Re: Uncle Bob

IMHO - "hallucinations" - AFAIK there is and never was a "job type" field in the PSDS. 

But it's not uncommon for LLM to "hallucinate" and produce results that are simply plain wrong. 

You then have to "argue" with it to accept the correction. 

We still have to accept that - no matter how far advanced those models are - they are still driven by statistical probability. 

And IMHO those hallucination problems will get worse, because they models are now trained partly with data, that is already generated by other LLMs. 

I have about 10 drafts for blog and LinkedIn posts here, that I wanted to do about Bob since I first seen it at TechXchange - but they all end up not so positive - so right now I keep them to myself, until I have more empirical data. 

Bob is impressive - some things it really does quite good. But there are so many cases where it quietly fails, but the code looks so convincing.

Right now, my personal experience says: take everything that ANY LLM/AI is producing with a good (large) grain of salt!

Kind regards,
Daniel



> Am 25.01.2026 um 08:05 schrieb Gad Miron <[email protected]>:
> 
> What am I missing?
> 
> 
> I asked Bob the following question:
> 
> As an expert RPG programmer, How can you tell if an RPG program runs in
> Batch or Interactive (PSDS?)
> 
> I got the following
> Using PSDS to Detect Batch vs Interactive Mode
> 
> The PSDS (Program Status Data Structure) contains information about the
> program's execution environment. The key field for determining batch vs
> interactive mode is at positions 244-253, which contains the job name.
> Method 1: Check Job Type Field (Position 244-253)
> 
> Here's how to implement this in free-format RPGLE:
> 
> **FREE// Define PSDSDcl-Ds PSDS Qualified;  PgmName     Char(10)
> Pos(1);  Status      Zoned(5:0) Pos(11);  PrevStatus  Zoned(5:0)
> Pos(16);  LineNum     Char(8)    Pos(21);  Routine     Char(8)
> Pos(29);  Parms       Zoned(3:0) Pos(37);  ExcpType    Char(3)
> Pos(40);  ExcpNum     Char(4)    Pos(43);  PgmLib      Char(10)
> Pos(81);  ExcpData    Char(80)   Pos(91);  ExcpId      Char(4)
> Pos(171);  Date        Char(8)    Pos(191);  Year        Zoned(2:0)
> Pos(199);  LastFile    Char(8)    Pos(201);  LastFileLib Char(10)
> Pos(209);  JobName     Char(10)   Pos(244);  // Job name  UserId
> Char(10)   Pos(254);  // User profile  JobNumber   Zoned(6:0)
> Pos(264);  // Job number  JobDate     Zoned(6:0) Pos(270);  // Job
> date  RunDate     Zoned(6:0) Pos(276);  // Run date (YYMMDD)  RunTime
>   Zoned(6:0) Pos(282);  // Run time (HHMMSS)End-Ds;Dcl-S JobType
> Char(1);// Determine if batch or interactiveIf
> %Subst(PSDS.JobName:1:1) >= '0' and    %Subst(PSDS.JobName:1:1) <=
> '9';  JobType = 'B';  // Batch job (starts with number)Else;  JobType
> = 'I';  // Interactive job (starts with Q)EndIf;
> 
> txt1c1c-queryabapactionscript-3adaadocangular-htmlangular-tsapacheapexapl
> applescriptaraasciidocasmastroawkballerinabashbatbatchbebeancountberrybibtex
> bicepbladebslcc#c++cadencecairocdcclaritycljclojureclosure-templatescmakecmd
> cobolcodeownerscodeqlcoffeecoffeescriptcommon-lispconsolecoqcppcqlcrystalcs
> csharpcsscsvcuecypherddartdaxdesktopdiffdockerdockerfiledotenvdream-maker
> edgeelispelixirelmemacs-lisperberlerlangff#f03f08f18f77f90f95fennelfish
> fluentforfortran-fixed-formfortran-free-formfsfsharpfslftlgdresourcegdscript
