RE: WDSC vs SEU RE: Saving the System i: Fight Rather Than Switch -- MIDRANGE-L

I think we all have tales of woe like that, I was once sat chatting to an 
operator and while we were talking I watched her type in pwrdwnsys *immed and 
before I could say anything she pressed Enter. "What have you just done?" I 
said, totally shocked, "what?" she said, looking surprised "You have just 
powered down the system!!!" "What! Don't be daft why would I do that?" Rinnnng 
Riiiiinnnnnnng!!! She wasn't fired either. We all make mistakes, tho putting a 
job in QCTL to bypass a job queue does take the biscuit.

Steve



-----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
Van: midrange-l-bounces+agnictsr=aeroground.nl@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces+agnictsr=aeroground.nl@xxxxxxxxxxxx]Namens
Steve Landess
Verzonden: maandag 18 december 2006 19:03
Aan: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Onderwerp: Re: WDSC vs SEU RE: Saving the System i: Fight Rather Than
Switch


(true story...)

How about a contract programmer that was compiling JDE program P4211 (Sales 
Order Entry ~ 30,000 lines of code) on a production D60 with 300 interactive 
users that were mostly telemarketers...

The compile normally took around 30 minutes.
The job was sitting in the jobq, he changed it to QCTL instead...and then 
the Sh*t hit the fan....

It pretty much locked up the system...the operator couldn't even sign on to 
the console to cancel the job...he finally ended up doing a forced power 
down...It took hours to bring the system back up...and they didn't fire the 
contractor...instead, he later got extended...

- sjl

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <pnelson@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Midrange Systems Technical Discussion" <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, December 18, 2006 10:29 AM
Subject: Re: WDSC vs SEU RE: Saving the System i: Fight Rather Than Switch

  This is a management problem if they can't goose up the server to handle
  the increased workload. A program compiling in batch in a separate
  subsystem is not going to cause a lost order. An interactive compile is
  another story. Can we spell "termination for cause"?
  -- 

  Paul Nelson
  Arbor Solutions, Inc.
  708-670-6978  Cell
  pnelson@xxxxxxxxxx
  -----midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote: -----

    To: "Midrange Systems Technical Discussion" <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
    From: "Trevor Perry" <tperry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
    Sent by: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
    Date: 12/18/2006 11:24AM
    Subject: Re: WDSC vs SEU RE: Saving the System i: Fight Rather Than
    Switch

    Steve,

    Within the last 12 months, I had a customer whose System i was 
seriously
    underperforming. The fault was that their business had grown faster 
than
    their server growth, and the disk arms were being overused. Their
    applications were all slow - accounts receivable and payable were
    delayed.
    In one case, payroll was looking to be impacted. And order processing
    was
    very slow. All through this time, programmers were still compiling, 
and
    thus, impacting the business. This was a real situation, and while the
    phone
    order entry was slow, it meant that the people waiting to order were 
not
    being serviced in a timely manner. They lost orders.

    Wouldn't it be ironic if some of those orders were lost because a
    programmer
    was compiling to check spelling mistakes?

    Trevor

    ----- Original Message -----
    From: "Raby, Steve" <agnictsr@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
    To: "Midrange Systems Technical Discussion rivendell.midrange.com"
    <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
    Sent: Monday, December 18, 2006 10:12 AM
    Subject: RE: WDSC vs SEU RE: Saving the System i: Fight Rather Than
    Switch

