Dave Salt wrote:
problem still exists. With little or no exposure to mainframes they are
not easily understand anything being done that is actually interesting.
There is lots of boring grunt-work to give them, but that won't make
them want to stay.
Which is why you have to try to give them interesting things to do so
they come away with a positive impression of the mainframe. I remember I
was once given the assistance of a co-op student to help me out with a
project. I gave him some stuff to read about the ISPF editor and REXX,
and put him to work on creating a simple REXX procedure. After he was
finished he came over to where I was working and asked if I wanted to
take a look at what he'd written. Without leaving my desk I went into
the data set where he'd created the REXX, made a couple of minor changes
to it, and ran it.
His expression was priceless. He couldn't believe that I could so easily
go into the program he had been working on, modify it, run it, and not
have to get out of my chair or go over to the PC where he'd been working
on it. Once he understood the concept that once it's on the mainframe
just about everyone who worked on the mainframe could access it, he was
absolutely stunned. The idea that people in other parts of the country
could access his program immediately without it having to be distributed
across hundreds of servers left him absolutely dumbfounded. From that
point on, he was a mainframe convert and enthusiastically soaked up
every bit of information he could during the remainder of his co-op term.
Very nice story, Dave. Thanks.
Kind regards,
-Steve Comstock
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