> gdshadergeniegherkingit-commitgit-rebasegjsgleamglimmer-jsglimmer-tsglsl
> gnuplotgogqlgraphqlgroovygtshackhamlhandlebarshaskellhaxehbshclhjsonhlslhs
> htmlhtml-derivativehttphxmlhyimbainijadejavajavascriptjinjajisonjljsjson
> json5jsoncjsonljsonnetjssmjsxjuliakotlinkqlktktskustolatexleanlean4less
> liquidlisplitllvmloglogolualuaumakemakefilemarkdownmarkomatlabmdmdcmdx
> mediawikimermaidmipsmipsasmmmdmojomovenarnarratnextflownfnginxnimnixnu
> nushellobjcobjective-cobjective-cppocamlpascalperlperl6phpplsqlpopolar
> postcsspotpotxpowerquerypowershellprismaprologpropertiesprotoprotobufpsps1
> pugpuppetpurescriptpypythonqlqmlqmldirqssrracketrakurazorrbregregexregexprel
> riscvrsrstrubyrustsassassscalaschemescsssdblshshadershaderlabshell
> shellscriptshellsessionsmalltalksoliditysoysparqlsplsplunksqlssh-configstata
> stylstylussvelteswiftsystem-verilogsystemdtalontalonscripttasltcltempl
> terraformtextftfvarstomltsts-tagstsptsvtsxturtletwigtyptypescripttypespec
> typstvvalavbverilogvhdlvimvimlvimscriptvuevue-htmlvyvyperwasmwenyanwgslwiki
> wikitextwitwlwolframxmlxslyamlymlzenscriptzigzsh文言
> Method 2: Using Job Type from PSDS (Position 304)
> 
> In newer IBM i versions, there's a dedicated field:
> 
> **FREEDcl-Ds PSDS Qualified;  // ... other fields ...  JobType Char(1)
> Pos(304);  // 0=Batch, 1=InteractiveEnd-Ds;If PSDS.JobType = '1';  //
> Interactive jobElse;  // Batch jobEndIf;
> 
> txt1c1c-queryabapactionscript-3adaadocangular-htmlangular-tsapacheapexapl
> applescriptaraasciidocasmastroawkballerinabashbatbatchbebeancountberrybibtex
> bicepbladebslcc#c++cadencecairocdcclaritycljclojureclosure-templatescmakecmd
> cobolcodeownerscodeqlcoffeecoffeescriptcommon-lispconsolecoqcppcqlcrystalcs
> csharpcsscsvcuecypherddartdaxdesktopdiffdockerdockerfiledotenvdream-maker
> edgeelispelixirelmemacs-lisperberlerlangff#f03f08f18f77f90f95fennelfish
> fluentforfortran-fixed-formfortran-free-formfsfsharpfslftlgdresourcegdscript
> gdshadergeniegherkingit-commitgit-rebasegjsgleamglimmer-jsglimmer-tsglsl
> gnuplotgogqlgraphqlgroovygtshackhamlhandlebarshaskellhaxehbshclhjsonhlslhs
> htmlhtml-derivativehttphxmlhyimbainijadejavajavascriptjinjajisonjljsjson
> json5jsoncjsonljsonnetjssmjsxjuliakotlinkqlktktskustolatexleanlean4less
> liquidlisplitllvmloglogolualuaumakemakefilemarkdownmarkomatlabmdmdcmdx
> mediawikimermaidmipsmipsasmmmdmojomovenarnarratnextflownfnginxnimnixnu
> nushellobjcobjective-cobjective-cppocamlpascalperlperl6phpplsqlpopolar
> postcsspotpotxpowerquerypowershellprismaprologpropertiesprotoprotobufpsps1
> pugpuppetpurescriptpypythonqlqmlqmldirqssrracketrakurazorrbregregexregexprel
> riscvrsrstrubyrustsassassscalaschemescsssdblshshadershaderlabshell
> shellscriptshellsessionsmalltalksoliditysoysparqlsplsplunksqlssh-configstata
> stylstylussvelteswiftsystem-verilogsystemdtalontalonscripttasltcltempl
> terraformtextftfvarstomltsts-tagstsptsvtsxturtletwigtyptypescripttypespec
> typstvvalavbverilogvhdlvimvimlvimscriptvuevue-htmlvyvyperwasmwenyanwgslwiki
> wikitextwitwlwolframxmlxslyamlymlzenscriptzigzsh文言
> Method 3: Using API (Most Reliable)
> 
> For the most reliable method, use the QUSRJOBI API:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I see no such fields in RPG Reference Manual , PSDS section.
> 
> I must be missing something.
> 
> 
> Gad
> --
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