    > Trevor
    >
    > Sorry that is not what is said in that statement, plus impacted the
    > business is not the same losing orders, nor is a job running a 
second
    or
    > two behind its normal finishing time going to impact a business in a
    > detrimental way in any measurable form to my mind.
    >
    > You use the word discipline a lot, I do not think it means what you
    think
    > it means, what you really are saying is your idea of programming
    practices
    > may not be the same as other programmers, which is not the same as,
    nor is
    > using different practices equal to, sloppier programming. We all 
have
    our
    > own way of doing our job, that does not mean we should be put down 
for
    it.
    >
    > Steve
    >
    >
    >
    > -----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
    > Van: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
    > [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx]Namens Trevor Perry
    > Verzonden: maandag 18 december 2006 17:01
    > Aan: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
    > Onderwerp: Re: WDSC vs SEU RE: Saving the System i: Fight Rather 
Than
    > Switch
    >
    >
    > Steve,
    >
    > If you have ever heard a developer complain because their compile 
was
    too
    > slow, and then do something about it - like move it to another job
    queue,
    > or
    > change its run priority, or (mistakenly) its timeslice, then IT has
    just
    > impacted the business. When users complain about the server being
    slow,
    > and
    > programmers are placing a priority on their work higher than the
    users,
    > then
    > IT has just impacted the business.
    >
    > Sure, it happens less now we have more CPW. Good programming
    discipline
    > should (IMHO) ~not~ be about "more power = sloppier programming". 
Yet
    it
    > does.
    >
    > Trevor
    >
    >
    >
    > ----- Original Message -----
    > From: "Raby, Steve" <agnictsr@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
    > To: "Midrange Systems Technical Discussion rivendell.midrange.com"
    > <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
    > Sent: Monday, December 18, 2006 8:05 AM
    > Subject: WDSC vs SEU RE: Saving the System i: Fight Rather Than 
Switch
    >
    >
    >>I am a newbie to WDSC and I am trying to use it exclusively, however
    there
    >>are things I find SEU better for, (cut and paste blocks of code for
    >>example), but maybe that is due to the version we have and the fact 
I
    >>don't
    >>know b**ger all yet. :-)
    >>
    >> One thing that is annoying is that we are on 5.1.0. and the 
&*%^*&(^
    >> thing
    >> keeps falling over, and being a newbie I have yet to get into the
    habit
    >> of
    >> periodically saving my changes, (is there a way to automate this?) 
so
    I
    >> have to keep re-doing hours of work. I am just getting back into
    using it
    >> after two weeks of exclusive SEU, because the thing fell over four
    times
    >> in one morning.
    >>
    >> We are on version 5.2 on the iSeries will the latest version of 
WDSC
    work
    >> on that? As we are losing the iSeries they are not bothered, it
    seems,
    >> about upgrading it to 5.4
    >>
    >> this comment bugged me a little...
    >>
    >> <One of the things that WDSc does is to take most of the 
development
    >> <enviroment OFF the System i. Unless we have a development server,
    >> chewing
    >> <cycles for additional compiles because of undisciplined 
programming
    >> <techniques can impact the business bottom line. WDSc can help 
that -
    by
    >> <using the PC as a development tool. What if an order is not taken,
    >> because
    >> <the CPU cycles are re-compiling because you forgot something in 
your
    >> first
    >> <or second or third or.... pass? Why not code with more discipline,
    and
    >> get
    >> <it right earlier?
    >>
    >> In 25 years of coding in RPG I have never heard of a company losing
    >> business because a programmer was compiling. Correct me if I am
    wrong,
    >> but
    >> isn't that what the time slice is for? So EVERYTHING gets an equal
    bite
    >> at
    >> the cherry? And as for doing a walkthrough to ensure no errors 
before
    >> compilation are you saying that there were no bugs before we got
    >> interactive programming instead of batch? As an operator on an ICL
    1903
    >> we
    >> watched the same jobs come in every night for months before the
    programs
    >> were finally put live. Forgive me if I am wrong but the implication
    is
    >> that if you don't spend hours walking thru your code, (which could 
be
    >> done
    >> in minutes with the compiler) then you are not a good programmer.
    >>
    >> Just my thoughts
    >>
    >> Steve
    >>
    >>
    >>
    >> --
    >> This is the Midrange Systems Technical Discussion (MIDRANGE-L)
    mailing
    >> list
    >> To post a message email: MIDRANGE-L@xxxxxxxxxxxx
    >> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options,
    >> visit: http://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/midrange-l
    >> or email: MIDRANGE-L-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx
    >> Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives
    >> at http://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l.
    >>
    >
    > --
    > This is the Midrange Systems Technical Discussion (MIDRANGE-L) 
mailing
    > list
    > To post a message email: MIDRANGE-L@xxxxxxxxxxxx
    > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options,
    > visit: http://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/midrange-l
    > or email: MIDRANGE-L-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx
    > Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives
    > at http://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l.
    >
    >
    > --
    > This is the Midrange Systems Technical Discussion (MIDRANGE-L) 
mailing
    > list
    > To post a message email: MIDRANGE-L@xxxxxxxxxxxx
    > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options,
    > visit: http://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/midrange-l
    > or email: MIDRANGE-L-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx
    > Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives
    > at http://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l.
    >

    --
    This is the Midrange Systems Technical Discussion (MIDRANGE-L) mailing
    list
    To post a message email: MIDRANGE-L@xxxxxxxxxxxx
    To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options,
    visit: http://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/midrange-l
    or email: MIDRANGE-L-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx
    Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives
    at http://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l.
-- 
This is the Midrange Systems Technical Discussion (MIDRANGE-L) mailing 
list
To post a message email: MIDRANGE-L@xxxxxxxxxxxx
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options,
visit: http://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/midrange-l
or email: MIDRANGE-L-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives
at http://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l.