No. You may enroll in the courses and access the study materials without access to IBM i.

Some (not all) lessons offer optional lab exercises. If you choose to perform the exercises, you will need access to an IBM i server. Even if you choose to not perform the exercises, we encourage you to examine the instructions and the code to better understand the lessons. The lessons also include many code examples. If you’d like to test some of your own code, you will need access to an IBM i server.

Here are some sources for a timeshare account:

• Rikas Communications
• Pub400.com
• RZKH
• TimeShare400

These sites are not affiliated with Enskill.com, and we are not responsible for their policies. These links are provided for your convenience, and should not be considered endorsements for their services.

Courses are organized into series of “units,” each of which consists of several individual lessons. Each unit is priced separately. Some units require that you complete the previous units in the course before you can enroll.

We recommend that you take the following approach to each lesson:

• Preview. Many of the lessons have one or more audio “previews” that you can use to familiarize yourself with the content of the lesson (or a section of the lesson). Most of these audio previews are less than five minutes long. Although it’s not required, we recommend that you listen to the audio before studying the related course material. This approach will help to familiarize yourself with the lesson content before you study it. To listen to the audio, press the Play arrow when the following image appears (try it now):
  

• Read. After you’ve listened to the audio for a section, study the text for that section to get a more detailed understanding of the topic and and study some examples. When you are finished with a lesson, be sure to “Mark Complete” to let us know you’ve successfully completed it. As you complete each lesson, a progress bar will measure your passage through the course.
• Review. Some of the lessons will have quiz questions to test your knowledge of the topic. You must pass the quiz with a score of 80% or better to move on. If you don’t understand why you answered incorrectly, you can “View Details”for an explanation, and then go back and review the course.

Some (not all) lessons offer optional lab exercises. If you choose to perform the exercises, you will need access to an IBM i server. Even if you choose to not perform the exercises, we encourage you to examine the instructions and the code to better understand the lessons.

To get an idea of the course organization, we recommend that you first enroll in the free IBM i Program Development Tools preview course.

Yes. The examples and lessons primarily use “fully-free” RPG, generally available since Release 7.1 (with Technical Refreshes).

Many lessons include “Legacy Code” sections to cover older code, even fixed format.

The classes currently cover IBM i as it stands at Release 7.5. Updates are planned as new releases are issued by IBM. Some illustrated code and concepts may not be applicable to earlier releases.

The classes are continuously updated and improved. Once you enroll in a course, you will have continuing access to the class, without paying any upgrade fees.

When you complete a course, it will appear as an achievement on your “My Account” page.

While the courses are not officially associated with any certification program, the content in the  “ILE RPG in Easy Bytes” series closely correlates to the COMMON Associate RPG Developer certification exam. If you complete the series (and its quizzes), you will be well prepared for that exam.

We will accept purchase orders, subject to credit approval, for vouchers to redeem for an entire series of courses (not for individual units). Minimum purchase order amount is $500.

Currently, vouchers require manual processing; we will try to process them in a timely manner, but they may take up to 48 hours to get to you. Submit a question at the bottom of this page to request details.

Yes. After you enroll, you’ll have full access to the course unit, and you may repeat it at any time. If you’ve been inactive for one year, your user id will be deactivated for security purposes, but we will reactivate at your request.

At the end of each lesson is an outline of the course, with the completed lessons checked. You may revisit any completed lesson by selecting it, or you may go on to the next (unchecked) lesson.

After you enroll, you’ll have full “lifetime access” to the course unit, including updates. If you’ve been inactive for one year, your user id will be deactivated for security purposes, but we will reactivate at your request.

“Lifetime access” means that you will be able to examine course content, without recurring subscription or renewal fees, as long as this website remains online and the content remains relevant.

No. You may use the material for your own use. It is not licensed for group presentation or commercial resale. This material is for the use of individual registered users only, and may not be copied or shared with with anyone else. The site does not allow concurrent logins for the same student. Your continued use of the site signifies your agreement to these terms.

You must register an account to view any of the courses on this site. The “My Account” page will let you login if you are not already logged in to your account:

If you do not have an account, you may use the option to Register on that page:

If you are already logged in, the “My Account” page is your account dashboard, showing enrolled courses, accomplishments, and memberships:

By default, the dashboard on the “My Account” page shows only your first three courses.

