I've probably mentioned before on this forum that some years ago my oldest son expressed an interest in learning mainframe skills, probably having heard me talk about the job security it involves since so few people are being trained for it by the colleges. I started asking around about places I could rent space on a mainframe (and how much would it cost me), setting up two IDs so I could teach my son the basics.
The questions must have gotten around, because within a couple weeks someone from IBM phoned me and said that if I could talk my local university into starting a few mainframe classes, the university would have to rent space from a data center and IBM would ~give~ me two accounts on it for training my son. I called the one I knew best -- heck, I could teach one or three of the classes myself -- but couldn't interest them. Actually, when I said the colleges might be "winning the war" I didn't mean that mainframes are going away, but that the colleges' steadfast refusal to see the value of training mainframe skills is causing the pool of talent to diminish to the extent (maybe) that that dearth is forcing employers to look at other platforms. But, as I added, that probably can't go on very far; I'd expect a rebound at some point. --- Bob Bridges, [email protected], cell 336 382-7313 /* Teaching a child not to step on a caterpillar is as valuable to the child as it is to the caterpillar. -Bradley Miller */ -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> On Behalf Of David Crayford Sent: Wednesday, January 5, 2022 04:20 I don't think the universities have got anything against the mainframe. They don't have access to them. IBM should make mainframe emulators freely available to all universities. Some of our best young guys have degrees in engineering, not CS. It takes a long time to train new hires on the mainframe. For example, JCL is arcane and generally despised by kids who have grown up coding shell scripts. As you mentioned CICS it's worth noting that CICS supports both Spring Boot and Node.js. They set the standard for modernization. The open beta has a new has a new YAML file for resource definitions that comes with a JSON schema so you can get context assist in editors and validation in the DevOps pipeline. The CICS guys innovate and modernize. I salute them. --- On 5/1/22 12:01 pm, Bob Bridges wrote: > Hm. If that's true of many shops (and it sounds plausible), maybe my sneers > at the colleges' ignorant comments are ill-founded and they may be starting > to win their war against the mainframe. Of course, if their efforts have a > lot of effect then surely the need for CICS will reverse the trend...wouldn't > you think? > > -----Original Message----- > From: David Crayford > Sent: Tuesday, January 4, 2022 21:48 > > It's true. The company I work for has been on-boarding millennials for years > now to replace the guys that are retiring. I work with some very smart young > guys, some of who write systems level code. None of them use REXX unless it's > used in a product they are working on. We're ripping and replacing decades > old build tools written in REXX with Python because it's become technical > debt and no one can support it. > > The typical millenial uses: > > * An IDE such as VS Code, IntelliJ, Slickedit with plugins for > mainframe languages and to access the MVS file system. > * They don't use TSO or the ISPF editor so there is no need for REXX > edit macros etc. ISPF is mainly used for SDSF and submitting jobs. > * They work in a interactive shell and use UNIX utilties. > * Everything is stored in Git repositories. > * They code scripts in Python, Node.js or a JVM language. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
