In this issue....

Synergy/DE 12.3 LTS Release  

The new Synergy/DE 12.3 long-term support release is here! This version continues Synergex efforts to provide access to current technologies and help you improve the reliability and maintenance of your Synergy solutions. Synergy/DE 12.3 delivers a number of important features—all previously released and customer tested via 12.2 feature releases.

Per Synergex release strategy, we’ll support this 12.3 LTS release for four years (until 2028) or for one year after the next LTS release, whichever is later. Also, we’ll support the 12.1 LTS release until April 1, 2026 (four years after its release) and the most recent 12.2 feature release, 12.2.1.1010, through June 8 (three months after the 12.3 release). See our release strategy page for more details.

We encourage you to update to 12.3 as soon as it aligns with your product delivery schedule so you can take advantage of the new features and quality enhancements, plus get on board with 12.3’s long-term support cycle.

The 2024 Synergy DevPartner Conference is just around the corner!

Join us May 13-16 for the 2024 Synergy DevPartner Conference. The virtual sessions will cover a broad range of topics designed to get you up to date on the latest news and opportunities for your Synergy apps

When it comes to ISAM files, typically only a single factor limits the size of an ISAM file: available disk space. Recently, a Synergy application developer discovered another answer to the “how big is too big” question. While STOREing records to an ISAM file on a disk with hundreds of gigabytes free, the application failed with a Windows system error 665 accompanied by a somewhat cryptic message: “The requested operation could not be completed due to a file system limitation.” It turned out to be a fragmentation issue, which prompted us to add new options to the isutl utility.

Not sure where to take your application next? Need general development help? Now’s the perfect time to plan ahead. 

Our software consulting services team has you covered. Schedule a consultation to determine how we can assist. For example, we can help you review your technology roadmap, facilitate modernizing your UX/UI, or provide staff to support your application. With our experienced and expert consultants at your side, the possibilities for digital transformation and modernization of your Synergy applications are endless.

Microsoft .NET (previously called .NET Core) is a multi-platform framework. In terms of Synergy .NET, this means that an application targeting .NET 6 or .NET 8 can run on either Windows or Linux. With Synergy/DE version 12.2.1.1007 and higher, we’ve increased the capabilities of the Synergy .NET Linux runtime and included support for the Synergy windowing API and UI Toolkit. 

This article discusses the basics of how to build a Synergy program for .NET and run it on Linux and highlights both its advantages and limitations.

Traditionally, Linux systems typically used SysV init as the initialization daemon, borrowed from older Unix systems. More recently, however, most Linux distributions have standardized on using systemd to handle system initialization. The initialization system can be used to automatically start Synergy services like synd and xfServer (rsynd) when a system boots up. For Linux and Unix distributions of Synergy/DE, we distribute scripts in the synconfig directory to aid in setting up these services on production systems, but these scripts are intended to work with SysV init. While systemd maintains some backward compatibility with SysV init and these scripts may still work for you, you might find it more convenient to set up native systemd services instead. This guide gives a brief overview of how to set up systemd services for Synergy products, as well as some useful commands for monitoring and troubleshooting systemd.

Industry News & Articles

• Microsoft: Our Vision for .NET 9
• Continuous Improvement as a Team
• Bad Habits that Stop Engineering Teams from High-Performance
• 4 Steps to Improve Root Cause Analysis
• Avoiding the Dangers of AI-Generated Code
• The Importance of Prevention: How Shifting Left, Static Analysis and Unit Testing Create Better Code Quality
• Distributed Caching: Enhancing Performance in Modern Applications

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