RE: Lower End AS/400s -- MIDRANGE-L

Easy killer, I was just saying that nothing is perfect.  I like OS/400 too.

jch

-----Original Message-----
From: Joe Pluta [mailto:joepluta@PlutaBrothers.com]
Sent: Friday, December 13, 2002 10:19 AM
To: midrange-l@midrange.com
Subject: RE: Lower End AS/400s


> From: Justin Haase
>
> Now now... I can think of plenty of times I've had an ODBC
> connection run my
> dasd up 100+ Gb (Unprotect storage) when it crapped out and went in to a
> loop.

This is a programmer problem, not an OS problem.  This can only happen when
you allow unfettered access to your machine.  ODBC is a bad answer to many
questions, precisely because it does things like this.

You could create a client/server interface that would do this without ever
having a possibility of a disk use crash.  However, nobody does it.  Why?
Because it takes work.  ODBC is "free".  Of course, it's only free until it
costs you a half a day in downtime.

But in any event, it's not the OS, it's a programming problem.  Programming
problems such as loops because you didn't check for end of file or dumps
because you didn't test user input are not OS problems.  They are coding
problems attributable to the programmer.  And any ODBC problem is directly
attributable to the person who decided to allow that ODBC access.

Don't blame the operating system when you let the lunatics run the asylum.


> I've seen a developer take down a box three times in a day because running
> debug blew up the machine.

Never saw this in over 20 years on the platform.  Takes a true expert to
crash the machine, bring it back up, do the same thing, crash the machine
again, bring it back up, AND THEN DO THE SAME THING AGAIN.

At a certain point it moves from OS problem to aggressive stupidity on the
part of the developer.


> No OS is perfect.  If it was, there would be no such thing as PTFs.

No operating system comes close to OS/400 for uptime, stability and
backwards compatibility.  None.  Anywhere on the planet.

Try running a Windows program you wrote 20 years ago on a current machine.
Oh yeah, there was no Windows 20 years ago.  Okay, try running one from 10
years ago.  Heck, try running one from three years ago and see how well it
works.


> OS/400 is good.  Compared to Windows as an enterprise server OS
> it blows its
> doors off, but don't get too confident.

Comparing Windows to OS/400 is like comparing a go-cart made from scrap
lumber and shopping cart wheels to a BMW.

Joe

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