I have used editors on many systems. vi, edlin (ugh), various windows editors starting with notepad to ultraedit, as well as proprietary editors, such as SAP's ABAP editor.
But for the working programmer, who needs to both code and look at data, sometimes in hex, I have not found an editor that is better for writing code and also looking at data, than IBM's ISPF editor.
So far as what kind of commands you use to perform editing functions, that is a matter of both preference and familiarity. You will tend to use and like what you know the best. It is like arguing what style and color of shirt is best. No one is right or wrong, each has their preference.
I am talking about functionality for coders.
The two best things about ISPF that I have not found in any other editor:
1. Vertical, columnar, cut/copy/paste/insert across lines, without affecting characters to the left or right, which allows editing data that is in a fixed format, as in what may be transmitted via EDI or in record based data files. So you can copy/cut/paste/insert, by example, the 53rd character on each line, all at the same time in a column, without affecting any other character in the file, move that column of characters and paste it elsewhere in the same file or into another file.
2. An intuitive hex display that displays hex values directly below each character, rather than opening a separate window that requires you to read two different displays at the same time and hope you are keeping the character counts in sync. This allows parsing data to find if there are non-printing characters causing errors in processing routines or violating agreed to formats between applications, which is still important in businesses and on non-mainframe platforms
Kind of like this: 466626626666276673 B9E40F60C9B504893A
Rather than this: | 52617468 65722074 68616E20 74686973
| 3A
(hope that formats correctly, use a mono-space font like courier if not to see what I mean)
There were some efforts to port ISPF to other platforms, (SPF-PC, SPF-SE, etc), but greed and 1950's thinking concerning copyright, marketing and intellectual property, basically doomed them, just as it doomed Apple, Detroit, Betamax and many other products.
However, while looking up those editor names over on Dave's SPF Editor page at planetmvs, I just found an open source version that claims to work on Linux and Windows. The guy is calling it Hybrid Editor XE.
I'm going to take a look, but seeing as it is from Japan, and having experience with code from Japan, I am not that hopeful. But I will keep an open mind. No offense intended to anyone from Japan, but I have seen code from three different Japanese corporations, and I was not impressed, to say the least. But seeing that my experience is with only three sources, is the reason WHY I am keeping an open mind.
But Cobol coders dont exactly take to OO like fish to water
That is because COBOL coders know how to write obscure, spaghetti-like, impossible to debug code that includes deadend logic, recursive redirects and superfluous function calls, that garantees job security without all the layers of crap that OOP needs to add to do the same thing.
I know I wrote some stuff so convoluted I had calls for help years after I left the company I started at, as well as some simple and elegant code that is still working, last I heard.
Simplicity is best people! Even in obscure job-security-targeted hacks.
If this is the first salvo in an Apple-MS war, with MS threatening one of Apples biggest profit and publicity engines, will Apple finally be moved to market/license it's OS to other hardware vendors/the public?
It has been speculated on for years if not decades, but since it is already running on Intel chips....?
Since every life form on earth that photosynthsizes, (plants, algea), gets energy from the sun, and therefore from outside the system; and since all other life forms on this planet either eat these plants or eat those that eat these plants, or live on the remains of of any or all of them, even the biology of the planet depends on energy from outside the 'system'. (excepting life forms living off deep sea volcanic vents.)
It constantly gains energy from the sun, as well as cosmic radiation, and gives off energy in the form of heat.
It is constantly gaining mass in the form of meteorites and dust settling into the atmosphere and also looses some as a tiny bit of the atmosphere is lost to the vacuum of space.
Closed? Not at all. It is possibly the most open system we know.
Dude, you think this gives you credibility? Metric/English confusion and strewing shuttle parts, not to mention astronaut parts, around the globe is not my idea of expertise.
when we calibrated our images, we treated solar energy output as a constant,
I learned this about 6 months after Sun released Java, when I saw an ad for a Java programmer requiring 5 years experience.
