RE: Alternate Platform for COBOL

["Joe Pluta" <joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> From: Kelly Cookson
>
> IBM has made no secret about its desire to merge the
> AS/400 and RS/6000 into a single platform.  I doubt
> the new platform will be running OS/400.  I expect the
> new platform will run *nix.  I would hate to lose all
> our COBOL/400 resources because of a switch to *nix.

And what do you think will happen to the hundreds of millions millions of
lines of RPG out there?  Do you think IBM will dump them and their users?


> And, as a junior programmer, the decision to switch
> from the AS/400 to another platform isn't mine to
> make. What if my managers decide to migrate away from
> the AS/400?  I would sure like my COBOL/400 skills to
> migrate right along with them.

This is a more realistic answer.  You want YOUR skills to be as easily
transferable as possible.  This has nothing to do with the platform or the
end users.  The logical extension of this argument is to drop COBOL
altogether, and learn Java and SQL.  Thus the constant harping by body shops
that everything must be "platform independent".  This isn't for the end
user's benefit; it's for the body shop.

Me, I'll continue to recommend that my clients stick with the proven
capabilities of the IBM midrange platform.  Over the decades, it has
continued to evolve from the early days of the System/3 with CCP, and I see
no reason for that to end.  The news of the death of OS/400 (or its
successor) is a bit premature.

Joe