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In December of 1973 I began working for a single plant
printing company using a new System/3 model 10. I had 8 years previous DP
experience with S/360-20 and S/3. I wrote most of the S/3 apps myself and
we progressed. A S/3 model 12 followed, 3370 disks (disaster looking for a
place to happen). We never got to interactive but were trying. By
now we had been acquired, consolidated into the managing entity for the Business
Forms Group of a NYSE company. They had mainframes and when we wanted to
upgrade we had to make the trek to corp. and study the matter. We
evaluated Honeywell, Univac, IBM 360 and S/38. Their Gurus knew nothing of
the S/x world and were skeptical of our ability to make it work. The
deciding factor in favor of S/38 was... How many system programmers does it take
to run a S/38 shop? - 0. They had a whole staff of System Programmers to
support their s/360 - 50. Mine was stil a one programmer shop,
working on applications not overhead. We converted the S/3 code I wrote in
1973/74 and following to the S/38 in 1980. It just took a recompile.
It ran and I wouldn't be surprised to find some of it working
today.
We then focused on the task of writing new
applications for our new online system. We never looked back. We got
our first AS/400 in 1990(?) and just kept migrating the code.
The company grew form a small single plant operation to a
large power in the business forms industry. It went through many leveraged
buyouts and still runs much of the same code written for the S/38 (and possibly
the S/3). I have been gone from there a few years and there is some
discussion about how to modernize their systems but they are still running the
bulk of the work for a division of a totally different NYSE
company.
Why do I love the S/38, AS/400, i-Series? ... It
works! and it works! and it works! and It doesn't have to be redone
all over every few years.
Now I am a dinosaur. I still consult on AS/400
projects and am trying very hard to bring myself up to speed on the server,
internet, java aspects of the product. I may even get there before I
die. But I'll probably still be behind the curve as the product just keeps
getting better. (In spite of the lack oh a historian that any IBM powers
will listen to.)
On this note I will end. I could go non about people
who made the S/38, AS/400 great such as Jim Sloan, John Sears, Jon Paris,
Wayne... and countless expert users... but alas... that is another history
lesson. Go to COMMON. Go to CUDS. Put up a sign. HISTORY
Lesson Needed.
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