The “My Courses” dashboard menu option will list all of the courses in which you are enrolled.

Before you leave each lesson, be sure to mark it complete by clicking the “Mark Complete” button at the bottom of the lesson. Some lessons will require that you pass a quiz to complete them. Marking a lesson complete does not prevent you from accessing that lesson again at a later time.

The progress bar at the bottom of each lesson will let you know if you have completed the course. Once it reaches 100%, you will be able to enroll in the next course. Each completed lesson will have a colored checkmark; incomplete lessons will have a greyed-out checkmark.

Your “My Account” page will also show a colored progress bar for each course in which you are enrolled:

If it doesn’t show 100% complete, select the course to see its lessons. Each completed lesson will have a colored check mark; incomplete courses will have a greyed-out checkmark:

The most likely cause of this is an outdated browser cache. Try this:

1. Sign off and close the browser entirely.

2. Relaunch the browser, but don’t sign in yet.

3. Clear your browser cache.

• Chrome: Ctrl + Shift + Del
• Microsoft Edge: Ctrl + Shift + Del
• Firefox: Ctrl + Shift + Del
• Safari: Command + Option + E

4. Just to be safe, open a new Incognito/InPrivate window (this should ignore anything in your browser cache).

• Chrome: Ctrl + Shift + N
• Microsoft Edge: Ctrl + Shift + P
• Firefox: Ctrl + Shift + P
• Safari: Command + Shift + N

5. Sign in and try again:

Yes. When you complete a quiz, you’ll see the results of your current attempt, or any previous attempts:

The “View Summary” link will  show which questions were answered correctly or incorrectly. You may select any of the questions to see more details:

To retry the quiz, select the “Start Quiz” button:

Not usually. Most of the units and lessons have prerequisites that must be completed before you can move on to another one. For example, the “ILE RPG in Easy Bytes” series assumes no previous knowledge, and introduces topics in a specific progression. Understanding a topic requires that you also understand the prerequisite topics, which have been covered in previous units or lessons.

Except for “legacy code” sections, the course examples use “fully free” RPG, available since IBM i Release 7.1 (with some PTFs).

As a legacy editor, SEU does not support many of the “fully free” RPG statements that have been introduced since IBM i Release 6.1. These statements will generate SEU syntax errors, but will work with the compiler. SEU syntax checking is frozen at Release 6.1 for RPG and COBOL.

If you are coding the “fully free” syntax (i.e., with a **FREE directive at the beginning of the program), the LPEX editor is a better choice.

LPEX is a component of Rational Developer for i (RDi). You can download a free trial of RDi at ibm.biz/rdi_trial.

If you cannot use the LPEX editor, you can still use SEU to code free-format RPG with a few restrictions:

• The **FREE directive (which must be in column 1) will generate an SEU syntax error.
• To avoid SEU syntax errors, free-format code should appear in columns 8-80.
• SEU’s syntax checkers do not recognize features introduced following Release 6.1 (but the compiler will recognize them).

As a last resort,  you may turn off SEU syntax checking. When you are editing with SEU press F13=Change session defaults, and then change the Syntax checking option to N.

As long as you can access the Internet with a browser, you can access the course materials. They have been tested using Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Internet Explorer, but just about any browser should work. The materials are best viewed on a desktop computer or a large tablet, but some mobile devices may also work. A speaker or a headphone is required to hear the optional soundtracks.

Note: The courses primarily use free format code, but some lessons include fixed format code examples in a special “Legacy Code” lesson. While every effort has been made to achieve accuracy, some browsers may not render fixed format code in the proper positions; in those cases, the accompanying text should indicate the proper position.

The lessons were recorded using monaural audio, but the server may be using only one channel. Changing the headphone audio setting to monaural will let you hear through both sides of your headset.

If you are using Windows 10, the Ease of Access/Audio settings (Windows+U) will make the change:

Yes. As long as you can access the Internet with a browser, you can access the course materials. A speaker or a headphone is required to hear the optional soundtracks.

Unfortunately, some browsers do not properly render spacing in monospace text, so some fixed format examples may not show characters in the proper columns. The pages are tested using Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Internet Explorer. Other browsers may have spacing issues.

No. You may view our privacy policy here.