Re: Fun Stuff -- MIDRANGE-L

Curiosity and access to an IBM i helps. I left 20 years of consulting on midrange systems for a "real" job 12 years ago. I work for an organization that is completely cloud-based, nothing on IBM i. Yet I am on IBM i every day because I bought an i and just love to try to implement things on IBM i that I have developed on other platforms. The IBM i system capabilities are vast so you are only limited by your imagination. And if you are still engaged in tech, then new stuff comes up every day that you can learn and experiment with and do it on IBM i.

I am well past 65, still employed, still have a LONG list of ideas I want to try out on my IBM i. There is no "throwing away" of code. Get yourself a GitHub account and post whatever you come up with there. You never know who might trip across something you have done and find it useful or intriguing. Mostly, have fun, keep learning and never "retire"... :-)

Pete Helgren
www.petesworkshop.com
GIAC Cloud Penetration Tester
AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals
CISSP - MSCM

On 1/21/2025 8:26 AM, smith5646midrange@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

I'm going to follow that thought up with a serious question.

I am a consultant and most of us understands that means there is very little
training budget and we are at the mercy of our clients and their projects.
The companies that I work for don't really want "new" stuff or if they do,
it is not usually done on their IBM i.

I am not the kind of developer that can learn by reading because of a slight
comprehension disability (now days they probably call it ADD because my mind
wanders while reading). If I have an example, then can mess with it and
learn how to make it do what I want it to do...assuming I want it to do
something. I have always been new (to me) technology driven. I've taught
myself several other languages (I even tried playing with MI but got nowhere
useful). However, I'm also almost 65 and contemplating retirement so that
makes the drive to learn a little less driving.

So here is the question. How does one learn stuff (given the above
statements) when there are no projects to work on that will use the new
technology? I have looked for small projects to dive into but it is
difficult to spend hours on something that you know nobody will ever use.
Yes, I am somewhat learning a new technology but it also seems like I'm
wasting my time on throw away code.

Any thoughts?

-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L <midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of
(WalzCraft) Jerry Forss
Sent: Tuesday, January 21, 2025 7:36 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Fun Stuff

This is not a question. Just an observation.

I have been doing development for MANY years and sometimes the days can just
be a grind. SSDD. (Same S...tuff Different Day)

Every once in a while you get to work on something new and challenging.

Over the past few years my new thing has been Web Services. Fun Stuff!

I have gotten to the point of being able to write a COMPLETE shipping
package from scratch using Web Services to our carriers, getting rates and
Printing their labels, saving us significant $$$.

Now the NEW thing.
Creating an IWS on the IBMi. This is really fun stuff!!!
I have so much to learn but things fall into place quickly.

We are highly integrated between the IBMi and the network.
In the past the network devo would access data directly. VERY SLOW!!

Then I wrote Stored Procedures that they call and I return what they need.
Much Faster.

Now I created an IWS because of a new project where Stored Procedure are not
the best option.
With Scott's doc on Providing RPG Web Services and some help from Marco
Facchinetti, the setup is a breeze.

The mind just explodes with opportunities!!!

My point is, when development just seems to plod along, and days turn to
SSDD, do some reading about something you heard about.
And maybe your days can be filled the excitement of learning we felt at the
beginning of our careers.

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