There are a couple of pressing issues in z/OS that I'm sure many folks are aware of but about which there doesn't seem to be much being done. I'm curious as to what other IBM-MAINer's thoughts might be. Specifically, I'm talking about:
1.) migration to IBM's latest COBOL release, and 2.) the not-really-that-far-off issue of Year 2042 I've been asked several times recently whether we (a z/OS ISV) should consider developing products to address these issues. Frankly, though, I live in an ivory tower and while I sometime *think* I know what installations problems and needs are, I'm usually surprised to find that reality is quite different. So I'd like to throw a couple of questions out to the list for comment: 1.) Would a reporting utility that determined which COBOL programs were executed (and which ones weren't), and what release and options they were compiled with be significantly helpful in a COBOL migration? What other features would be nice to have? Or is this a low priority for most installations, who are perhaps trying to justify keeping the mainframe alive and/or conducting business as usual, let alone doing a COBOL migration project? 2.) It's rather shocking that 2042 is so close and not much seems to be happening. We are one of the vendors that have a date-simulation utility, but we don’t know if data centers have any near-term plans for 2042. Would it be worthwhile to have a 2042 date-simulation product now, or is everyone going to cross their fingers and try to use a test LPAR once the operating system fully supports 2042 dates? Thanks for any comments and insight the IBM-MAIN hive mind might have. Steve Pryor CTO DTS Software, LLC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN