Yep, I started in ‘81, with the same two Deltac courses. They took me from trainee to retired in 40+ years. Not perfect but a great company.
Sent from [Proton Mail](https://proton.me/mail/home) for iOS On Sat, Mar 16, 2024 at 4:44 PM, Bob Bridges <[00000587168ababf-dmarc-requ...@listserv.ua.edu](mailto:On Sat, Mar 16, 2024 at 4:44 PM, Bob Bridges <<a href=)> wrote: > No place is all bad. The same company started me, upon hiring, on several > days of Deltak courses, one on JCL and one on COBOL. It is to them that I owe > a lifelong familiarity with JCL. I wonder sometimes how mainframers get on > without it. > > (Well, "lifelong": It was 1980, so I was probably 26.) > > --- > Bob Bridges, robhbrid...@gmail.com, cell 336 382-7313 > > /* A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad > measures. -Daniel Webster */ > > -----Original Message----- > From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU> On Behalf Of > Seymour J Metz > Sent: Friday, March 15, 2024 15:38 > > That sounds like a hostile working environment. The people doing a code > review should know the language and the local standards; nit sounds like they > knew neither. > > ________________________________________ > From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU> on behalf of > Bob Bridges <00000587168ababf-dmarc-requ...@listserv.ua.edu> > Sent: Friday, March 15, 2024 12:37 PM > > ....I once worked at a company that instituted code reviews; a new program > would be gone over by a half-dozen coworkers to be sure it adhered to local > standards. This sort of thing is always painful to the coder, and > nevertheless (I admit reluctantly) can have considerable value if done right. > One problem I had with it, though, is that the standards we created for > ourselves admitted that there are times when exceptions should be made for > special cases, and yet when those cases arose no exceptions were ever > allowed; the team invariably flinched, leaned back in their seats and said > "no, that's not according to our standards". > > One particular example always rankled: Whenever someone felt the need to use > a STRING or UNSTRING command (I should have said we were COBOL developers), > the team always struck it down on the grounds that STRING and UNSTRING are > unusual commands and some COBOL coders would be unfamiliar with it. My > contention here is that that's absolutely true, and it's the job of the COBOL > coder to ~learn~ the STRING and UNSTRING statements, as tools of his > profession. I never persuaded anyone to that view, though. > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
