New functions in Host On-Demand Version 14.0
The following functions and enhancements have been added to Host On-Demand Version 14:
- Performance Improvement
- When connecting to hosts using a secure connection, IBM Host On-Demand uses JSSE APIs to find connections that have data to be read from. Due to a limitation in the current JSSE implementation, Host On-Demand code cannot reliably differentiate the connections that have data pending to be read, from those without. This was causing significant performance degradation when the number of connections are more. As part of performance enhancements in this version, Host On-Demand code has been re-designed to read host data as soon as it is received, making sure that the connections are not blocked. This change significantly improves the performance of data transfer between the client and the host.
- Managed Host On-Demand
- Managed HOD is the new Host On-Demand client which can be installed on all supported client platforms for Host On-Demand. Instead of using system JRE, Managed HOD comes with its own JRE, which loads the HOD desktop faster. This can be used to connect to a Host On-Demand server and can also work as a Stand-alone application.
- Update of default TLS for DCAS connections
- For DCAS connections, version of TLS defaults to TLS 1.2 protocol. If the host does not support TLS version 1.2, the connection falls back to a lower supported version.
- Server JRE update (HOD version 14.0.1.0)
- Server JRE has been updated to IBM Runtime Environment Java Technology Edition (JRE) version 1.8 SR5 FP40.
- Handling alternate position of numeric sign
- In some of the tables in the emulator presentation space, negative numbers can sometimes be represented with "-" appended to the end of the number. When such a value is copied from the presentation space and pasted on to an external application (such as Microsoft Excel), it may be desirable to expect the numeric sign to be prefixed. For example, "123-" copied from the emulator presentation space, when pasted on an Excel spreadsheet, it is expected be rendered as "-123". HOD Edit-Copy handles numbers with positive and negative signs at the end of the string.
- STRPCCMD
- With this release, the STRPCCMD command has been enhanced to consider the /w option of Windows start command. With this change HOD's behaviour would be similar to that of PCOMM's. For more information, see New behavior of STRPCCMD
- Support for the new Japanese Era (Reiwa)
- HOD supports the new Japanese era character - Reiwa.
- JAR signer certificate upgrade
- The code signer certificate used to sign the previous versions of IBM Host On-Demand software will expire on Jan 1, 2020. In the current version, the IBM Host On-Demand software is signed with a new code signer certificate that is valid up to September 24, 2021. This certificate is issued to “HCL America Inc.” by “DigiCert SHA2 Assured ID Code Signing CA”. “HCL America Inc.” is the partner of “International Business Machines Corporation” authorized to sign IBM Personal Communications software.