friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

This probably won't help me in my current job search, but is it worth learning COBOL? I've heard that there are still a bunch of critical systems out there that use it, and that it's hard to find COBOL devs these days.

Is this still the case? The only downside I can see is that I'd have to program in COBOL.

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Bill Fellows

Having worked adjacent to 4 different mainframes at this point in my career along with their "modernization" efforts. Reading COBOL, not terrible. Writing it, eh, probably not so bad but I've never done, only had to read and comprehend what it does. And there are non-MFs that provide implementation of COBOL so you can learn on your own time.

The devil is going to be understanding IBM systems "junk": CICS, DASD, DCLGEN, TSO, RACF etc

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Judy Anderson

@billinkc
What he said. Mainframe basics are more important than COBOL, I'd say.

I work for a company that's doing "Mainframe Modernization" and as a result we have to understand the old crappy non-modern stuff in order to implement new stuff! (Currently my group isn't reimplementing anything based in Cobol. We do Db2 monitoring stuff.)

rocketsoftware.com
rocket.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/r…

(We have AI hype on the front page but really we're just programming. I guess some departments might be doing AI, but I think we're just scared we'll miss the bandwagon. So don't ignore us just for that.)

Rocket Software

Rocket Software provides IT modernization and IT automation solutions that help businesses solve their most complex IT challenges, across infrastructure, data, and applications.
Rocket Software
@Bill Fellows
in reply to Judy Anderson

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Bill Fellows

@nosrednayduj OMG super small world. One of the projects I was on dealt with model 204/m204. We ended up building a real time synchronization between m204 and SQL Server via messaging.
It was going to be a very cool way to modernize the client's data storage while they incrementally switched the front ends.

Pity literal debt caught up to them 💥

@Judy Anderson
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

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William B Peckham

If you have no mainframe experience, the first thing I would do is get some mainframe experience or study the mainframe environment. Include JES2. If you only have one or two other programming languages that you have mastered, then I would go for something else that is in current development use. If it's your fourth or fifth language, get COBOL. It's quicker and easier to pick up a language after you have a few under your belt and the concepts are clear in your mind. Oh, and a mainframe environment is not the only place it comes in handy. I did a little work for a steel company that had Critical applications in micro focus object-oriented COBOL, and they had a huge IT department, but I was the only one local with current cobol experience. You never know when that knowledge might become critical.

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

Went to pick up a prescription and the guy ahead of me in line was chewing the pharmacist out about the automated system, which admittedly sucks but is certainly a decision made by corporate, not her.

He repeatedly threatened to take his business elsewhere. Were I in her position, the response I'd have wanted to give was "please do".

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

Sooo... I have a flatpak version of LibreOffice, and for whatever reason (probably sandboxing) the spellchecker can't see the text of my document.

I may or may not have sent off a bunch of resumes that said that I "wrote technical documentaiton" in a previous job.

That's just super.

There's a job I really want a decent shot at. Thank God I caught it before submitting to that one.

Edit: I typo'd my typo. 🙃

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I had a bit of a hard time getting into this one, but once it got going it was worth it. That said, I think I'm going to step back from the horror genre for a bit. I'll probably return to it when life settles a bit.

(comment on HEX)

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friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

I am in urgent job search mode, so I'm gonna throw this out here and see if anything comes of it.

I am a #Canadian, fluent in both #English and #French. I have experience with several programming languages. My strongest proficiency is with #Haskell and #C. I also have a reasonable grasp of #HTML, #JavaScript, #SQL, #Python, #Lua, #Linux system administration, #bash scripting, #Perl, #AWK, some #Lisp (common, scheme, and emacs), and probably several others I've forgotten to mention.

I am not necessarily looking for something in tech. I just need something stable. I have done everything from software development, to customer support, to factory work, though my current circumstances make in-person work more difficult than remote work. I have been regarded as a hard worker in every job I have ever held.

#GetFediHired

#Linux #python #bash #javascript #c #english #Haskell #french #html #perl #getfedihired #sql #lisp #awk #lua #canadian

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

I've been an #Emacs user for like 20 years because there was one thing I needed to do back then that was made easier by elisp, and I just got used to using it. In all that time, I hardly ever tinkered much with the config, save a few minor tweaks it was pretty much stock. I had no strong feelings about Emacs in general, it was just the text editor I'd grown comfortable with.

I've recently been diving into #Lisp and poking around with my Emacs config, and after all these years, I think I'm starting to get the appeal. I am still a proponent of "use the tool that works for you", but I'm personally firmly on team Emacs now.

#emacs #lisp

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friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

So, I've been taking another run at learning #CommonLisp. The last time I tried, I simply could not wrap my brain around macros. I'm reading the same book again, but this time am a more experienced programmer, and it all just clicked in my head.

I might actually end up enjoying #Lisp after all. I don't know if it'll dethrone #Haskell, but I'm starting to get why people like it.

