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<DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Arial>Greetings To R360,</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>From someone who worked as independent contract
software engineer for 30 years, retiring early in the year 2002.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>At that time major financial companies used
large IBM mainframes extensively. They simply wouldn't trust anything
else.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>The COBOL language often so disparaged by folks
coming ftom the *nix world, was the robust application language backbone of much
custom app code on IBM big iron.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>The IBM mainframes I worked in COBOL on had their
own IBM proprietary operating systerms (e.g. MVS - multiple virtual systems).
All was rock solid and performant. I did work for two large insurance companies.
At one, the language was COBOL running on IBM's AIX *nix flavour on an IBM
(RS-6000?) But as I understand, this COBOL application I worked on was was
later migrated intact to an IBM mainframe running IBM's proprietary MVS
OS</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>The COBOL language has features making it a robust
tool in the hands of "bricklayers" (programmers of varied skill and enthusiasm).
The female U.S. Navy officer who invented COBOL knew what she was
doing.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>I expect that there is still a large COBOL
application code base (representing a large $ investment) in operation at these
big companies. COBOL is a possible career path for someone young but
who is also unafraid of jeers frm ignorant programmers from the net / *nix
world.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>The old guard like me are all retired / ing in
droves, and not enough new COBOL progammers are being produced by colleges and
universities. There were (are?) some really great COBOL implementations out
there. The name Micro Focus comes to mind. The MF COBOL on my Win XP PC
proved to be rock solid and incredibly fast with a great debugger.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>* * *</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>* * *</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial><STRONG>You should research all this before making
any commitment to a particular OS or application language.</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>The advantage of starting your career with a big
company (e.g. bank, insurance) is that they can manage their staff with a
long-term view. They will invest in training you, and they provide a populaiton
of competent staff to mentor you. I worked with many different programming
languages over the years, and likely you will also. They are all just
tools.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2><FONT face=Arial>Maybe that proprietary IBM OS layer I worked
with has now all disappeared. But it would surprise mte to learn that our big
banks are running their "inner jewels" type IT operations on open source
LInux <STRONG>...</STRONG></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Regards,,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Arial>Steve</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial><STRONG>* * *</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial><STRONG></STRONG></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Steve Petrie, P.Eng<STRONG>.</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial><STRONG></STRONG></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Oakville, Ontario, Canada<BR>(905)
847-3253<BR></FONT><A href="mailto:apetrie@aspetrie.net"><FONT size=2
face=Arial>apetrie@aspetrie.net</FONT></A><BR></DIV>
<DIV>----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
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style="BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV
style="FONT: 10pt arial; BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=talk@gtalug.org href="mailto:talk@gtalug.org">R360 Design INC via
talk</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=talk@gtalug.org
href="mailto:talk@gtalug.org">talk@gtalug.org</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Sunday, December 03, 2017 10:33
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> [GTALUG] IBM Mainframe and
z/OS</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>Hello everyone,
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Does anyone know how I could gain hands-on experience on an IBM
mainframe? This is a career path Id like to pursue - i.e. Websphere zOS
consultant or CICS. I am currently a UoT student and was wondering how
people gain experience</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><BR><BR>-- <BR><A href="http://r360design.ca"
target=_blank>r360design.ca</A><BR><BR><BR><BR>-- <BR><A
href="http://r360design.ca" target=_blank>r360design.ca</A><BR>
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