IBM Control Language has remained virtually unchanged over the years.
When the IBM AS400 was replaced by the IBM iSeries, fifteen years ago, a few little tweaks were added to CL but it remained remarkably unchanged. If it’s not broken don’t fix it.
A few years later the sun set on the iSeries machine and the IBM Power Systems were launched, with the new IBM i operating system supporting CL in the exact same way as before.
Over recent years a few little neat options have been added to CL CONTROL LANGUAGE (subroutines, do/for loops for example) but it still remains virtually unchanged.
CL is super easy to use, super easy to code and super powerful.
Yesterday I was thinking:
“Maybe it’s time for a quick tutorial on CL, how it works, what it looks like and how to use it?”
Me. Thinking.
EMLOUTQ CL Program
This morning, by sheer coincidence I found a comment on an old blog, describing a CL program to convert *SPLF’s into *PDF’s and email them. This comment was basically asking some questions about the CL code and also asking how to call CL from an RPG program.
So, a new training course was born.
Dive into my new LEARN CL course to watch this code being broken down step by step:
What is IBM CL?
IBM i Control Language (CL) is a powerful scripting language for the IBM AS/400, IBM iSeries and IBM i Systems. It’s got roots in the older IBM Job Control Language, and it works as a simple way to script commands, instructions and other functions into an easy-to-understand programs.