To be fair, the old-mainframer remark you took to be condescending, I took to be aimed at himself. What I don't understand is his leading argument about why Python is better.
The simplicity of JCL is based on the fact that JCL is just code that we manage. The code itself is not complex, but it can be intricate. I'm not sure what this means. Yes, JCL is code that we manage. So is all code, including Python, right? And how is something "not complex, but intricate"? I suppose he means something but I don't know what. Most of us bring up a JCL member, modify a couple of items, and submit the job. If you make a mistake, you go over to the System Display and Search Facility (SDSF) and look at the output, figure out the error, go back to the editor, change the code, and submit again. The Python code is based on a totally different model. Reviewing the output, figuring out the error and modifying the JCL code steps are unnecessary in Python because the user never touches the code. Instead, the code verifies the data supplied to it and performs the functions. So to fix JCL I have to figure out the error, then correct it and submit again. Whereas in Python, by contrast...how is Python different from that? I really can't tell what he's saying here, possibly because I don't know anything about Python, but he seems to be saying Python never needs to be debugged and corrected, which I cannot credit. --- Bob Bridges, [email protected], cell 336 382-7313 /* Honorifics and formal politeness provide lubrication where people rub together. Often the very young, the untraveled, the naive, the unsophisticated deplore these formalities as empty, meaningless or dishonest and scorn to use them. No matter how pure their motives, they thereby throw sand into machinery that doesn't work too well at best. -Lazarus Long */ -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> On Behalf Of kekronbekron Sent: Tuesday, August 17, 2021 23:59 Objectively, this has got to be madness. Just look at the JCL that's being shoved into a horrid, horrid Python program. ~200 lines to replace 18 lines of JCL. Oh.. and that's leaving aside the condescending tone about 'the old mainframer'. Whether a person wants to learn something or not (therefore choosing their path) is up to them. They don't need to be harassed/shamed about it. Just because there were some people on mainframe forums consistently harassing everyone with "check with your site's system programmer / RTFM / etc.", it doesn't mean the woke folk need to return the favour by being passive aggressive or insulting senior sysprogs for not wearing neon shorts or whatever. If this is being paraded as simplification, now the mainframe is truly doomed. https://medium.com/theropod/the-journey-from-jcl-to-python-so-easy-even-an-old-mainframer-can-do-it-f088cc49366a ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
