John Summerfield wrote: > > > The principle being what exactly? > > Cheap licences for single-seat users. Allows folk to offload > development from the mainframe. Some time ago I did some programming > work. The tools I needed were TSO & ISPF (or equivalent), Pl/1, IMS, > REXX and the application I was working on. > > If deploying tiny mainframes was comparable in effort and cost with the > cost of PCs (say) three years ago, don't you think people would do it?
For the record, IBM does offer a pretty cool system for S/390 developers that has had very good uptake from the developer community. For instance, to demo their products for Linux/390, CA used a Linux laptop with Flex-ES purchased through the Partnerworld program. They've reported the following: "For what it's worth, we have one of the latest Thinkpad configurations (1.2Ghz/1G memory/48G disk) and it runs SuSE 7.0 Linux for S/390 perfectly well. So well, in fact, that we elected to use this system for several concurrent product demos at last week's LinuxWorld Expo in NYC. It was funny to see a small laptop driving demos on half a dozen workstations." Partnerworld members are eligible for these machines, plus a loan of a very extensive S/390 software stack, including the tools that you've mentioned. Details at: http://www.t3t.com/PartnerWorld.htm or http://www.csihome.com (click on the "iframe" logo) For non-commercial developers, historically the commercial politics has always favored extending the production box with a test and development LPAR. Times are a'changing, and perhaps in part with the Partnerworld experience being so positive, a business case can be made for extending the concept to other non-production uses.
