[rescue] Divide and conquer

[vance at neurotica.com]

On Thu, 24 Jul 2003, Lionel Peterson wrote:

> > He mentions that people felt that coding IBM mainframes was like
> > kicking a dead whale down the beach.  *I* certainly don't feel that
> > way.  I find it to be liberating to code a system so capable.
>
> I wonder if he is reporting first-hand impressions, or what others say.

Good question.

> Folks who program mainframes in "classic" mainframe languages (COBOL),

I do PL/I and JCL and DB2 and others.  I think those would be considered
"classic".

> using "classic" mainframe I/O (CICS) and use "classic" databases (IMS or

But... but... CICS is *cool*!

> VSAM, if you'll consider VSAM a database?) simply work differently from

I don't know if I consider VSAM a database.  The case could be made,
though.

> Visual Basic, Windows GUI and Access database programs - and for lots of
> good reasons. The pain in mainframe programming is in comparison to
> other platforms, IMHO. (VB is a great demo system and good for knocking
> out pretty GUIs, but comapred to a mainframe environment, well, let's
> just say its apples and oranges.)

It's like comparing a Miata to a Tour Bus, I think.

Peace...  Sridhar