IBM InterConnect 2015: Dax 5162-C-ing is Believing: Finding talent for C/C++ development for Unix systems can be a challenge. However, it does not have to be so difficult. Using Rational Developer, you can have more junior developers, or cross-skilled developers do the kind of slick development that punches above their weight class. See how the productivity features of the editors far exceed what vi can do. See how static code analysis can reduce your defect cycle time, improve code maintenance, and performance of your applications.

1. © 2014 IBM Corporation
DAX-5162
C-ing is Believing: Being Smart about
C/C++ Development on AIX and
Linux
Kenny Smith, Strongback Consulting

2. About Us: Strongback Consulting
• IBM Advanced Business Partner
• Rational, WebSphere, ICS SVP certified
• Strongly focused on DevOps, Enterprise Modernization, and application infrastructure
• Key Industries Served: Finance, Insurance, Travel, Logistics, Healthcare,
Manufacturing, Government
• Rational Design Partner for HATS and other Rational enterprise modernization
technologies
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3. Talking Points
• Editors
• Content Assist & Templates
• Refactoring
• Static Code Analysis
• Performance Advisor
2

4. In the beginning….
3

5. Then came telnet
• Edit directly on the target computer
• English based language construction
4

6. Next came vi… and then vim
• Colorized parsing of code, regex search/replace
• ..but this is where most people stopped!
5

7. Why do I need a rich development editor?
• Productivity! [proh-duhk-tiv-i-tee]
• Its about the economics!
• The rate at which goods and services having exchange
value are brought forth or produced
– :Productivity increased dramatically last year.
• Why do you use a word processor instead of a type writer?
6

8. Complexities of C/C++
• C makes it easy to shoot yourself in the foot. C++ makes it
harder, but when you do, you blow away your whole leg! —
Bjarne Stroustrup
• Pointers
• Memory arithmetic
• Memory leaks (see above)
• Compiler differences – variability depending upon the processor
• Syntax – language elements not found in other languages
• Debugging
7

9. The Editors:
LPEX, C/C++, Remote
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10. The LPEX Editor
• Can act like the standard editor of any system
• vi/emacs for *Nix systems
• ispf for mainframe
• seu for IBM I
• Change appearance to
make it look like telnet
9

11. The General C/C++ Editor
• Multiple ways to edit C/C++ source
• C-C++ editor - Acts more like typical Eclipse
language editors (such as Java)
• LPEX Editor – can emulate vi editor
• Use context menu, Open With to open with a
specific editor
• Remote C/C++ specifically used in AIX/Linux
projects

12. Icons used for C/C++
• Icons found in
• Project Explorer
• Call Hierarchy
• Type Hierarchy
• Outline View
• Make targets view
• Navigator View

13. Syntax Highlighting
• Comments
• Strings
• Reserved words
• values, variables
12
Current cursor
row has blue
background

14. Method indicators
• Margin is highlighted in blue indicating the beginning and ending
of the current method
13
method
indicator
Cursor
position

15. Code Folding
• Comments, methods & classes can be collapsed or folded for
ease of reading
• Click on the + to expand
• Click on the – to collapse
14
Indicates additional
code inside the
collapsed area

16. Hover
• Place your cursor over a variable or method
• Displays a window showing the declaration
15
Hover mouse over
the convert method
Window pops up in
the editor showing
the declaration.

17. Errors / Warnings
• Margin area indicators to
show errors or warnings
• Hover the cursor over to
show more information
• Warnings also underlined
in yellow squiggles
16
Column
location
of error
Hover over marker

18. Mark occurrences
• Put cursor on a variable
name
• Additional occurrences
marked with a gray
background
• Toggle on/off with the
task bar icon
17

19. Show whitespace characters
• Use menu bar to show grey symbols representing whitespace
characters
• Space, tab, carriage return, new line, etc.
18

20. Code formatting
• Shift left / right
• Correct Indentation
• Format
• auto formats the entire source
• properly indents throughout
19

21. Format Source (CNTL+SHIFT+F)
Before After
20

22. Commenting code
• Highlight multiple rows
• Click CTRL+ / to comment
• Click CTRL + / to uncomment
• For /* style block commenting, use
CTRL+SHIFT+/
21

23. Open Declaration
• From context menu, or F3: opens declared method
location
• If in another file (or header), the file must be on the
search path
• Also depends on the type of project you are using
– MVS Subproject, z/Unix Subproject, C/C++ project, zFolder, etc.
22