The guys that CREATED Java didn't have 5 years experience with the thing.
I stopped worrying about that ever since then. Now I just send in my resume when ever it looks like a job I can handle. Unless the HR dept filters the resumes before the people actually screening the candidates see them, I figure I stand as good a chance as anyone else.
Why are so many folks enamored of this 19th century technology that exists, for passenger purposes anyway, only with massive subsidies?
What next? Turbo-jet propelled Frigates?
Freight rail may be going great guns without subsidy.
But passenger rail is another story. The restrictions on equipment require that passenger cars be so overbuilt as to be absurd. It is the equivalent of forcing Honda to build the Civic on a 40 foot straight truck chassis. The space required for people far exceeds that for freight. Freight can be packed tightly, box against box, in bulk carriers for grain or liquids, etc.
You can't do that with humans, except in socialist dream states, like China, Sov. Russia and 1930's Germany.
If it can not exist without forced subsidy, it should not exist. Take away the subsidies and remove the restrictions. If it survives by meeting the needs of customers that choose it voluntarily, fine.
Yah, while you are come-ing, the vice sqaud is watching your click rate and laughing thier asses off while they add you to the 'perv' database! Or worse, noting you strange affinity to slashdot and marking you as a hacker worthy of in/vestig||timid/ation.
or worse, noting your affintiy to that known commie cover, the green party, and marking you as a traitor worthy of in/vestig||timid/ation.
or worse, noting you affinity to the libetarian party, and marking you as a disaffect loner gun nut that likes ganja, and marking you as a potential tower shooter worthy of in/vestig||timid/ation.
The gov. does not need a warrant to monitor it's own network.
Voting for what you want, sends the system a message that a change is needed. When enough of these are sent, change happens or an old party is replaced. See the history of the Whig party vs. the Republican Party in the 1800's. The Whigs were replaced by the Republicans.
See the history of the Socialst vs. the Dems in the 1910's-40's. The Socialists got people elected, even some to Congress, The Dem's responded, absorbed some of the Socialits positions, and the Socialists all but died, while the Dem's got a 4 term president and control of the nation for decades. And then promptly conspired with the Rep's to change the Constitution and ballot access laws to prevent such a successful challenge again.
Voting for what you fear sends no message, but is instead a lie stating you accept the current political environment.
Cop: Why did you hire this person? 'Human Resources maggot': He had a Masters in Computer Science! How did I know he was a puppy molesting hacker that would embezzle the company funds for dog food and run off to Mexico with a Chihuahua fetish?
Also remember that the founding fathers were aristocrats and very powerful citizens, many of them members of the various colonial legislatures or high ranking members of the British reserves and organized militias. They were NOT the 'rebellious farmers' of legend. The revolution was fomented by the powerful elite of the colonies, with the support of far less than half of the existing population. Most of the remaining either did not care, and therefore sat it out, or supported the British and ended up fleeing to Canada and other British possesions after the British surrender. I have heard that the revolution was supported only by about 30% of the population, but ehere that number came from I do not know.
Arms alone will not allow for revolt, enough popular sentiment, and support from enough powerful people in the economic and political sectors is needed.
Fossil's on Mars! Yes! Finally! Proof of The Creation of the Great Watch Maker!
The Rapture isn't far now!
Dibs on your Beemer.
Bwuhahaha!
http://www.fossil.com
Scheduling is a lot more complex that I have seen anyone give credit for so far. Add in : multiple platforms, vendors in different countries with different time zones, holidays, cultures and calendars, (try matching our Julian or Gregorian calendar to a Lunar calendar), with varying schedules, such as cyclical/hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annual. Matching them to accounting needs like a fiscal year that does not match the calendar year, production schedules that cross week and month boundaries, and online systems that are up or down different days of the week and things can get very crazy very fast.
