Reply to: At 40+ you are pretty much unemployable

[Churchill]

No, old dog.

XR 15,15
BR 14

Actually IBM had to patch IEFBR14, twice!

When I was at Ferranti they got upset because of the things I used to do to the manframe(The games I wrote only worked properly on the sysop console ) so they sat me in a corner with a PC and said "Show us what you can do with that"...

The rest as they say is history...
(No it wasn't my fault they went bust - I left way before then!)

[bogeyman]

Old mainframe joke. The real IEFBR14 is a null program, named after its one real instruction, BR 14 which branches back to the calling program. By convention, Register 14 is set on entry to a (sub)program to the return address. Register 15 is set to the subprogram entry point - so IEFBR15 would branch back to the start and loop forever.

I once got a job with Amdahl in California on the strength of laughing at that.

God, how we laughed

[expat]

I guess "IEFBR15 (sic)" must be the muffled noise a mobile phone makes when it's buried in a giant pile of mainframe assembler, and some poor sod has to roll up their sleeves and find the thing among all the carp before the dinosaur mainframe coder shows up again.

Old mainframe joke. The real IEFBR14 is a null program, named after its one real instruction, BR 14 which branches back to the calling program. By convention, Register 14 is set on entry to a (sub)program to the return address. Register 15 is set to the subprogram entry point - so IEFBR15 would branch back to the start and loop forever.

I once got a job with Amdahl in California on the strength of laughing at that.

[Marina]

We've got a number of fit young dinosaurs working here, in fact a lot fitter than lumbering Windoze weenies...

http://znextgen.org/

I guess "IEFBR15 (sic)" must be the muffled noise a mobile phone makes when it's buried in a giant pile of mainframe assembler, and some poor sod has to roll up their sleeves and find the thing among all the carp before the dinosaur mainframe coder shows up again.

[bogeyman]

We've got a number of fit young dinosaurs working here, in fact a lot fitter than lumbering Windoze weenies...

http://znextgen.org/

Yep. Mainframe people are sexy. They're the party people, unlike the Windows and UNIX geeks who smell and can't dance.

[darmstadt]

Groan! As soon as someone mentions mainframes, all the dinosaurs come lumbering out

We've got a number of fit young dinosaurs working here, in fact a lot fitter than lumbering Windoze weenies...

http://znextgen.org/

[expat]

IEFBR14

IEFBR15 (sic)

[bogeyman]

mov ax,4c00
int 21

No, old dog.

XR 15,15
BR 14

Actually IBM had to patch IEFBR14, twice!

[Churchill]

IEFBR14

mov ax,4c00
int 21

[KathyWoolfe]

I usually just ask people to tell me what IEFBR15 (sic) does.

IEFBR14

[BrilloPad]

That's cos your older than me.

When I've reached your age I will be able to spell to.

I won't have grey "highlights" though as I don't have any children or an ex-wife to stress me out.

true - but you post here. that might well send you

[Diver]

I have grey hairs, but then again I'm growing old disgracefully

[SueEllen]

You're

At least at my age I can spell.

And it is not grey - silver highlights.

That's cos your older than me.

When I've reached your age I will be able to spell to.

I won't have grey "highlights" though as I don't have any children or an ex-wife to stress me out.

[SueEllen]

That witness to the girl who was killed in India is 8 years younger than me but looks several years older. (He's supposed to be 35, but has a partly-grey beard.)

I often see people my age on TV and think - "no you aren't, you're twenty years older."

Or am I fooling myself?

Nope.
Some people age very badly.

[BrilloPad]

Your so vain........

Mind you if I was as young as you and had grey hair I would dye it too.

You're

At least at my age I can spell.

And it is not grey - silver highlights.