What is Hobo?

Hobo is a software product that generates source code from a Query/400 definition. The generated source code can be compiled and the resulting objects will produce a report or disk output that is very similar to the output of the query.

Hobo was developed by Ted Holt, President of General Computer Consulting, Inc. (GCCI) and Senior Technical Editor of the Four Hundred Guru newsletter, which is published by itjungle.com.

How Does It Work?

Hobo generates four source members:

• printer file DDS;
• physical file DDS;
• ILE CL source for a driver program
• ILE RPG source for a report program;

Hobo runs on the IBM midrange system variously known as AS/400, iSeries, System i, and Power on i, and hereafter referred to as AS/400. It requires V5R3 or above of the operating system.

Does Hobo Support All Query Functions?

No, Hobo does not generate programs that interact with a display file (“green screen”), nor does GCCI plan to support display files. Hobo also does not generate programs to create summary database files, but GCCI plans to add that support in the future. At present, you can generate report programs, both summary and detail, and programs that write to detail database files.

How Do I Get Hobo?

To install Hobo on your AS/400, follow these easy steps:

1. Download the Hobo distribution file. The download contains a zip file, which contains an AS/400 save file.
2. Unzip the zip file on your PC. You now have file HOBOSAVF on your PC. 
3. Using a file transfer utility such as FTP, copy file HOBOSAVF from your PC to your AS/400 using a binary file transfer. (For the transfer to work correctly, you may need to create save file HOBOSAVF on the AS/400 before the transfer.)
4. Use the Restore Object (RSTOBJ) command to copy from the save file to a library of your choice. (We recommend you call the library HOBO, but you can use any name you like.)

RSTOBJ OBJ(*ALL) SAVLIB(HOBODIST) DEV(*SAVF) SAVF(xxx/HOBOSAVF) RSTLIB(zzz)

XXX is the library containing the save file that you uploaded from your PC.  ZZZ is the library in which you want to store the Hobo application.

download: HOBO (3.11MB) added: 20/02/2009 clicks: 385 description:

Now Hobo is on your system. You must have a license key to run it.  You may request a license key by filling out and submitting the following form. (You can use the WRKLICINF command to determine the serial number and processor group.)

cforms contact form by delicious:days

GCCI will email you a license key, which will enable Hobo to run on your system. There are two types of license keys— temporary and permanent. Temporary license keys are free, and expire at the end of an evaluation period. Permanent license keys do not expire.

To obtain a permanent license key, send a check for the proper amount in U. S. dollars drawn on a U. S. bank to GCCI at the following address:

General Computer Consulting Inc.

191 Road 1113

Tupelo, MS 38804 USA

Fees for permanent license keys are as follows:

Use command HOBOLIC to enter your license key. By registering the key, you to agree to the few conditions stated on the license entry panel.

What about Updates and Fixes?

How Do I Convert Queries Using Hobo?

Add the library in which you installed Hobo to your library list. Enter HOBO at a CL command line and press F4 to prompt. The help text, which you can view by pressing F1, explains all the parameters of the HOBO command. Here is a brief description of the query-conversion process. Hobo asks for two pieces of information up front— the base name of the generated source members and how Hobo is to obtain the query definition. The base name is the first one to nine characters of the generated source members. To this base name, Hobo adds suffixes— C for CL, R for RPG, F for physical file and P for printer file. The special value *QUERY tells Hobo to use the query name as the base name. bo can read a spool file with a query definition. You may generate such a spool file by taking option 6 from the Work with Query (WRKQRY) display. Or Hobo can execute the query in order to retrieve the definition. If Hobo executes the query, it routes disk output to a file in library QTEMP in order to prevent the accidental destruction of a database file. After you enter these two fields, press Enter. Hobo prompts for spool file parameters or query name, depending on how you told it to obtain the query definition.  Hobo also prompts for the remainder of the information it needs, which for the most part is where you want it to place the source code.  Hobo gives you flexibility. Here are some possibilities:

• Put all the generated source code in one file.
• Put the generated source code in source files named according to IBM’s convention— QDDSSRC, QCLSRC and QRPGLESRC.
• Specify a file and library for DDS, a file and library for RPG, and a file and library for CL.

Hobo also asks about editing information. Although IBM has a way to retrieve editing information from a query definition, GCCI has chosen not to use that method at present.
You may enter edit codes after Hobo has built a work file from the query definition but before code generation has begun. You may also specify a default edit code to be applied to all numeric fields.
You may change the defaults of most of the unqualified parameters if the shipped defaults are not to your liking.
One other parameter of which you should be aware concerns the object names in the generated code. You may qualify object names, as Query does, or not.
Press Enter to begin source code generation. If all goes well, you will see the message “Hobo completed normally.” and your source code will be where you told Hobo to put it. If something goes wrong, you’ll see an error message, such as “Critical error 01C-02. Error in license key.”
Once the source code is built, you must verify that the source code works correctly and achieves the results you desire. General Computer Consulting Inc. assumes that the people who use Hobo are intelligent and makes no warranties concerning the generated software.
Hobo does not create/compile the generated source code. As a rule, the normal order of compilation is physical file, printer file, and finally the two programs.  To execute the generated application, call the CL program.