24. Quick Outline
• Right Click → Quick Outline
• Shows a searchable outline of the
source member
• Type in the text field to search
methods and types
23
Enter search
text here
Filtered
Results

25. Call Hierarchy
• Right Click → Open Call Hierarchy
• shows the loaded callers and callees for a selected C/C++
function
24
Toggle
between caller
and callee
Hide contants,
enums, and
variables
Show history of
call hierarchy

26. Find Dialog
• CTRL + F to bring
up dialog
• Can search case
sensitive, forward,
backward, on all
code, or just that
selected.
• Regular expressions
• Content assist
available to
help build a
search query
25

27. Customizing the Editor
26

28. CNTL+SHIFT+L
• Shows ALL keyboard shortcuts available
• one keyboard shortcut to rule them all
27

29. Content Assist &
Templates
28

30. Content Assist
29
• Allows you to provide context
sensitive content completion
upon user request
• CTRL+Space again to cycle
through parser or template
proposals
• Clicking or pressing Enter on
a selected line in the list
inserts the selection into the
editor.
Configure the behavior of the content assist in the C/C++ → Editor → Code Assist preference page.

31. Content Assist Sources
• In the C/C++ editor press Ctrl + Space on code to complete. This
opens a list of available code completions.
• Use the mouse or the keyboard (Up Arrow, Down Arrow, Page Up, Page
Down, Home, End, Enter) to navigate and select lines in the list.
• Existing methods, properties, fields, etc.
• Language constructs
• Code templates
30

32. What are Templates?
• Simply put, little pieces of code with defined placeholders
• Work slightly differently than snippets
• Place holders are called variables
• Syntax is ${variable_name}
• Eclipse based – many languages supported
• Java, ANT, COBOL, PL/I, JavaScript, HTML, XML, etc.
• Can be imported & exported
• Can vary be easy or difficult to setup
• Will save you HOURS upon HOURS of hand coding!

33. Creating Templates Continued
• Insert Variable – inserts a given variable
• Variable is described in the yellow box to the right of its name

34. Syntax Check
• Editor parsed syntax checking
33

35. Refactoring
34

36. Refactoring
35
Refactoring: make system-wide code changes without affecting the behavior of
the program.
Refactoring commands are available from the context menus of several views (e.g. Project
Explorer, Outline) and editors. Many "apparently simple" commands, such as Move and
Rename, are actually refactoring operations, since moving and renaming elements often
require changes in dependent files.
• Extract a function, constant or local variable
• Rename a method, variable or class
• Hide a method signature
Operations can be previewed for all of the changes resulting from a
refactoring action before you choose to carry them out.

37. Extract Constant
• Improve performance, and avoid duplicate strings
36

38. Renaming
• Easily rename a variable throughout your code
• More accurate than find/replace
– i.e. try to find and replace a single character variable!
37

39. Source Actions
38
Use the Source menu to perform many actions to modify, remove or generate code
automatically.
• Toggle a line or block as a comment; on or off.
• Format entire source files or fragments.
• Correct Indentation
• Implement getters & setters
• Sort lines
The Source menu can be accessed from many context views such as in the C/C++ editor.

40. Software
Analyzer
39

41. Static Code Analysis
• Software analyzer built into the product
• Static code analysis can find common coding errors
• Can create scan configurations and check against multiple rules
40

42. Software Analyzer Results
• Categorized results can be exported into XML
• could import into RTC as work items for remediation
• Severity and categories tell you which things to work on first
41

43. Tuning with Performance Advisor
• Collects data via tprof/procstack (AIX), or oProfile (linux)
42

44. Summary
• Why we have tools – PRODUCTIVITY!
• Editor improvements over vi
• Refactoring tools
• Content Assist, Templating
• Static Code Analysis
• Performance Advisor
• What we did not cover: Debugging
• This alone is worthy of this tool in your toolbox
43

45. References
• Performance tuning C/C++ applications with Performance
Advisor in RDAL
44

46. Questions?
45

47. Thank YouDiscover us at:
http://www.strongback.us
Socialize with us on Facebook & LinkedIn
http://www.facebook.com/StrongbackConsulting
http://www.linkedin.com/company/290754
Subscribe to us at
http://blog.strongbackconsulting.com