#Haskell #lisp #commonlisp

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@actuallyautistic

It will soon be Autism awareness month, that wonderful time of the year when many autistics hit their foxholes screaming "incoming", or take to their bunkers and hide.

"But why?" I hear you ask. "Surely awareness is a good thing?"

Well, obviously yes, normally, but mostly, actually, no. Not in the way this normally pans out, anyway. Because this is the time of year when everything starts getting lit up blue and puzzle pieces start making their appearance and Autism Speaks articles rear their ugly, eugenic, heads. No matter how many times the vast bulk of the autism community explain that these symbols and the organisation that they are linked to, do not bloody speak for us and never sodding will.

Pity-me mothers parade their kids to showcase how terrible their lives are, or how there isn't enough help for their darling children. Which, whilst admittedly this is true for the kids, could be highlighted in better ways. Various celebrities and sports stars come out about the wonders of being diagnosed with autism and the huge change it has made in their pampered lives and puff pieces pop up everywhere about how someone succeeded because of their autistic superpower, or how they wouldn't be where they were now without it, or how someone's a hero, for standing up for their autistic friend. And editors across the land, slap themselves on their backs for such a wonderful job of awareness and here's to the next year and then silence once again falls.

OK, I may be slightly exaggerating this, but unfortunately not by as much as you might be thinking. So many times, even within the good articles and representation, there is the implicit message that only an official diagnosis can do this for you, which is a real kick in the teeth for everyone who has as much chance of getting one of those, as of winning the lottery. That this is something that is seen in us, rather than something that we can see ourselves. And all too often, even with the good stuff, it's always accompanied by the stock, what is autism? answers, from the internet. You know, the ones that just dryly quote the highlights of our disorder, in a way that none of us can actually recognise ourselves in and certainly don't help with others seeing us.

And this is the real problem with awareness month. It's all fine and dandy trying to increase awareness. But of what? Is it the problems and struggles, the difficulty of having autistic children, or being autistic in a world without support? The virtues of finally having your eyes opened to your autistic superpower? Of how the community and others could finally rally around you.

Or is it the different stories that finally allow others to see us, or even for us to finally see ourselves after decades in the dark. That allow the friend or neighbour, or workmate to maybe stop seeing you as the weird, or creepy, or even scary, person. But instead, someone who's just different, who sees and perhaps understands the world in a way that they don't. Not superpowered, or a burden, or broken in any way. Just yourself, just autistic. The stories that lead to acceptance and not just awareness.

#Autism
#ActuallyAutistic

#actuallyautistic #autism @ActuallyAutistic group
in reply to AudhdDespiteNoisyAbleism 🇨🇦

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marionline

@adelinej 😆 Yes! Exactly that!

I think this should have a hashtag. We could use #AutismApril or something in combination with other hashtags like: #actuallyautistic or
#autismacceptancemonth to make the questions&answer toots searchable?

Looking forward to read your answer, and of course I'll write an answer to the questions as well. 😀

#actuallyautistic #autismacceptancemonth #autismapril @AudhdDespiteNoisyAbleism 🇨🇦

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

"Invalid" Links
!Friendica Support
Whenever I see a post with an "invalid" (e.g.: gemini, gopher) link, there doesn't appear to be a way to see what the original link was short of hopping over to the post on the originating server. Is there some way I can get this information from my local server? Being able to copy it to clipboard so I can open it with an appropriate client would be nice.
!Friendica Support

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friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

Jonathan Lamothe

@Krafting Can confirm. Just did the same. I didn't compare it word for word, but mine seems to have omitted the part about not ever repeating the prompt. The rest looked pretty much exactly the same.
@Krafting

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friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

It should come as no surprise to anyone who's been paying attention that I've grown disillusioned with capitalism over the past several years. What's interesting to me though is that any time I express this publicly, there are no shortage of capitalists who falsely assert that I am claiming that communism is the ultimate solution to everything. This is a false dichotomy.

I am not saying I have the answers to the world's problems. I just have eyes to see that the emperor has no clothes.

Edit: typo

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6 lines free for anyone that wants to play on this PDP-11/70 running Version 7 UNIX.

ssh misspiggy@tty.livingcomputers.org

Drop in "com" to have messages displayed on the terminals.

#retrocomputing #unix #vintage

#unix #retrocomputing #vintage
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Hey #Unix folks recommend me your favorite games that can run in the terminal that aren't:

1) the most basic boring arcade stuff like snake or missile command

2) roguelikes/dungeon crawlers (love em but there's no lack of those)

3) chess, backgammon, etc., more meaty board games sure but there's already a million easy to find ways to play chess in a terminal

edit: 4) IF, I know where to find plenty of that, forgot this one

This is for my machine with no gui so when I say terminal I mean terminal not just like "text based and looks like it'd be in a terminal maybe".

#terminal #tui #linux

#Linux #Terminal #unix #tui
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