Let's just posit that there is a somewhat different (and larger) set of AMODE 64 technical issues relating to COBOL and PL/I. (This should be pretty clear now.) All the good intentions -- and there are many -- are still always bounded by the technical possibilities.
There are also different pressures and different relative urgencies. Pop quiz: which language is more memory-greedy in accomplishing the same business tasks, ceteris paribus: Java or COBOL? :-) My list of questions -- one of them, in particular -- alluded to the possibility that your management might have (misguided) perceptions. If that's the case, feed that information to IBM, too. We got z/Architecture in 2000 (and in the way we did) in part because of (misguided?) market and/or customer management perceptions. There's a good article published by IBM Research that alludes to this, and why true 64-bit architecture had to be the design goal, not, say, 48-bit or 62-bit or whatever. This could get very silly very quickly, though. Let me give you an example. z/TPF is 64-bit and GA'ed in September, 2005. z/TPF does many things, including allowing you to run 64-bit transaction programs. WebSphere Application Server for z/OS started supporting 64-bit servants beginning with Version 6.1.0.4 which GA'ed in January, 2007. WAS does many things, including allowing you to run 64-bit transaction programs. So does this mean z/TPF transaction programs are more or less important/strategic/critical/whatever than WAS z/OS transaction programs? No, silly! (May I call that hypothetical unnamed misguided manager that?) It simply means that z/TPF got there first because it was technically doable, sooner, in the way(s) customers wanted and/or because they needed it (or expected to need it) sooner. There's no grand, nefarious, and/or sinister IBM plan for z/TPF to replace WAS z/OS or vice versa. Well, except for this plan: http://www.ibm.com/systems/z/secretplans/ztpf-will-takeover-the-world.html (Watch the wrap.) Anyway, could y'all keep getting those COBOL and PL/I compiler requirements into IBM -- along the lines of the questions I listed? Many thanks. Speaking only for myself. Occasionally with humor and wit (of varying quality). - - - - - Timothy Sipples IBM Consulting Enterprise Software Architect Based in Tokyo, Serving IBM Japan / Asia-Pacific E-Mail: [email protected] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
