Damn, I'd love to start with as/400, because I can't grasp the
concept of objects and libraries and the like. It's like a
weird VMS/NT to the extreme. Yes, I'm learning Cobol because
of an $JOB. For the rest I can just use GCobol for prototyping
and perfectly fine under my OpenBSD netbook; but in order
to get employed I truly need at least to know the basics of
AS/400.

I was briefly a backup operator on an AS/400. I didn't learn much about
the programming side, but I think they were using RPG on ours.

I was a mainframe COBOL programmer for ~26 years. They hired me and sent
me to a class. As COBOL reads a lot like english, I found it easy to pick
up. You do have to remember to define all of your variables in working storage, which is different than many other languages.

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MIKE POWELL wrote to ANTHK <=-

I was briefly a backup operator on an AS/400. I didn't learn much
about the programming side, but I think they were using RPG on ours.

Yeah, I think most development had moved to RPG by that time.

I worked for a catalog/retail company that did all of their compute on
3 S/36s and 2 AS/400s. I administered the PC side of the company, so I
got login rights to the AS/400s and could bring networks up and down -
later found out that I could have re-IPLed the system with my creds!

This was interesting - my first job out of college, with a
raised-floor, glassed-off server room with line printers, midrange
computers, and a big red button for the halon system - very
intimidating, very cool.

I picked up enough RPG/4 and REXX (OS/2's batch language) to forget it
later.



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Re: Re: What Is Unix? (was: H
By: MIKE POWELL to ANTHK on Wed Jan 14 2026 08:46:00

As COBOL reads a lot like english, I found it easy to pick up. You do have to remember to define all of your variables in working storage...

COBOL was my favorite language. I learned it in the mid-'70s using an IBM 370/158; COBOL 74 was the dialect. Yeah, you had to watch that Data Division, but the Procedure Div. could be even more treacherous. One mis-placed special character can generate a multitude of error msgs. In fact we used to hold contests (unofficially, of course) on who could generate the most. I never came close to the record, which I believe was over 200 errors, just because a comma was used instead of a period, I forget how.

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As COBOL reads a lot like english, I found it easy to pick up. You do have >> to remember to define all of your variables in working storage...

COBOL was my favorite language. I learned it in the mid-'70s using an IBM 370/158; COBOL 74 was the dialect. Yeah, you had to watch that Data Division,
but the Procedure Div. could be even more treacherous. One mis-placed special
character can generate a multitude of error msgs. In fact we used to hold contests (unofficially, of course) on who could generate the most. I never came close to the record, which I believe was over 200 errors, just because a comma was used instead of a period, I forget how.

I was always amazed how many error messages just one error... typo, punctuation, etc... could produce. Then again, it was always great to
fix that one error and watch them all disappear! ;)


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I worked for a catalog/retail company that did all of their compute on
3 S/36s and 2 AS/400s. I administered the PC side of the company, so I
got login rights to the AS/400s and could bring networks up and down -
later found out that I could have re-IPLed the system with my creds!

Before the AS/400 this company had an IBM product that required "drum
memory," and they apparently broke down and upgraded to the AS/400 once
that type of memory became scarce... IIRC, they had to start sourcing it
from Brazil (and maybe used).

While I worked there, my primary machine was a "Baby-36"... a PC with what
I can only assume was an S/36 emulator.

Mike
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Re: Re: What Is Unix? (was: H
By: Mortar to MIKE POWELL on Thu Jan 15 2026 03:34 pm

COBOL was my favorite language. I learned it in the mid-'70s using an IBM 370/158; COBOL 74 was the dialect. Yeah, you had to watch that Data Division, but the Procedure Div. could be even more treacherous. One mis-placed special character can generate a multitude of error msgs. In fact we used to hold contests (unofficially, of course) on who could generate the most. I never came close to the record, which I believe was over 200 errors, just because a comma was used instead of a period, I forget how.

Have you done COBOL on linux ? I learned it in high school along with RPG but never used it. Took a course in college but changed it to pass/fail because I wasn't keep up.

I use linux daily and wonder how hard it would be to find a free compiler and editor that would help with keying in COBOL code.

...Back-up not found (A)bort, (R)etry, (P)anic

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Re: Re: What Is Unix? (was: H
By: Amessyroom to Mortar on Fri Jan 16 2026 02:06:10

Have you done COBOL on linux?

Nope, just on Big Blue. Wouldn't mind getting back into it again, just for fun.

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On 16 Jan 2026, Amessyroom said the following...

Have you done COBOL on linux ? I learned it in high school along with RPG ver used it. Took a course in college but changed it to pass/fail because 't keep up.

apparently there's GnuCOBOL .. and from the looks of it IBM continues to release COBOL for Linux (2020+ stuff) so it's still a skillset to have i guess.

start spamming lengthy examples on github and hope someone messages you offering a COBOL job? lol

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MIKE POWELL wrote to POINDEXTER FORTRAN <=-

Before the AS/400 this company had an IBM product that required "drum memory," and they apparently broke down and upgraded to the AS/400 once that type of memory became scarce... IIRC, they had to start sourcing
it from Brazil (and maybe used).

Those things are workhorses - a while back IBM realized you could run a
DB2 database on bare metal and virtualize a lot of Linux VMs on top of
that to make a Really Big Web Server.

I've wanted to build an OS/400 looking menu system for my BBS for the
longest time...



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Dumas Walker wrote to MORTAR <=-

I was always amazed how many error messages just one error... typo, punctuation, etc... could produce. Then again, it was always great to
fix that one error and watch them all disappear! ;)

I was in a FORTRAN class in college, and one of my friends ended up
with 130-something errors when he tried compiling it. He tried
compiling his FORTRAN program with the PASCAL compiler and got less
errors.

Now, there's some serious NERD HUMOR.



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Amessyroom wrote to Mortar <=-

Have you done COBOL on linux ? I learned it in high school along with
RPG but never used it. Took a course in college but changed it to pass/fail because I wasn't keep up.

I use linux daily and wonder how hard it would be to find a free
compiler and editor that would help with keying in COBOL code.

I know there's at least one compiler out there.

I wonder if there's any market for freelance COBOL coding now that Y2K
is past? Y2K seemed like wonder years if you were a COBOL programmer
recently retired.

I suppose anyone who knows vanilla C will get called in before Y2.038k,
when UNIX clocks roll over.



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