----------------------<snip>-------------------
.....Is z/OS at any price a preferred instructional platform? How
relevant to mainstream computer science is teaching students to code DD
statements for CKD DASD when the view of many sophisticated readers of
this list is that CKD should be superseded by FBA?
-------------------<unsnip>------------------
While many readers agree that FBA should replace CKD in the DASD arena,
I don't happen to be one of them. Further discussion deferred on this
point. :-) But there's no reason that z/OS can't be a viable
instructional platform for a computer science curiculum. After all, how
much of "Computer Science" should be platform-dependant? Given the
presence of SDB and SMS. most of the JCL requirements might be taught in
a single course, or perhaps merged into the basic LINUX or UNIX course.
In my mind, data structures and the advantages and drawbacks of each
type, for example, can be learned on any platform.
--------------------<snip>-----------------
Twenty years ago, I got a Macintosh SE, in large part so my girlfriend
could write her doctoral dissertation in music. Would I have taken an
s/370 (XA?) at the time for personal use?. Not if it were free; not if
it were in a package I could carry. How many of us today, given a z/OS
system that weighed 5 pounds and cost $1000 would make that our only
computer and OS? Wouldn't we each still need another computer, or at
least a partition on the same one, for Email, Web browsing, document
preparation, access to IBMLink, etc.?
------------------<unsnip>-------------------
I agree that a single-platform outlook can be very foolish, given the
various strengths and weeknesses, and the facilities of each platform.
-----------------------<snip>-------------------
If IBM can't make z/OS the only OS people need, and the first choice
for many, too many customers will find it expedient to seek to use the
computer and OS they already need and own to host the additional
applications they come to need. Is it even plausible that enterprises
seeking to simplify their IT structures by reducing the number of OSes
they support would consider eliminating Windows, Linux, OS X, or Solaris
and moving all its applications to z/OS?
----------------------<unsnip>------------------
Business requirements MUST be the final arbiter of platform choice, as
always. The dog must wag the tail, not vice-versa. And I think that very
few businesses are willing to undertake the expense of re-designing
legacy applications just to make a platform change, especially if those
applications are part of the core business processing.
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