On 3/16/2012 6:19 PM, Shane G wrote:
On Sat, Mar 17th, 2012 at 8:25 AM, "Gibney, Dave" wrote:
Realize that without some help/mentor/training, it is a long uphill
battle, just to the top of the next ridge, rinse repeat....
So true, but these days everyone expects to be able to "do it on the web"
(that's not directed at the OP, but is just the way it is).
Without a mentor, I'd reckon money spent on something like actually attending
Share for the bootcamp, or Steves offerings would be worthwhile.
Especially if you could convince the boss to pick up the bill ...
A lot depends on the individual. When I was employed as a 7094
programmer, my company got a government contract to convert a
7094 plotting program to run under PCP. I scrounged up a PoO and
Assembler F manual, and had at it. The first 2000 card assembly
had 6000 lines of errors, but things got better from there. And
a friend of mine started as an operator, taught himself
assembler language programming (with a little, occasional
prodding), migrated to systems programming, and then to a
management job with IBM.
And I also had a colleague who exemplified the opposite. He took
IBM courses, had a slew of books, but never finished things on
time or correctly.
These days, with Hercules and the free systems available, just
about anyone can sit at a PC and learn by trial and error, with
fantastic response times. When I started you had to wait hours
to get results (and at one modern installation I consulted for,
the turnaround for a quick, non-setup job was one day!).
Gerhard Postpischil
Bradford, VT
