Shane: Dump reading while an essential tool, does not make or break an aspiring assembler programmer .One must be careful to interpret what is being asked.
1) A good Assembler programmer first of all know his/her "Green Card". That's not hard. 2) He or She must also know the instruction format and clearly be able to delineate the various old standby's like type SS Type-1 , SS-Type-2, as well some of the newer ones. That's not hard. 3) He or She must have hand a hardcopy of the POP. Don't be fooled in to think that you'll do fine with in PDF format... Print the D..mm thing. 4) You must be able to perform an execute and move character instructions.. handy for all kinds of neat things as well as good techniques. Takes some skill at coding Tables DS/DC instrcutions 5) He or she must know which Macro instruction book specifically details the information need to access the desired control block or system component. Not terribly difficult other make it seem that way. 6) You must know the PSW format and what, when and where get stored in the various sections. Usually under the direction of a senior staff 7) He or she must know which registers are user or system reserved (0,1, 12-15), standard stuff it's in the POP. 8) Know where and How 24,31,64 bit architecture comes in to play. Generally not an issue though. 9) Know where you ASCB, PCB are stored and how you address spaces is set up. Murach ( written by McQuillen it as very good) or Strubble(was out of print) ,and Abel are all Good books in this case. 10) You don't have to be an old crusty programmer to acquire all of these things, although it does take time and in most cases some mentorship. 11) Know you BC (Branch on condition codes) instructions. Again it's in the Books. 12) If you can find the Katzan Books or articles they are a very good startup tutorial on OSVS/MVS ,, not z/OS or OS/390 ,, however IMHO that not too big of a leap Finally Be very good at JCL and Utilities. Everything else comes with time and experience. A good C/C++ programmer can acquires these skills , but will nonetheless have the same if not steeper learning curve if they are coming from a Unix background. Good Luck I hope all goes well PS you might want check out Hercules .. or any other PC/370 emulation -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Assembler List [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Shane G Sent: Sunday, July 28, 2013 11:17 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Job opportunities I trust no-one interprets my prior post(s) as antagonistic to William H or BMC (or any other company hiring z/OS folks). I think it is fantastic that, in this case, a company has the nous to recognise that a (very) technical group needn't be ensconced in a single room/building/site. Gives hope to all those who choose not to be domiciled in the 'states - more especially those of us wandering forlornly in the backwaters of the Antipodes. Good on 'em - and no I wasn't "leant on" to post this. Just want to make sure there are no mis-understandings. Shane ...
