![search390]() ![This Week]() |
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In this Issue |
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From the Editor: |
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by Edward Hurley, Editor
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I would never be accused of being the sharpest tool in the shed.
I have to admit before I started covering mainframes, I thought COBOL was "Cobalt" as in the grayish metal. In fact, still to this day when saying the word, I have to make sure I cut the word off and not insert the letter. I sometimes say COmmon Business Oriented Language in my head to jog my memory.
Now, I am not alone. A lot of people probably wouldn't know COBOL from Cobalt from Chewbacca. It just goes to show that we often hear and even use words without realizing how they are spelt. For example, back in my newspaper days, I wrote an education story. I mentioned students had to learn by "rope memorization." My editor pointed out the typo with a chuckle.
It wasn't a typo in the sense that I accidentally typed it. I actually thought "rope memorization" was a way of learning something. Of course, now I realize it's actually "rote memorization" but I still think "rope memorization" makes sense. Learning something by heart, like how to program in COBOL, is a lot like climbing a rope. First you have to figure out the basic technique and then practice that over and over again. Over time, you are able to go higher as your mind and muscles develop. A
simple mistake may cause you to fall (much like a small programming mistake causes compiling woes).
The skill is learned after a lot of practice and some sore hands (both when rope climbing and coding COBOL). But with any skill, practice and additional information is needed to keep it fresh.
Now, if you are new to coding in COBOL or are an old hand at it then you should check out our new Crash Course on COBOL. It provides a host of links on everything from free compilers to using COBOL with Enterprise Java Beans.
Click here to check it out. Enjoy!
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Featured Topic: |
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Crash Course: COBOL
by the Editors of Search390.com
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Few computer languages have reached the iconic status that COBOL has. It's been around for half a century yet people are still using it. COBOL is the Energizer Bunny of the programming world. It just keeps going and going and going. Take this Crash Course on COBOL. There is useful information for the veteran and newbie coder alike.
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Read more about this topic
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Expert Technical Advice: |
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Featured Expert Tom Ross, software engineer, IBM
Categories:COBOL, PL/I and LE programming expert
Tom Ross is a senior software engineer in COBOL development. Tom has spent his entire 18 year IBM career in COBOL development, working on the compiler and run-time libraries for every release of VS COBOL II, COBOL for OS/390 & VM, and IBM COBOL on AIX, Windows, and OS/2. He is an expert in migration issues for COBOL and Language Environment for MVS and VM, and in Year 2000 issues facing IBM mainframe customers. He is a frequent speaker at user groups including GUIDE, SHARE, IBM Technical
Interchange and others. In fact, he is the IBM representative to SHARE for COBOL. Tom grew up in Los Gatos California and earned a Bachelor Degree in Computer science from the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1982. He started his love affair with IBM on Valentine's Day, 1983.
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View all of Tom's answers
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This Week: In the forums
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A Search390.com user asked in our developer forum:
Can someone tell me everything they know about how RACF determines if a user is REVOKED? I would assume that there is a boolean field somewhere that serves as a flag. I need to know the name, type (boolean, int, string), and default value of the field and anything else you can tell me. I have an identity management app that is connecting to RACF and I want to be able to UNREVOKE an account by flipping that flag.
Do you have a response? If so, post it here. |
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| Tip of the Week: |
| You can use SMS on the mainframe to consolidate dataset extents easily and quickly without recovering the tablespace. To read the complete tip, click here. |
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Consolidating DB2 dataset extents |
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Product/Vendor Guide
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The Search390.com Product & Vendor Guide has the mainframe solutions you need. Find performance management, event automation, file management and disaster recovery solutions easily, and contact vendors directly for additional information.
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| Upcoming Events |
| Find out about upcoming conferences, seminars, and user group meetings in the Search390.com events listing. |
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| S/390 Linux links |
| Check out our collection of links to topics about running Linux on the mainframe. If you need information on anything from installation to troubleshooting, look here first. |
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