Can anyone suggest abut any research activities going on in the field of mainframes. I have been glued to the field of application programming since 4 yrs. And now looking forward for some interesting work. But unfortunately I heard that there is not much research we can do in mainframe field.
Guys pls comment..Any eye openers are most welcome:-)
Joined: 23 Nov 2006 Posts: 19244 Location: Inside the Matrix
Hello,
If you join a research organization, they would have some research work going on. . .
What kind of research are you interested in doing?
If there is some particular "thing" you want to study/research, why does it matter which hardware is used?
FWIW - one of my daughters is a manager of a "Laser Lab" where they do things like Environmental Laser Spectroscopy - Using Cavity Ringdown Spectroscopy (watching how various chemicals react to the laser). Their hardware/software is custom-made. . .
If you join a research organization, they would have some research work going on. . .
What kind of research are you interested in doing?
If there is some particular "thing" you want to study/research, why does it matter which hardware is used?
FWIW - one of my daughters is a manager of a "Laser Lab" where they do things like Environmental Laser Spectroscopy - Using Cavity Ringdown Spectroscopy (watching how various chemicals react to the laser). Their hardware/software is custom-made. . .
Wow!
Maybe your daughters is one of the few lucky ones who are able to pursue their passion:-)Touchwood!
Is there any scope of research and development in the mainframe world? To be honest, in India we have very few research and development acivities going around. Almost 95 % work is maintenance (you may be very well aware of the outsourcing story). I don't find this work anymore interesting & challenging, I am just doing it for my bread and butter..But I feel emotinally drained out because I am not able to pursue my passion. I want to dedicate my career to some research activity in mainframe field. Like doing something innovative and new.
Joined: 23 Nov 2006 Posts: 19244 Location: Inside the Matrix
Hello,
Quote:
Maybe your daughters is one of the few lucky ones who are able to pursue their passion
Yes, she has wanted to do chemistry research since she was a child (it was either that or medical school)
I believe we may have a different understanding / concept for "research". . .
Do you mean that you want to work on new develpment projects rather than maintenance? For more than 30 years, people who have been hired into organizations profess that they don't want maintanance - they want to work on new development (or at least major enhancements). Even in the 80's more than 75% of the work was maintenance in many large organizations . . .
Hmm..For me research means doing work like to create new tools or doing some innovative performance tuning..learning new techniques and developments in mainframe..I don't know if mainframe has a kernel..but doing stuff like that..
You may be knowing more about any research areas in mainframe..I want to equip my self with such knowledge and skills:-)But not getting the correct direction..
Joined: 23 Nov 2006 Posts: 19244 Location: Inside the Matrix
Hello,
Yes, on the mainframe there is lots of opportunity to build tools and work on tuning. I say this because this is what i have spent most of my life doing - mostly in the area of database
Good to hear that from you, cn you elaborate which organizations work for building tools. Or is it I can do it myself and independently if have the required skills? If I know what are the prequist knowledge for working on tools then only I can work on to equip myself with these skills..Could you pls give some idea.. I know JCL, COBOL, DB2, VSAM, EASYTRIEVE, little bit of CICS, C, C++ etc..But i feel these are useful for application development not developing tools right?
Joined: 23 Nov 2006 Posts: 19244 Location: Inside the Matrix
Hello,
Quote:
cn you elaborate which organizations work for building tools.
Most organizations use tools - either purchased or home-grown. There are also organizations whose primary business is building tools (like IBM, Computer Associates, Compuware, Syncsort, etc).
Quote:
Or is it I can do it myself and independently if have the required skills?
Given the time/permission by your management and assuming proper skills, one can build many tools. It is best build tools that do not allready exist.
Depending on what kind of tools and how deeply into the system you want to work, learning assembler would be good.
Thanks a lot for providing these useful information. I want to do things my self..I will learn assembler.. And rightly said new ideas are always valued more!
It would be really enlightning if you suggest any such area or example which which has been uconquered
Joined: 23 Nov 2006 Posts: 19244 Location: Inside the Matrix
Hello,
Sorry, but nothing immediately comes to mind. . .
Often it is the curiosity or need of the "inventor" that determines a starting place. What would help you do your job that is not currently available?
If your manager is willing to fund this (i.e. pay your salary while you work on some tools), you manager may already know of something that would be beneficial.
Joined: 20 Feb 2009 Posts: 108 Location: Kansas City
Rijit wrote:
Thanks a lot for providing these useful information. I want to do things my self..I will learn assembler.. And rightly said new ideas are always valued more!
It would be really enlightning if you suggest any such area or example which which has been uconquered
When I read 'research' and mainframe in this context I think of academic research into computer science which really has little to do with the particular machines mainframe or otherwise. Sad part is 50 years of research is locked up in the ACM and IEEE archives which require pay to access.
If you want to learn about the mainframe, don't just learn assembler, write an emulator.
Sad part is 50 years of research is locked up in the ACM and IEEE archives which require pay to access.
and even more idiotic is/ has been the IBM attitude!
until a couple of years ago the
System Journal and Journal of Research and Development
were freely available from the IBM site
after that for a while they were available for 3$ each
( article not the whole issue , to point out the stupidity even the preface with the marketingspeak was not free )
currently the single articles are available as a very cheap 30$ each from the IEEE archives
and this is the way the IBM droids contribute to the IT culture
Often it is the curiosity or need of the "inventor" that determines a starting place. What would help you do your job that is not currently available?
If your manager is willing to fund this (i.e. pay your salary while you work on some tools), you manager may already know of something that would be beneficial.
Unfortunately my manager cant do that..He has his own hassles..It is not I wanna do for my manager but something I can do in my free or extra time for myself
but, remember
developing a tool for Your personal use is completely different than writing something
to be deployed to a greater audience
for personal use...
as long as the tool performs what it should and an abnormal/error situation does not cause any damage
You might be reasonably satisfied with it
( You write just the minimum needed to streamline Your work )
for general use once You have written and tested the basic functionalities
You have done no more than 10% of the whole work
here is non exhaustive list of the rest to be done
( all pretty boring stuff which will take away all the excitement of R&D )
full testing
full integration
full error handling
full messaging
full documentation
full maintenance plan
full ...
ful ...
