Ah, but Sir Alan, you miss the point. I enjoy and support new technology which improves our lives and makes us more productive (so we can waste more personal time watching movies and otherwise killing our brain cells).
The IBMLink 2000 implementation was not new technology that improved our lives or made us more productive -- it appears to be new technology implemented for the sake of using new technology. It did not offer anything we could not do before (at least none that this old codger could readily find), and it actually seems to be less productive. I'm imaging that Dr. Doherty (IIRC, he wrote "A business case for fir subsecond response times" sometime back in the 1970's or 1980s) would not be impressed. He presented a session at SHARE in the 1980s demonstrating the human performance improvements to be had by consistent screen design. (I sometimes wonder/fear that such was an argument for the ill-fated Systems Application Architecture). It was amazing and left a lasting impression.
I tried IBMLink 2000, really making an effort to use it in place of green screen IBMLink, but grew frustrated by the response times (perhaps improved since I gave up) and screen design. I used it a few weeks ago when the 3270 IBMLink application was having problems. I could get stuff done, it just took longer. Perhaps I should give it another try when I have some spare time (yeah, right), and a full bottle of Prozac (R) an Xanax (R). ;-)
Maybe if the designers of IBMLink 2000 came to SHARE and other user conferences to find out how customers research problems, and download fixes they would provide a design better fitted to what customers do, and guide customers to do what IBM can do with the latest whiz-bang gadgets. Build it (well) and they will come.
Mike Walter
Hewitt Associates
The opinions herein are mine alone (although perhaps shared by others), and certainly do not represent those of my employer.
| "Alan Altmark"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent by: "The IBM z/VM Operating System" <[email protected]> 07/27/2006 12:04 PM
|
|
On Thursday, 07/27/2006 at 10:01 EST, Mike Walter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
> I beg to differ, Jim. Many list subscribers and I still regularly use
the
> old green-screen IBMLink and will continue to do so until they pry it
from
> my cold, dead fingers.
Move past it, Mike. ;-) No one is going to hire 3270 application
developers to maintain the old IBMLink. When we *really* get old, we can
rock back and forth on the front porch sipping ... lemonade ...
reminiscing about the Good Ol' Days when computers were really slow,
displayed only text, and you could get really amazing art on a line
printer. (I'm envisioning another round of Pepsi(R) versus Coke(R)
commercials....)
There are a whole bunch of people in the industry who search for and apply
fixes to their systems without needing 3270 applications to do it, and
there are more of them than there are of us 3270-types. They're younger,
too. [Read: They will outlive us.] I would like to leverage *their*
"skill" at applying maintenence to System z. Remember, someday one of
those Young Pups will be running your system, not you. :-) They're good
at navigating all those hidden click-throughs on those web pages.
Likewise, it would be great if the skill you have about applying fixes to
systems (change control, careful screening) could be applied to other
platforms as well. Of course, they use GUI tools.
We are participating in a variety of activities that propose to simplify
the management of z/VM systems, including patch management. And if it
help you sleep better at night, let me say that Shop zSeries is not part
of the solution, though the big content engines behind it are (as they
have been through the ages).
IMO, buying software and patching it are two different processes that
don't deserve to be mashed together into the same tool.
Alan Altmark
z/VM Development
IBM Endicott
The information contained in this e-mail and any accompanying documents may contain information that is confidential or otherwise protected from disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient of this message, or if this message has been addressed to you in error, please immediately alert the sender by reply e-mail and then delete this message, including any attachments. Any dissemination, distribution or other use of the contents of this message by anyone other than the intended recipient is strictly prohibited.
