Re: Group job question.. -- MIDRANGE-L

Trev,

  In today's 'Pay for Play' interactive feature world the biggest problem I
find with multiple sessions is the ability for a user to run an interactive
Query (or other batch type task) on one session and then run off and do
other tasks on another session. This way a single users can monopolize the
interactive resource of the system. With group jobs they can't because only
one of them gets the focus of OS/400. Well designed group jobs can also
utilize the *GDA to pass information around and I have done this with great
success. OTOH group jobs can be a tad difficult to handle in WRKACTJOB if
you haven't been introduced to F14 and resolving record locks in poorly
written software can be a challenge.

  Having said the above however, I don't see anyone creating new group jobs
nor do I use them myself any longer. Anyone who has seen the task bar on my
laptop will attest to the fact that if there aren't at least 20 items active
then I must have rebooted within the hour. When working on OS/400,
Operations navigator plus 4 sessions is a good start!

  While I personally detest the lack of stability in Windoze I use very many
of them for the very reasons you describe.  I was only dragged kicking and
screaming from OS/2 because ops nav didn't run there and likely when it runs
in Linux I'll be there!

  I shake my head when I see users with GHz PCs, 100s of megs of RAM, dozens
of Gigs of disk, equipped with huge displays, running exactly one thing at a
time, closing each task to start another. THAT I could do in CPM. With 16K.
On an 8080. In 1980. But I date myself.....

   - Larry

trevor perry wrote:


> I understand that one job is active, the others suspended. The question was
> more in regard to having 15 suspended and 1 active job vs. 16 active jobs.
> If only one PC window has focus, then the other 15 are not necessarily in
> use by the user. I think Vernon answered most of my questions in his reply.
>
> As for the number of windows, 16 was just a maximum limit for reference. I
> do think many windows becoming "screen clutter" may be a personal
> preference. Isn't the point of the operating system being named "windows"
> because you CAN use multiple windows at the same time? I find most green
> screen users/developers tend to maximize their emulator window (out of
> habit) and task-switch inside that emulator (group jobs, secondary job,
> etc..) instead of using the power of having many windows open for the
> separate tasks they are performing. It seems to me that being able to access
> extra tasks without interrupting the current open tasks would mean efficient
> task management?
>
> Trevor


--
Larry Bolhuis           | IBM Certified Solutions Expert
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