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I'm 31 years old, and I know TSO, CICS, 3270, TSO, ISPF, JCL, etc. I've coded in COBOL for a year for banks. I've also emulated z/OS using the Hercules emulato

by rpigab 4y ago

I'm 31 years old, and I know TSO, CICS, 3270, TSO, ISPF, JCL, etc. I've coded in COBOL for a year for banks. I've also emulated z/OS using the Hercules emulator, and managed to get it to boot (it's really wierd, unlike every other virtualized system I've played with, this one actually needs two 3270 clients to start it), and I've managed to write some COBOL, but I gave up when my JCL wouldn't compile the code, I was used to easy ways to compile and version control using proprietary software like Serena Changeman, so starting from scratch was too tedious for my purpose (of just having fun with computer stuff).

sillywalk 4y ago
Did your employer(s) spring for your training, and did you have access to a mainframe?
- rpigab 4y ago
  There wasn't anything particularly difficult to learn for the purpose of just maintaining and adding simple code that is required to keep up with banking regulations in France, so yes my employer gave me some documents and left me to train alone for 1-2 weeks, learned everything I mentioned, and also the coding process and specificities required by the client (code standards, like GOTOs were of course forbidden, you had to give proper names to variables, reuse existing SQL statements and extend them if needed), as well as how to document the tests and deploy to staging, production etc. And technically the access we had to the mainframe was the 3270 sessions we used to code, launched on a modern PC connected to a secure VPN connection to the mainframe. Using F7-F8 to scroll code was awful, and having only a single screen to switch back and forth when debugging CICS was awful but doable. I wish we could have had access to modern ways of coding COBOL with real IDEs with syntax highlighting done locally, and then transmitted to the MF when you save. Never tried that, and I guess I'll never need to anymore.

by rpigab 4y ago

sillywalk 4y ago

Did your employer(s) spring for your training, and did you have access to a mainframe?

rpigab 4y ago
There wasn't anything particularly difficult to learn for the purpose of just maintaining and adding simple code that is required to keep up with banking regulations in France, so yes my employer gave me some documents and left me to train alone for 1-2 weeks, learned everything I mentioned, and also the coding process and specificities required by the client (code standards, like GOTOs were of course forbidden, you had to give proper names to variables, reuse existing SQL statements and extend them if needed), as well as how to document the tests and deploy to staging, production etc. And technically the access we had to the mainframe was the 3270 sessions we used to code, launched on a modern PC connected to a secure VPN connection to the mainframe. Using F7-F8 to scroll code was awful, and having only a single screen to switch back and forth when debugging CICS was awful but doable. I wish we could have had access to modern ways of coding COBOL with real IDEs with syntax highlighting done locally, and then transmitted to the MF when you save. Never tried that, and I guess I'll never need to anymore.