Very nice thank you! What even IT professionals do not realize is that the bulk of business logic is still running on Mainframe apps. To re-write them would be a crazy proposition. Which is why, anyone with interest in the domain would, until AGI arrives fully-fledged, have a job. Leveraging existing logic makes total sense, and your suggestion of AI in the middle peaked my interest.
I see it a bit differently. Many years ago we planned (as far as possible) to split the "Cobol" business logic of the base system into 2 types - data editing & database updating. We then planned to move as much as possible of the data editing to the input PCs with an application much smarter than a 3270, and as much as possible of the database updating into DB2 stored procedures, projecting (hoping) that finally the CICS region would finally add nothing, and could be removed. I left the project 15 years ago (retired) so don't know how close they got.
I retired in 2004 after 35 years of programming, most of which involved COBOL business applications. The day I retired in 2004, I assumed programming would become obsolete in a few more years. I thought businesses would migrate to all customizable GENERIC business software for all business applications. I was wrong.
I keep trying to figure out how to learn COBOL with some assistance rather than just on my own and how I could get some sort of interaction with a mainframe or virtual machine or something rather than just reading and not being able to test. I've contacted the IBM learning center a couple of times and got no responses via email and I have a few of us that would like to study together. What do you suggest is the best path forward I can't find anywhere where I can learn mainframes with a teacher full CICS COBOL and so on with a testing environment. I did contact Murach's publishing and they're going to look for a college that is still teaching COBOL with resources but any help you could offer would be appreciated.
Every time i hear COBOL mentioned I like to look up Grace Hopper. I love sharing a birthday with such an influential person and hope i can be even a fraction as awesome as she was 🦾🥳
Very nice thank you! What even IT professionals do not realize is that the bulk of business logic is still running on Mainframe apps. To re-write them would be a crazy proposition. Which is why, anyone with interest in the domain would, until AGI arrives fully-fledged, have a job. Leveraging existing logic makes total sense, and your suggestion of AI in the middle peaked my interest.
I see it a bit differently. Many years ago we planned (as far as possible) to split the "Cobol" business logic of the base system into 2 types - data editing & database updating. We then planned to move as much as possible of the data editing to the input PCs with an application much smarter than a 3270, and as much as possible of the database updating into DB2 stored procedures, projecting (hoping) that finally the CICS region would finally add nothing, and could be removed. I left the project 15 years ago (retired) so don't know how close they got.
A lot of us old guys with 20 and 30 years of Mainframe experience are trying to get back into the field as consultants but nobody wants us😢
I retired in 2004 after 35 years of programming, most of which involved COBOL business applications. The day I retired in 2004, I assumed programming would become obsolete in a few more years. I thought businesses would migrate to all customizable GENERIC business software for all business applications. I was wrong.
I keep trying to figure out how to learn COBOL with some assistance rather than just on my own and how I could get some sort of interaction with a mainframe or virtual machine or something rather than just reading and not being able to test.
I've contacted the IBM learning center a couple of times and got no responses via email and I have a few of us that would like to study together. What do you suggest is the best path forward I can't find anywhere where I can learn mainframes with a teacher full CICS COBOL and so on with a testing environment.
I did contact Murach's publishing and they're going to look for a college that is still teaching COBOL with resources but any help you could offer would be appreciated.
Every time i hear COBOL mentioned I like to look up Grace Hopper. I love sharing a birthday with such an influential person and hope i can be even a fraction as awesome as she was
🦾🥳