This is being posted on behalf of a close friend named Tyler. I know he is lurking in close proximity. Tyler was a young naïve boy right out of high school, working as a temporary Computer Operator for a large company (a starting spot that many on the list hold near and dear to their hearts). Over time, he moved up the ranks and transitioned into the Technical Support and Systems Programming departments. All appeared grand to the outsiders eye, but as time went on Tyler began to realize that his talents and abilities were no longer appreciated by his company.
The first indications of things going awry were the condescending attitude and omnipotent stance from the Corporate Sysprogs. Tyler was an up and coming youngster with an endless amount of potential and a knack for learning new tools, methodologies, and tricks in a quick amount of time (probably sounds familiar to many on the list). Many loved his abilities and used his enthusiasm and knowledge to their advantage, while a selected few tried to tear his reputation to bits. The general consensus was that the Sysprogs were territorial and fearful of Tylers ambition. Unfortunately, upper management was reliant upon the wicked and did not support those striving to attain a high level of knowledge. After years of reading IBM-Main on a daily basis, Tyler came to the conclusion that his company situation was a mere microcosm of the industry. Innovation and creativity are on the decline and met with stiff opposition these days. OCO (Object Code Only) is a prime example of squashing innovation. This inhibits the System Programmers ability to see what is happening under the covers and mimic/exploit these facilities in other applications. Nowadays, the Systems Programmer has to make assumptions about what is happening internally and we arent always right (some of us can never admit it, but we are all wrong at least once in a while). Also, over time the Systems Programmers job responsibilities in many shops have been reduced to customization of IBM and 3rd party products, performance monitoring, and fine-tuning Systems and Applications. There are probably Sysprogs out there who dont understand a lick of Assembler, but are still very successful and efficient at their jobs (okay, some of you here may disagree to the definition of efficient. Lets not go over the definition of is a la Mr. Clinton). Gone are the days of creating customized applications, exits, etc. for the benefit of companies. It still exists, but is nowhere near as rampant as in the past. The ever-increasing complexity of the system is a driving force behind the transformation of the Systems Programmer job to more drone-like work, but what it really comes down to is financials. We are all aware of the recent layoffs within IBM (in the States and Europe) and the expansion of outsourcing to India. In order to utilize India to its fullest potential, there had to be extreme standardization. It isnt realistic to have major Systems Programming customization performed halfway around the world with the barriers of locality, time difference, and language. IBM can utilize India to further its grip on the mainframe and standardization. As IBM further outsources to India, their cost goes down and thus sweeter deals are made to companies from IBM to handle their Systems Programming functions. The company saves face in the industry by proclaiming to be outsourcing to IBM, even though they are indirectly outsourcing to India. Both IBM and the companies save money, but there are significant negatives to the above scenario. Once again, innovation and ingenuity is lost and furthermore, America falls even further down on the Technological brain spectrum. So where does this leave Tyler in the big scheme of things? Tyler is a young man (okay, truly a boy) in his mid-20s with a big future in front of him. All the stories of System crashes, rebuilding JESs, or fancy ZAPs from the old days excite him and he wishes he had been around in those days when there wasnt such a clamp on things. Tyler recognizes the need for the clamps (sometimes nooses) these days and complies with them, but that doesnt prevent him from dreaming about living in the days of old. What is the latest excitement in the life of Tyler in the computing world? The non- event that was Y2K! Tyler gets just as much excitement from watching the clock turn to midnight every night. So as Tyler looks down the road, he sees about 40 years (make that 50 as the retirement age will be 75 by then) of drone-work rewarded with being laid off. Yippee and not only that, but the platform may not be around more than half that duration as we seem to fail to see the need for a better user interface. The times have changed and there is a significant need to dumb down (yeah, I said it) the interface. This is entirely why Windows is such a huge success. The interface is appealing and makes things ultra-simple for the user. Most of us here could wing it when signed on to Mainframe TSO for the very first time by using the panel options, but the majority of people cannot. However, many 7 year olds can figure out the Windows GUI interface in about a half-hour after a little experimentation and guidance. Just because our platform is normally relegated to larger corporations processing mostly in batch, does not mean that we need to have a crappy interface that turns people off as soon as they see it. The initial reaction of the majority would be, that sucks like the DOS days, even though you and I probably love DOS more than Windows (hey, we love the command-line interpreter). With the advent of Windows and the continued aging of the mainframe community, it becomes more and more of a necessity to enhance the user interface. If we choose to ignore this essential aspect of the operating system, it is truly doomed for failure in the future. So back to Tyler and his dilemma what would you do when looking at the current status of the industry and the road ahead? Tyler has had a friend who is a Manager of the Technical department for a Unix shop begging for him for years to come automate the system, so throw that into the mix. Consider the potential death of the mainframe in Tylers working existence, which would mean he would have to start all over. Consider that Tyler is rather close to graduating with a Computer Science degree. Consider the innovation death within mainframe computing and the alternative of Unix, where customization and scripting is quite rampant and furthermore, innovation is encouraged. Consider that Tyler has worked with semaphores, fork, message queue, etc. and would probably pick it up pretty fast. Consider the fact that jumping ship now might be the best course for someone in their mid-twenties when the future looks somewhat bleak. What would you do if you were in Tylers shoes knowing now what you have learned over the years and see ahead in the near and distant future? Well, Tyler has come to his own conclusion and he isnt jumping ship anytime soon. Not Bloody Likely! Why would he jump ship when he has such an interest and love for what he does? Sure, his company might be fazing him out, but there are other ones out there that still promote creativity because they need it to survive. Third-Party products wouldnt exist if they conformed to pure standardization. These products are built on the exploitation (said in the nicest of senses) of the operating system and its facilities. Tyler just realizes that his current spot is not where he needs to be and that to further enhance his skills and abilities, he must find the right fit within the industry. Sure, he might be looking at a long hard 50 years, but when you love something, you dont abandon it kind of like marriage. Hasnt had any kiddos yet to root him further in the mainframe world, but Tyler has decided to make a commitment. For those of you who have seen the movie Fight Club, you can probably figure out exactly who Tyler (Durden) is. Dont worry, there wont be the same vicious, violent ending to this tale. BTW, all opinions and assumptions were made by Tyler, so please dont hold me responsible. ;) Francisco Medina (The names have been changed to protect the innocent) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
