Re: Also Leaving MidRange Equipment

Hey Joe...

(always liked that song... Moe Bandy and Joe Stantly sang it anyhow...)

Mr. Pluta;

I understand your point, but....

>Exactly how many of the RPG programmers
>you know learned it in school?  How many took
>CPF101?  Damned few of my acquaintances
>took any IBM midrange classes in school.

I wanted to go on record and say that I am one of the few.  I learned RPG,
BASIC and COBOL on a S/34 while attending a little junior college in Miles
City, Montana on a rodeo scholarship.   Although, FORTRAN and PASCAL were
ran on an APPLE II+.   After landing my first IT job, I had to learn
(basically self taught, until a seminar opened up months later) Lotus 123
and DBase III.

Eurrat Saylor, Jr.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Joe Pluta" <joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "'Midrange Systems Technical Discussion'" <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, February 04, 2005 9:42 PM
Subject: RE: Also Leaving MidRange Equipment


> > From: Don
> >
> > Steve,
> >
> > won't happen.  This is part of a heavy trend away from the 400...and
> to
> > SQL Server/.net and unix/oracle...
> >
> > Sucks...but that's all they're being taught in school nowadays...
>
> Don, you need some fiber in your diet, or something.  Exactly how many
> of the RPG programmers you know learned it in school?  How many took
> CPF101?  Damned few of my acquaintances took any IBM midrange classes in
> school.  School has always been about one of two things: real
> programming (a/k/a machine and assembly language, Boolean logic and
> database design) or the fad of the day, be it C, Pascal, or Java.
>
> There will always be people who make Excel spreadsheets and VB
> inquiries.  And there will be those that call this programming.  These
> are the people who can't quite fathom what a subfile does, and get lost
> in the land of file locking.  They may be able to spout the Benefits of
> OO, they may have half a dozen MS Certifications, but that doesn't mean
> they can code an order entry program.  You see them on the lists even
> today asking iSeries 101 questions.
>
> And there will always be body shops that hire these people and then rent
> them out at inflated prices while babbling whatever the mantra of the
> week is ("Everything must be platform independent!", "All database
> access should be SQL!", "Java is faster than RPG!", "Elvis is still
> alive!").
>
> And there will always be shops that hire these companies, give them
> tasks far more complicated than anything they've ever done, and then
> blame the consultants for the failure of the project.  These are
> typically IT managers who have gotten to their place via the Peter
> Principle and who really are unequipped to be able to actually make
> technical decisions, and so they can blame the consultants, who in turn
> blame the industry or IBM or cosmic rays.  And these companies will move
> to Windows and Oracle for no good reason except their consultants told
> them so.
>
> But so too will there always be shops with technical managers who have
> the balls to stand their ground, and CEOs and CFOs who have the brains
> to trust their staff over some yahoo from Microsoft or Bill and Ted's
> Excellent Outsourcing, and those shops will do just fine on their IBM
> midrange server, thank you.  And the funny thing is that if you wanted
> to bet on a firm staying in business (and thus providing a consulting
> firm with steady income), I'd be a lot more likely to bet on the company
> with the iSeries.
>
> Whew.  Okay, glad I got that off my chest.
>
> Joe
>
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