On 7/26/2013 6:42 AM, John Gilmore wrote:
William Blair's post is in most respects a superb one.
There is, however, an important omissis. I already had IBSYS
dump-reading skills; I learned to read OS dumps beginning with OS/PCP,
i.e., in a radically simpler world; I was able to come to terms with
increasing complexity incrementally, over many years; and I had others
to talk to about my perplexities.
'Learn it alone and unaided!' is now a counsel of despair. If you
want to learn these skills you need to apprentice yourself, at least
part-time, to someone who already has them. Find a situation in which
you can consult him or her several times a day, and make sure that he
or she has something of a vocation for teaching.
I have found it possible to impart these skills to two inexperienced
but admittedly very able teenagers using such an apprenticeship
scheme. In doing so I avoided introducing them to dump-reading aids
(other than hexadecimal calculators) until very late, but I did give
much attention to the many ways in which all IBM systems are similar,
to frequently encountered control-block chaining schemes, stacks,
pools, queues and unholy, impure mixtures of them.
I have not compared notes with anyone else who has imparted/taught
these skills successfully; but there are certainly other equally
viable ways to do so that differ in substantial detail from mine. I
suspect, however, that the availability of a mentor or mentors is
crucial. They figure centrally in other professional training
schemes, be they for surgeons or steamfitters.
Exclusively do-it-yourself schemes will fail; homo sapiens is too
short-lived a species; and preternatural dedication must anyway not be
expected or required.
John Gilmore, Ashland, MA 01721 - USA
I agree with that, John.
A class is a great way to get organized, get the basic
principles, get some experience. But it is just the
start, the foundation. Having a qualified mentor
guide you over real world dumps from your real
environment is an enormous benefit in getting to be
a productive debugger-from-dumps.
And, the mentor always learns from the experience
too, I daresay.
-Steve Comstock
