tolle

Huh? I mean, if you don't pay a bill, it'll usually go to a private company trying to collect it at first. But they simply send out another bill with an additional charge added. After a few attempts they will in turn hand it over to the Enforcement Authority. I've never heard of anyone using anything but the Enforcement Authority as a last resort to claim a debt.

On IBM i all files are are also databases, so you could just define the length of all the fields in the file, then it's a SQL database ready for use. No need for a program to parse it. Just define a file, copy the incoming file to that file. Ready to be handled with SQL. Fixed length records are trivial on the platform.

One way of solving it would be to just put the code you would otherwise put into a function into another application and call that. Not super pretty, but it works. It's preferable over ending up with a massive program with hundreds of sections.

10 is EOF, 0 is successful read. Not that it actually matters, your point is perfectly valid. You can use sort off boolean operators thats toggled on based on the value in variables.

Outgoing web requests are usually done via either a program in some other language that you call from the COBOL application, or via DB2s built in functionality by running it as an embedded SQL section in your program. Why the heck web requests are handled by the relational database is.. Well I mean it feels odd, but by doing it that way they added the functionality to both zOS and IBM i at once. And old developers don't have to learn all to much new stuff to do it.

Also, while the COBOL program works with a static set of files with static filenames. Those names can point to any file by various overrides done in either JCL on the mainframe or CL on the IBM i/AS400. Regarding the file formats, you can read the file into different working-storage defined variables, so each row doesn't have to be identical field length/position. In short, COBOL is just one part of the solution. Various "scripting" languages play a large part in defining what files go in and out. And none of them are available outside of the actual mainframe/midrange environments. Most data is gathered from relational databases anyway nowdays, and embedded SQL, just like in PHP webpages of yesterdays web, is whats used in newly developed programs.

But all in all, yes it's a rather cumbersome language, for any sort of sane string handling you have to revert to embedded SQL. But most problems you have to write programs to solve can usually be broken down into smaller problems. Then just chain programs to handle it. The language itself is usually just a bit of a bother, but the age old programs written 20-30 years ago written by developers of varying degrees of sanity who had no requirements on them to document their work is what makes the job a pain.

Partial sync, or whatever you'd call it. You can't add or edit the desktop bookmarks and bookmarks added in Firefox for iOS won't show up on the desktop.

Being able to do something doesn't mean you are able to do it. Good luck with that setup if you are working in finance and something fucks up or there's an audit.

I've been having a shitty experience with 2.4GHz WiFi combined with Bluetooth on my late 2013 MacBook Pro Retina for ages. The Wifi performance goes to shit with multiple devices connected and the bluetooth devices stutter and disconnect. It was completely unusable in Yosemite but slightly better in some version after that. It's currently "usable" unless I do heavy downloads over 2.4GHz with a bunch of bluetooth devices connected. With 5GHz Wifi everythings fine and dandy.

It's not an issue when running Windows on the machine and it's not due to congestion regarding 2.4GHz wifi networks. And it's not AP related. It's macOS related. I am also not alone in experiencing it. Not the worlds biggest issue but frustrating as hell.

Is the individual plan limited to certain countries?

Heck I work on a AS400/iSeries/IBM i or whatever they are called.

But I think it's safe to say that the gamble paid off!

Works like a charm in Safari on iOS and macOS.

Wasn't ZFS even "production ready" before BTRFS development even began?

I don't remember the state of it when it was first introduced into Solaris, maybe someones memory is better then mine. Was ZFS better of in 06-07 Then BTRFS is now?

COBOL works fine on other operating systems as well. JCL, on the other hand, is only available on z/OS and it's just as important to know.

Finance. Or rather working at a large bank, also comes with great job stability. If you are a developer on one of the core systems you are basically set for life.

A wild guess would be that roughly 90% of all systems handling this are written in COBOL running on z/OS or IBM i. And that most of the developers are currently close to 60, spending their free time with their grandchildren and not on Hacker News.

I'm not much help either since I work with mortgages, and having it all explained during a lunch break might be a bit much. There are also, depending on company and country, rules and laws about what you can talk about.

Shouldn't have to be a pain? Browser plugin to paste content to editor window. Then something that runs the document its pasted into when you've read it?

However, copy, paste, (save as a script|paste in terminal), run isn't exactly the most strenuous task in the history of man either. So it'd be a fairly meaningless chain of plugins for close to zero benefit.

But probably using their own server, entirely within their own network? I.e. you can't even connect without a VPN?

Not that that protects from backdoors but still.

To bad theres no GPGTools for iOS. And the chances of Apple opening up the mail client for it is slim. Also, the licenses could be a problem?

Depends on how stuff is implemented no? You change a library, you do a rebuild of all packages that uses that library, the user downloads package deltas and the filesystem does deduplication so the same file is used in all the containers. Would only cause a problem with packages from third party sources. But thats a possible problem now already?

Having a bank on your résumé can't possibly be a bad thing. It shows that you can work in a professional environment. That you have been vetted and passed it. It's a sign of you being responsible, reliable and professional. I can't really see how it could be something negative.

However. The perks of working in the finance sector might make it hard to leave for another field.

Is honestly more of a hassle for the average consumer then existing solutions.

I have no issues. Until I enable my Bluetooth mouse. Easily solved by using the 5ghz band but really. An apple mouse fucks up my connection from my apple laptop to my apple access point. That's really unacceptable.

But theres a ton of bookkeeping and checks to be done for every transaction. Due to regulations and so on. But yes it's not an insane amount of transactions.

Nowhere, but some people call System I/(A/400)/I-Series a mainframe. It's midrange, but people call it what they call it.

Anyway, IBM i and AIX run on the same hardware. They used to be called System I and System P. Now it's just Power Systems.

Maybe thats what he ment.

Or well, come to think of it. There is a UNIX side to z/OS itself.

Seems like a pretty stupid way to do it. Why not just use the raw data from the data files or direct access to the DB/2 database? Does this even handle the ebcdic to ascii conversion? Or packed decimal numbers?

Murach's Mainframe COBOL is a decent book. GNU COBOL works for learning but database stuff is a bit of a hassle. Microfocus has a visual COBOL personal license that's free. Setting it up to work with db2 is fairly pain free.

Maybe all banks aren't the same. I choose the one that seemed to be the one that would be more fun to work at. Also probably depends on what country you are living in.

DB/2 is used quite extensively. But a lot of things are still flat files. On System I you can access DB/2 databases as if it were flat files as well. Not actually useful if you ask me but I suppose useful when the developers didn't know SQL. I'm on my phone so explaining how it works is a hassle.

Endevor for version control on Z/OS.

I still fiddle around on my spare time with modern tech just for fun. I just don't have to learn every new "tech of the week" to stay relevant. But yeah, suits some better then others. I'd imagine it's the perfect area to work in if you have kids or such.

Finance is however a huge field on its own. And a huge part of the work is implementing new regulations.

If I end up getting bored, I know multiple other languages quite well. And if I decide to leave the finance sector, having a job as a developer on a bank is a positive thing here.

All COBOL shops have developed what could be called their own frameworks from scratch over the years. Learn COBOL and DB2/SQL. If you end up working on mainframes. JCL as well. If on AS/400. RPG and ACL. Most developers don't really have to know much else then COBOL. Just type in a editor, run commands, done.