I can point you to 2 companies that seem to offer the most complete solutions for multiple platform shops, other than IBM's Tivoli, which works fairly well from what I have heard:
First: Cybermation in Canada makes a product called ESP: http://www.cybermation.com/solutions/jobsche duling
They have a cute little site at: http://www.replaceyourjobscheduler.com/sitele t.htm l.
I was at a very large company when they swapped over from the CA7 tool to this one on their MVS systems. I was impressed with the product and the company's support. That was 8 years ago or so, so I cannot vouch for the product or the company now, but I have heard only good things about them currently.
Second: BMC markets a product called Control-M, with all kinds of modules including an Enterprise Manager: http://www.bmc.com/products/productlist/0,2831,190 52_19429,00.html
I currently use this product in an MVS/Unix/WinNT/Oracle/SAP environment. It does work. It has it's issues and shortfalls, and we have some problems with support, but we have managed to complete our schedule across all platforms every day, with only a very few exceptions in the past 3 years I have worked with it. We run in excess of 10,000 batch/background processes per day across many platforms.
In all 3 cases, Tivoli, Cybermation, BMC, licensing can be a bit pricey. But if you research the products closely, and only license what you really need as opposed to what you think you need, you can get by.
I also strongly suggest you hire an experienced scheduler to help out. This is a very undervalued and complcated specialty. Like programming, many can muddle through but few are truely good at it.
Slashdot Mirror
I was thinking more along the likes of Mary Ann Lomax in The Devils Advocate and Candy Kendall in The Cider House Rules or any of the other films she melted
Pat Buchannon humping on Charlize Theron?
Nuts. Now I need brain bleach.
Can't believe I even THOUGHT of that...
I have used editors on many systems. vi, edlin (ugh), various windows editors starting with notepad to ultraedit, as well as proprietary editors, such as SAP's ABAP editor.
But for the working programmer, who needs to both code and look at data, sometimes in hex, I have not found an editor that is better for writing code and also looking at data, than IBM's ISPF editor.
So far as what kind of commands you use to perform editing functions, that is a matter of both preference and familiarity. You will tend to use and like what you know the best. It is like arguing what style and color of shirt is best. No one is right or wrong, each has their preference.
I am talking about functionality for coders.
The two best things about ISPF that I have not found in any other editor:
1. Vertical, columnar, cut/copy/paste/insert across lines, without affecting characters to the left or right, which allows editing data that is in a fixed format, as in what may be transmitted via EDI or in record based data files. So you can copy/cut/paste/insert, by example, the 53rd character on each line, all at the same time in a column, without affecting any other character in the file, move that column of characters and paste it elsewhere in the same file or into another file.
2. An intuitive hex display that displays hex values directly below each character, rather than opening a separate window that requires you to read two different displays at the same time and hope you are keeping the character counts in sync. This allows parsing data to find if there are non-printing characters causing errors in processing routines or violating agreed to formats between applications, which is still important in businesses and on non-mainframe platforms
Kind of like this:
466626626666276673
B9E40F60C9B504893A
Rather than this: | 52617468 65722074 68616E20 74686973
| 3A
(hope that formats correctly, use a mono-space font like courier if not to see what I mean)
There were some efforts to port ISPF to other platforms, (SPF-PC, SPF-SE, etc), but greed and 1950's thinking concerning copyright, marketing and intellectual property, basically doomed them, just as it doomed Apple, Detroit, Betamax and many other products.
However, while looking up those editor names over on Dave's SPF Editor page at planetmvs, I just found an open source version that claims to work on Linux and Windows. The guy is calling it Hybrid Editor XE.
I'm going to take a look, but seeing as it is from Japan, and having experience with code from Japan, I am not that hopeful. But I will keep an open mind. No offense intended to anyone from Japan, but I have seen code from three different Japanese corporations, and I was not impressed, to say the least. But seeing that my experience is with only three sources, is the reason WHY I am keeping an open mind.
I am surprised no one has found this: http://www.opencobol.org/
That is because COBOL coders know how to write obscure, spaghetti-like, impossible to debug code that includes deadend logic, recursive redirects and superfluous function calls, that garantees job security without all the layers of crap that OOP needs to add to do the same thing.
