How's the mainframe market these days?

[expat]

I actually did that once with an Epson FX80. I remember the tie had a BBC BASIC dump on it.

Cool! Do it with a mainframe line printer and the switch is useless, it's too late.

[hobotivo]

That's known as the Molly switch... To be used when someone gets sucked in by a tape drive or something.

Close...
Actually generally known as the "Big Red Switch" (BRS for short). I think you're confusing it with the "Molly Guard" which was a cover for the BRS to prevent accidental activation, apparently (apocryphal?) named after an operator's rug-rat who pulled the switch twice in one day. Mainframes don't like to be shut down in that way, you need to quiesce the system (z eod? how the memory fades) and halt all the active subsystems first...

I don't think zSeries boxes have them... Sad

Cheers
Ron

[darmstadt]

I run a couple of zOS systems here at home (on a laptop and an xSeries box) and sometimes I just power off at the mains. The mainframe OS'es will come straight back up with no problems (although I do prefer doing a $pjes2, z eod followed by quiesce first.)

[hobotivo]

Where am I? Oh yes, f p' ¬' 7 prev

Ok, I get it, find the previous instance of a string which matches a 2 byte string like "a blank followed by a non blank" which starts in column 7...

But why? A clever search, but how is it useful? I really like searching for non blanks in column 72 (assembler continuation byte, gets you all the time) but you've got me on this one Do tell!

Cheers
Ron

[expat]

Ok, I get it, find the previous instance of a string which matches a 2 byte string like "a blank followed by a non blank" which starts in column 7...

But why? A clever search, but how is it useful? I really like searching for non blanks in column 72 (assembler continuation byte, gets you all the time) but you've got me on this one Do tell!

Cheers
Ron

It finds the current paragraph in COBOL (if in PROCEDURE DIVISION, similar for other DIVs) but does not get thrown by a comment.

[hobotivo]

Ahhhh. A mainframe snob. It's not programming unless you've got a greenscreen and you enter code with edlin?

It may surprise you to know that there are many of us who are just as comfortable on AS400/Linux/Unix/Windows/etc and you'll find the key to contracting is diverse knowledge and being instantly comfortable in whatever environment you find yourself in.

BTW, I've done some CICS programming before, but not on a mainframe. There are high-level APIs available in numerous languages that mean direct CICS development is becoming more and more rare. Don't rest on your laurels...

Yes, I probably am a M/F snob... What the heck... I go to innumerable meetings where I have to explain M/F concepts to the click-em-up crew, and I know more about their stuff than they do about mine. I'm not scared of other environments (I hack US NTSC TiVos to work in Aus with PAL, so I don't mind going into weird places) but that's for fun, not for money.

As for the "key to contracting" - I've been contracting for 16 years without a single day off that wasn't by my choice, so whatever the key is, I think I've found it, or at least how to pick the locks.

Green Screen? edlin? As others have pointed out, we use ISPF, and a darn fine programmer's editor it is, if it doesn't work the way you like then customise it till it does. And no, I *don't* think somebody's a programmer unless they can code assembler for at least one instruction set, but that's just me! You must know the instruction set your compiler is targeting, and how it builds things like looping constructs, it's fundamental, isn't it??

Cheers
Ron

[oraclesmith]

Aaaaaaahh! Assembler..... those were the days... BNE, LDA, JSR....

[expat]

Aaaaaaahh! Assembler..... those were the days... BNE, LDA, JSR....

LA (my favourite).

[Cowboy Bob]

And no, I *don't* think somebody's a programmer unless they can code assembler for at least one instruction set, but that's just me!

I did a bit of Z80 assembler in the 80s. Does that count?