> <snip> I started learning COBOL two years ago. The company > bemoans the fact > that no college offers COBOL programming Many outside > contractors have > come in an tried to prove that their software could do the > job faster and > all have failed. Maybe the difference is the database > interface. Most of > the work is just getting and storing a record. But the big > programs work on > all the records; sorting and changing and other things.
We are not about to move away from big Iron yet. Our issue is that as capacity is added to the frames, it quickly gets used up. We have no spare cycles even though we have doubled processing in the last year. There are still 20 Mainframe programmers on staff. What is outsourced is usually sustaining work. The analysis is done here. > > It's not going away, in fact I know a few places switching > back because it > works better. (Don't ask who, it's internal knowledge.) Our > latest version > is OO, but no one has worked with it yet. We have host > interfaced programs > and web applications all running from COBOL. We have had that for years. In fact, I just wrote a MS script that passes delimited text to one of these interfaces to a MF trans to order parts. Our web based Warranty system talks to IMS in the back. Truck Sales Orders and changes do as well. Green screen use is now only for processing small orders or for looking up small bits of info. Everything else is automated into the web-based back end into IMS. > > How are you defining a large mainframe program? The major > project this year > will be re-writing a system that handles billions of dollars > now; designing > it to handle trillions. There will be many small and large > programs; a few > very large ones; each written by one person. This is how Mainframe development is done. It is difficult to do on other platforms. <SNIP> > > I am missing something. What would a programmer who doesn't > analyze do? I > know a few programs that are same code/different system but > most involve > thinking. Again, the old style MF programmer did it all in the past. Specialization has taken this away. > > Maybe that's my difference. I love my job. I'll do anything. > I spent 11 > years fixing TVs, being an electrician, doing mechanical > maintenance. I > never want to turn a wrench again. I had a dream after I > started, standing > in a factory being welcomed to my new job. I felt like > crying, I wanted to > call my boss and find out what happened. Alas, another fellow blue-collar IT worker... > > That doesn't mean I'm social. I treat this as a job. I don't > need to know > your kids names to work with you. > > Kevin T. - VRWC > I had a point. Oh yeah: COBOL RuLZ! Java drolz! (No idea what > you work with). > _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