I know I wrote some stuff so convoluted I had calls for help years after I left the company I started at, as well as some simple and elegant code that is still working, last I heard.
Simplicity is best people! Even in obscure job-security-targeted hacks.
If this is the first salvo in an Apple-MS war, with MS threatening one of Apples biggest profit and publicity engines, will Apple finally be moved to market/license it's OS to other hardware vendors/the public?
It has been speculated on for years if not decades, but since it is already running on Intel chips....?
Since every life form on earth that photosynthsizes, (plants, algea), gets energy from the sun, and therefore from outside the system; and since all other life forms on this planet either eat these plants or eat those that eat these plants, or live on the remains of of any or all of them, even the biology of the planet depends on energy from outside the 'system'. (excepting life forms living off deep sea volcanic vents.)
So even there the system is not closed.
So I believe you are mistaken on that point.
The Earth is NOT a closed system.
It constantly gains energy from the sun, as well as cosmic radiation, and gives off energy in the form of heat.
It is constantly gaining mass in the form of meteorites and dust settling into the atmosphere and also looses some as a tiny bit of the atmosphere is lost to the vacuum of space.
Closed? Not at all. It is possibly the most open system we know.
It will be called Snoogle!
It was decided to keep the *oogle theme going after G-male, G-Female and G-Spot were all rejected.
Dude, you think this gives you credibility?
Metric/English confusion and strewing shuttle parts, not to mention astronaut parts, around the globe is not my idea of expertise.
Well,...THERE'S your PROBLEM!
I learned this about 6 months after Sun released Java, when I saw an ad for a Java programmer requiring 5 years experience.
The guys that CREATED Java didn't have 5 years experience with the thing.
I stopped worrying about that ever since then. Now I just send in my resume when ever it looks like a job I can handle. Unless the HR dept filters the resumes before the people actually screening the candidates see them, I figure I stand as good a chance as anyone else.
Tom
Great! Now I can check out my sunbathing neighbor legally!
I hope it is updated often!
Why are so many folks enamored of this 19th century technology that exists, for passenger purposes anyway, only with massive subsidies?
What next? Turbo-jet propelled Frigates?
Freight rail may be going great guns without subsidy.
But passenger rail is another story. The restrictions on equipment require that passenger cars be so overbuilt as to be absurd. It is the equivalent of forcing Honda to build the Civic on a 40 foot straight truck chassis.
The space required for people far exceeds that for freight. Freight can be packed tightly, box against box, in bulk carriers for grain or liquids, etc.
You can't do that with humans, except in socialist dream states, like China, Sov. Russia and 1930's Germany.
If it can not exist without forced subsidy, it should not exist. Take away the subsidies and remove the restrictions. If it survives by meeting the needs of customers that choose it voluntarily, fine.
Yah, while you are come-ing, the vice sqaud is watching your click rate and laughing thier asses off while they add you to the 'perv' database! .
.
.
Or worse, noting you strange affinity to slashdot and marking you as a hacker worthy of in/vestig||timid/ation
or worse, noting your affintiy to that known commie cover, the green party, and marking you as a traitor worthy of in/vestig||timid/ation
or worse, noting you affinity to the libetarian party, and marking you as a disaffect loner gun nut that likes ganja, and marking you as a potential tower shooter worthy of in/vestig||timid/ation
The gov. does not need a warrant to monitor it's own network.
Yeah! It's not Easy being GREEN!
Vote for what you want, not for what you fear.
Voting for what you want, sends the system a message that a change is needed. When enough of these are sent, change happens or an old party is replaced.
See the history of the Whig party vs. the Republican Party in the 1800's. The Whigs were replaced by the Republicans.
See the history of the Socialst vs. the Dems in the 1910's-40's. The Socialists got people elected, even some to Congress, The Dem's responded, absorbed some of the Socialits positions, and the Socialists all but died, while the Dem's got a 4 term president and control of the nation for decades. And then promptly conspired with the Rep's to change the Constitution and ballot access laws to prevent such a successful challenge again.
