Re: Tangling "AS/400 Education" and "Design shift" threads-Reply -- MIDRANGE-L

>>> Don <dr2@access.digex.net> 07/23/98 01:06pm >>>

<snip>

>But, do keep in kind that when you get your BS, you will tend to
>work on the technology that you know, further, employers will
> tend to hire on the technology that you have experience on

Actually, I think people work on whatever technology pays the bills -
case in point, the system at my 4-year big name school was, at the
time, an Amdahl (a 360?? I don't really know for sure).  However, I've
never professionally programmed on that platform. I think your point
about what employers hire is more important.  If I thought employers
would pay me to basket-weave, then I suppose I'd think about auditing a
couple of basket weaving classes.  As for employers hiring
experience, that's my point - the employer wants someone who can hit
the ground running in his RPG/CL application, so those places that do
teach AS/400 concentrate on that.  The two needs dovetail nicely,
but tend to suppress the "pure research," playing around, gee what
happens if I try this aspect of the trade.  Those types of things are
what might lead to dramatic improvements in design methodology.  
<snip>

> Also, instructors have a major myopia about what they want to
> teach you...rarely does any school (security paranoia etc) want to
> teach the system from the inside out!

And there it is in a nutshell - if I don't realize that the box I'm using
has innards that COULD be utilized in other ways than EXFMT, the
thought that "Hey, I can do the same thing w/UIM panels or a home
rolled data stream or whatever" never even occurs to me, to say
nothing of my lacking the ability to actually do any of those
alternatives.  The AS/400 is the "Application Systems" 400, so all
those details are hidden to ease the rapid development of (ta da)
applications!  All to the good - I have *NO* desire to write a 5250
data stream :)  But, I think we as a whole be better served if people
teaching "the AS/400" not limit themselves to just that box & how it's
currently used just because "that's what employers are hiring."  I
really feel the "possibilities education" has got to be done somehow -
be it via forums like this one, or via organizations like COMMON maybe,
or where ever.  The alternative is to continue to suffer with the
types of situations that kicked this thread off - a wholly reliable
platform with lousy software being slowly mothballed for a quirky
and unreliable platform with equally lousy software (but gosh, it
sure is pretty to look at :))

Scott Cornell
Mercy Information Systems
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