Re: New Mainframe Blog Site -- mainframeblogger.com

In article <d34c3b25-9d11-4b3f-80d6-e849d8920efc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
<spam.trap.4646@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Apr 26, 3:08 pm, "Pete Dashwood"
<dashw...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"Clark F Morris" <cfmpub...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
messagenews:7qj614pm61h4btt05omi0q54trl8utuoim@xxxxxxxxxx



On Sun, 27 Apr 2008 00:47:49 +1200, "Pete Dashwood"
<dashw...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

<docdw...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:fuuk0d$1cc$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In article <67fijqF2olng...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Pete Dashwood <dashw...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

<docdw...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:futr0t$dc1$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In article <67f6qhF2ohsg...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Pete Dashwood <dashw...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

"gapsted" <dsu...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:ec00223e-3204-495f-9b15-166a5aef9857@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[snip]

No ads, no sponsorship, just a free place to get mainframers together.
A gathering place for the mainframe community.

[Pete]

So how do I access that with ISPF?

The same way one accesses any gathering place with it, I'd guess.

Ah, yes... Wait til TSO is not busy (yeah, right...), try ISPF, get sick
of
waiting so knock up a quick REXX script to automatically keep trying
until
success. Only, by then forgotten why I was visiting anyway... :-)

I just love the idea of a bunch of mainframers all "gathering" on a
blog...
It's like having a waterhole but they haven't learned to lap yet, and
nobody
brought a cup... :-)

No cup? Not a problem, Mr Dashwood... there'd be a mainframer there who
might know enough about tools to be able to Assemble one.

:-) Fair enough.

Magic, the Gathering...

As someone who MIGHT be getting a mainframe programming contract, I
assume that Pete is being sarcastically tongue in cheek.

Tongue firmly lodged in cheek, yes. :-)

However, sarcasm, when I do it, is "irony"...:-)

Most of us
access the Internet from Windows (like me) or Linux PCs. I keep up
with some non-mainframe blogs and the blog mentioned in the posting
has not gotten good reviews from ibm-m...@xxxxxxxxxxx which is
mirrored to bit.listserv.ibm-main. There are shops running mainframes
as Internet application servers. Some shops are using Websphere.

Yes, indeedy... I see it as a sign of hope :-)

It does no harm to poke some gentle fun at ourselves occasionally,
nonetheless...

This forum is a bit like a time warp sometimes.

I'm currently replacing some COBOL code for reporting, with a package that
generates C#. Programs with mind-numbing report lines with carefully
counted fillers and literals, thousands of lines of COBOL, accessing flat
files, manipulating the data, checking control breaks and totalling,
producing variable headings and sub headings, ensuring page numbers are
updated... weeks of effort. Now, the system has been converted to RDB so the
COBOL code doesn't work any more...

There is a package called Stimulsoft that runs in the DotNet evironment as
an integrated extension to Visual Studio, and generates C# from a visual
layout of the report. Visual Studio analyses the database and generates all
the connection and DB access code you need for your report (including SQL
that you may modify if you want to - so far I haven't needed to...).
Stimulsoft consumes the dataset generated by the code from VS, and the
report is produced ready for printing or export to .PDF, XML, etc. If you
want to do anything clever with the data before it gets to Stimulsoft, you
can bung in a few lines of C#... A 2600 line COBOL program that probably
took at least a week to get working, is replaced by a job that takes a
couple of hours at most (mainly just laying report lines out visually - no
more counting bytes of filler), and required me to actually code less than
20 lines of C#.

To be fair, I spent about 27 hours evaluating and learning what Visual
Studio and the package could do... :-) But that's a one time investment and
gives me another skill I may sell or use sometime...

In this day and age there is no reason why anyone should be poring over
report line formats and worrying about PCL codes, but the posts here attest
that they are...

It's enough to drive a bloke to pick up his cup and head for the gathering
at the water hole...:-)

Pete.
--
"I used to write COBOL...now I can do anything."

P.S. I do not hold programmers responsible for poor management decisions...
You can bet if some of the managers had to write report programs there'd be
a lot more use of packages...:-)

Do COBOL programmers still write report programs in some shops? I
haven't written one in at least 10 years, and I've been working in the
IBM mainframe world all of that time. All of our reports are produced
by QMF, or, if intended for customers, via AFP.


Don Leahy


.

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