Hey Jake - let me try to explain some different ways Zowe is intended to help a system programmer. "Is it going to act like a GUI to perform all the system related activities?" - short answer is yes over time but don't think of just GUI as the way to interact with z/OS.
The web user interface is intended to be a new platform for better visualization of z/OS resources. You likely use web technology for interacting with so many other systems in your life - email, bank, cloud, etc. - why not use same technology for z/OS? Browser skills are pervasive - they don't require additional software installed on your laptop/desktop. Web provides better use of graphics, more "right click" capabilities, and more end to end views can be written with fast path to system details. Over the years z/OS based products have generally been built as silos or swim lanes of expertise and not enough cross product sharing of data. One aspect of the web UI is "app to app" communication in the web meaning one app can invoke another, feed data to another to provide new ways of linking applications. System programmer productivity is another aspect. For example using the new Zowe command line. There are many different use cases here for a power user that wants to quickly edit a data set, submit a job, etc. You may have your favorite editor on your laptop for editing files and you don't like having to switch to ISPF to edit something on z/OS......via the Zowe command line you can stay in the laptop context and Zowe will fetch a data set behind the scene, allow it to be edited by your favorite editor and save back to z/OS transparently. The "real" power of the command line is being able to script commands to perform a set of actions on z/OS - using the script language of your choice. A common use case for script is Devops pipelines where z/OS can participate like any other platform in your environment. There are many other aspects that I won't ramble on about but just mention - increase the use of today's z/OS REST APIs, extend those APIs in new ways, encourage z/OS product teams to provide APIs as the way to interact with their, provide a catalog of the z/OS APIs, make z/OS resources more discoverable, ..... Part of the reason for Zowe being open source is to pool the skills of system programmers across the industry and share both the pain points for z/OS administration and operation plus find ways to address the issues by sharing expertise, code and experience. If someone uses the command line to script a common task on z/OS we what to have that contributed for others to use. If someone has written web app that links two products together in an innovative way we hope they will contribute to the Zowe code base. We hope to have a Zowe "app store" in 2019 with the help of the Open Mainframe Project for sharing of code much like the smart phones have today - yes there are issues to be worked out on knowing the apps are safe and trusted but the point is Zowe is not just technology - it is the community to cause innovation. Sorry for long post .......hope this helps Bruce Armstrong IBM System Z Offering Manager- zowe.org 4205 S MIAMI BLVD, DURHAM NC 27703-9141 Email: armst...@us.ibm.com Tel: 919-254-8773 Cell: 919-931-3132 From: Jake Anderson <justmainfra...@gmail.com> To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Date: 08/24/2018 03:17 AM Subject: Zowe for systems programmer ? Sent by: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU> Hi Group I have got a novice questions about zowe. I am still trying to understand how zowe is going to help the system programmer and does anyone have any idea or any insight. Is it going to act like a GUI to perform all the system related activities ? Jake ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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
