Hi there, Not sure if this was already discussed, but I would like to have your opinion on this matter.
I recently posted the following message on zNextGen discussion forum: http://www.share.org/Discussion/tabid/77/aff/17/aft/284/afv/topic/Default.aspx Below I reproduce it on full: Hello everyone! As a new Mainframer one of the most barriers for learning something new is that, in most cases, you MUST have access to a Mainframe. When you do have access to one of those, you surely will not have full authority and even if you have, you will rarely have a environment where you can experiment without the risk of messing things up. One alternative is a mainframe architecture emulator, named Hercules. The big problem here is that all major updated mainframe software can't be licensed on this kind of emulator. Even if you do run into some "alternative" ways of licensing those, it's quite impossible to acquire some copies. My point is, can Hercules be saw as an learning aid and mainframe promotion tool? For those who work on big ISV and IBM, what's the feeling about Hercules? My opinion is that a emulated mainframe running on a notebook can never replace a Mainframe it self (pretty obvious, but is it really that obvious to every company?) The main use of Hercules is to advance mainframe technology providing an accessible way to learn something new. In your opinion, will it ever be possible to see an "Academic" version of our favorite mainframe software? Regards, Rodrigo ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