Voting for what you fear sends no message, but is instead a lie stating you accept the current political environment.
A vote that is a lie is a wasted vote.
Tom
Oh, goody! If the world gets to choose our next POTUS, does this mean we can all vote for the next CEO of MicroSoft?
Vote Linus!
Cop: Why did you hire this person?
'Human Resources maggot': He had a Masters in Computer Science! How did I know he was a puppy molesting hacker that would embezzle the company funds for dog food and run off to Mexico with a Chihuahua fetish?
...a nun with a ruler
Cheap and effective!
TROLL?! Man, I thought people had a sense of humour around here....
Sheesh!
Also remember that the founding fathers were aristocrats and very powerful citizens, many of them members of the various colonial legislatures or high ranking members of the British reserves and organized militias. They were NOT the 'rebellious farmers' of legend. The revolution was fomented by the powerful elite of the colonies, with the support of far less than half of the existing population. Most of the remaining either did not care, and therefore sat it out, or supported the British and ended up fleeing to Canada and other British possesions after the British surrender. I have heard that the revolution was supported only by about 30% of the population, but ehere that number came from I do not know.
Arms alone will not allow for revolt, enough popular sentiment, and support from enough powerful people in the economic and political sectors is needed.
Tom
Fossil's on Mars! Yes! Finally! Proof of The Creation of the Great Watch Maker! The Rapture isn't far now! Dibs on your Beemer. Bwuhahaha! http://www.fossil.com
Having a Phd in one area of study and a prize does not equate to either non-partisanship or expertise in any other area of study.
Pat Robertson has a Phd. I wouldn't trust his opinions on scientific subjects.
Would you want a Phd Nobel laureate in theoretical physics performing your next surgery?
Be wary of those that argue from authority, or use titles as a shield or a weapon.
Tom
Scheduling is a lot more complex that I have seen anyone give credit for so far.
e duling
e t.htm l .
0 52_19429,00.html
Add in : multiple platforms, vendors in different countries with different time zones, holidays, cultures and calendars, (try matching our Julian or Gregorian calendar to a Lunar calendar), with varying schedules, such as cyclical/hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annual. Matching them to accounting needs like a fiscal year that does not match the calendar year, production schedules that cross week and month boundaries, and online systems that are up or down different days of the week and things can get very crazy very fast.
I can point you to 2 companies that seem to offer the most complete solutions for multiple platform shops, other than IBM's Tivoli, which works fairly well from what I have heard:
First:
Cybermation in Canada makes a product called ESP:
http://www.cybermation.com/solutions/jobsch
They have a cute little site at:
http://www.replaceyourjobscheduler.com/sitel
I was at a very large company when they swapped over from the CA7 tool to this one on their MVS systems. I was impressed with the product and the company's support. That was 8 years ago or so, so I cannot vouch for the product or the company now, but I have heard only good things about them currently.
Second:
BMC markets a product called Control-M, with all kinds of modules including an Enterprise Manager: http://www.bmc.com/products/productlist/0,2831,19
I currently use this product in an MVS/Unix/WinNT/Oracle/SAP environment. It does work. It has it's issues and shortfalls, and we have some problems with support, but we have managed to complete our schedule across all platforms every day, with only a very few exceptions in the past 3 years I have worked with it. We run in excess of 10,000 batch/background processes per day across many platforms.
In all 3 cases, Tivoli, Cybermation, BMC, licensing can be a bit pricey. But if you research the products closely, and only license what you really need as opposed to what you think you need, you can get by.
I also strongly suggest you hire an experienced scheduler to help out. This is a very undervalued and complcated specialty. Like programming, many can muddle through but few are truely good at it.
Tom
>>Without marching out into the world and killing all of these people "pre-emptively"
Sorry, idea already patented by Amazon.....