Joined: 26 Nov 2002 Posts: 12370 Topics: 75 Location: San Jose
Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2003 4:16 pm Post subject:
Jaidev,
Well not ALL computer Engineers hate to work in mainframe technology. People like me love working on mainframe technologies. Pre Y2K days everything in the mainframe world revolved around converting the 2 digit year to 4 digit year. This is boring/monotonous work and most people hated doing it. At the same time the dotcom business was booming and every fresh graduate wanted work on the latest technologies like Java and other web based technologies just to look cool. Also people wrote-off the mainframes as there would be no company willing to develop new applications using Cobol.
Time has proved them wrong and you know where the dotcom business right now. The new versions of Cobol offer many features such XML parsing and wide variety of other functions. Databases like DB2 and IMS now support Java.
The other reason people hate to work on mainframes is that it is not simple and you just don't get the results with a click of the mouse.
If you are a mainframe programmer, don't limit yourself to that technology. Keep updating your skills to latest technologies in your spare-time.
From my experience I can say you can work on any technology once you have worked on mainframes, but the same does not hold good for someone who worked on Java or any other web based technologies.
I started in PC's, then did some work on a VAX-111, then moved up to an OS/MVS mainframe. All the while, I was working on PC's on my own.
To make a long story short, my professional experience was mostly mainframe until the early 90's, then I started working on the 'new stuff', liek GUI front end's to the mainframe systems I was supporting. Then I made the jump into Client/Server, which I thought was the greatest move I'd ever made, I thought that I had left behind the old-fashioned mainframe and moved in to the 21st century.
Well now I'm back on the mainframe and feeling lucky. The problem with the stuff in the PC world is that it isn't shaken out yet. The mainframe stuff has been around and it has a proven infrastructure. With the Client/Server world, you don't own any of the pieces except your application. Anybody in the organization can change the DLL's and all of a sudden, your app quits working. Or worse yet, your single app has to work on dozens of combinations of platforms.
The browser-based stuff helps with that problem, but the server architecture to support the different approaches is still undergoing the same growing pains. Eventually, there will be a standard, but until then, it's going to be a free-for-all.
I still do a lot of Windows and Unix programming, just to keep current, but I hope I'll never have to plan my future around the releases of the operating systems.
Joined: 05 Jan 2003 Posts: 7 Topics: 4 Location: India
Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2003 11:33 pm Post subject:
thanx guys, for you enlightnig inspiration . And even I am intrested on working in Client-Server platform, but would not like to be away from Mainframes for Long
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Pre Y2K days everything in the mainframe world revolved around converting the 2 digit year to 4 digit year. This is boring/monotonous work and most people hated doing it. At the same time the dotcom business was booming and every fresh graduate wanted work on the latest technologies like Java and other web based technologies just to look cool. Also people wrote-off the mainframes as there would be no company willing to develop new applications using Cobol.
. And even I am intrested on working in Client-Server platform, but would not like to be away from Mainframes for Long