Breaking out of the silo IBM-wise, I’m a switch hitter. I’ve worked on both IBM i and IBM z/OS (as well as IBM z/VM, but that’s another story). IBM i and z/OS have identical missions of reliable, unimpeachable data center operations. The two differ in focus, which I depict here using broad generalizations:
IBM TechXchange in Las Vegas Sept. 11-14, 2023, should be quite the bash. Attendance will include a few thousand IBM customers, IBM Champions, and IBMers, as well as an assortment of well-wishers, hangers-on, and the merely curious.
Our client “Bruce” was discussing the RPG talent shortfall and how to get the next generation on board to write and maintain legacy RPG code dating back to the 1980s in a recent iChime meeting. Bruce had a System 36 manufacturing application written in fixed-format RPG. The system was solid and users were satisfied. But Bruce knew that he had to modernize the code for ease of maintenance and to expand the developer talent pool for future applications.
The Common Europe Congress 2023 in Prague hosted around 400 international attendees steeped in IBM Power Systems from 11 June to 14 June. This was my first visit to a Common Europe event, and I was greatly impressed. The organization was tight, the venue world-class, and the level of enthusiasm among the participants high. The sessions were interesting and useful.
A programmer asked recently how to automate their password-based SFTP transfer. How does one automate SFTP or any task that typically requires user interaction?