Wendell, as an old mainframe guy I appreciate that you had Jay on as a guest. What Jay didn't mention is that if if you run MVS and/or VM and understand how it works, your aren't far from understanding how mainframes work today. Please invite Jay back again for a deeper look into this subject.
@semuhphor2 жыл бұрын
@Luc Wijnen Hi Luc. I meant that if you use the old operating systems that are available for Hercules, you will have a good base for moving to the modern versions. Things like JCL and the general programming principles are mostly the same.
@semuhphor2 жыл бұрын
@Luc Wijnen In the 70's to the early 80's, I was a VSE & VM programmer and systems programmer (did both). In college I did a fair amount with OS MVT 21.8. Since then, I've been in PC's (and wrote for PC Magazine and a couple of ZD books.) I would love to go back to writing assembler on the mainframe, but I doubt it will happen. I have thought about getting a learning the ZD&T Learners edition from IBM to play with z/OS. How about you?
@bitcoredotorg3 жыл бұрын
This was awesome. I love interviews with older, "hardened", shall I say, tech folks. What a great guest. More like this please!
@TummyTimeTimmy3 жыл бұрын
This type of content is what will keep Level1Tech going for a long, long time. Thanks! Also: big ups to whoever filmed and edited this, VERY nice quality and presentation.
@MegaWhiteBeaner3 жыл бұрын
You think ancient code and procedures are good?
@user-nd9lg2bm8e3 жыл бұрын
Preservation.
@SidneyTurnerOfficial3 жыл бұрын
@@MegaWhiteBeaner There have been many times where we just forget how it all started and when things go very wrong there are none of the older pioneers around to help. Nasa had to bring in some old guys to fix something a while ago because the knowledge was lost. Languages die and skills are lost etc.
@solocamo36543 жыл бұрын
@@MegaWhiteBeaner oof, don't be naive
@jasonwebb79782 жыл бұрын
@@MegaWhiteBeaner When they are better than what we have, YES! As a species we have forgotten more than we will ever know, so, keeping something that shows us lost efficiency is not a bad thing.
@tjmbv86803 жыл бұрын
Mainframes on level1techs, this is a dream come true.
@michaelheimbrand54243 жыл бұрын
+1
@generalfishcake3 жыл бұрын
The epic crossover we didn't know was possible. P.S. Please invite this man for future collabs.
@carl87903 жыл бұрын
I remembered a while back you (Wendell) met some cool guy in some event and said, this mainframe guy was the smartest dude you have met. Glad you got him to be here and spill some knowledge. Great interview!
@maltoNitho3 жыл бұрын
What a legendary project I never knew about. Mind, blown. Thanks!
@FilleMang3 жыл бұрын
Such an great guest! Love his calm demeanor.
@Catchgate3 жыл бұрын
I love how he has to be fidgeting with something while he talks, just like Wendel
@fracturedlife13933 жыл бұрын
I only just stopped using Mainframe after 16 years in 2021. Have to say I actually miss it. This is cool.
@DespoBryant3 жыл бұрын
Wendell has come back from the future to teach Wendell some mainframe tricks to save the world.
@Dan-Simms3 жыл бұрын
Awe man, I worked at a Ministry of Natural Resources for a hardware update, updating old IBMs to Dell PCs and the amount of old mechanical keyboards that we trashed for the free Dell ones...made me wonder why at the time...now makes me really mad. There was only 1 person in the building that didn't want to change keyboards and man did he ever make the right decision.
@tigerfish663 жыл бұрын
my first IT job was a IBM mainframe Operator, what a great trip down memory lane. THANK YOU
@HarryTheHerring3 жыл бұрын
I've worked with S/390 and AS400 for 15-16 years, love it.
@TheRealTronGuy3 жыл бұрын
I own an AS/400 model 170. Don't use it as much as I'd like to. One thing I want to do is to get it talking to my two R/390s (a mainframe processor in an RS/6000, and runs real mainframe operating systems).
@RydarkVoyager3 жыл бұрын
Once upon a time, I had an entire VAX-8800 Cluster (with about 50 disk-drives) as my own personal computer, since I was its only user, blasting away on ballistic missile defense (SDI Program) simulations programmed in both VAX-C, VAX-Pascal, and FORTRAN77! You could hear the drive heads thunking every time the program wrote out 1 time step, with 95% CPU utilization. Fun times indeed. P.S.: great breakdown on the Raspberry-Pi/Hercules!
@kpeak13 жыл бұрын
Possibly my favorite piece of content you’ve ever made. Well done
@JeffreyGordon3 жыл бұрын
What a treat! Thank you so much both L1T and Jay for sharing your experience and a glimpse to the past! It's really great to see how much current UNIX-like interfaces still builds on the older mainframes.
@tomuyemura7679Ай бұрын
Thank You Jay for all your work Hercules! It's very much appreciated. Keep up the good work sir.
@unclerubo3 жыл бұрын
Wholesome nerds talking about their passion. Truly enjoyable.
@kamilwisz57823 жыл бұрын
As new blood in mainframe I love those kind of videos. It informs people that we are still kicking around. Vast majority of banking systems run still on z/OS, and someone needs to maintain/upgrade it :)
@TheRealTronGuy3 жыл бұрын
Good for you! Get established in the mainframe world and you'll have a job for life.
@liaminwales3 жыл бұрын
Amazing to see such a cool interview, such a cool guy.
@tombouie3 жыл бұрын
The PDP8 was the 1st multi-tasking computer & I used to program the boot-load the PDP8 from my owe memory just before morning coffee (!Coast Guard Rules!).
@AdmV0rl0n3 жыл бұрын
Man - this brings back stuff I have kinda forgotten. In my very youthful know nothing days (not much has changed), I was an operator on S/36 S/38 and went on to AS/400 ops. That's now I series.. I only remember the old stuff as limited, awkward - but I knew very little at the time..
@williamwazere3 жыл бұрын
Very cool guest, talk, and demonstration/exploration. Love it
@oscarcharliezulu3 жыл бұрын
Just keep learning and enjoy it. That’s the way to be productive and most importantly love your job.
@abavariannormiepleb94703 жыл бұрын
Even as a superficial GUI user I found this positively educational 👍
@user-gb4np8it8o3 жыл бұрын
Thanks a lot! :( I'm going to have nightmares of the early '80's, when I was an operator on a 370, processing 10's of thousands of punched cards per night for a knitting mill. The punch/reader literally had core memory, and the repair tech pulled out one of the boards, so I could see it. We were one of 3? remaining card users in the US at that time. Shockingly archaic even then. The 1600 bpi mag tape could be read by eye, when applying magnetic fluid. It took about 10 minutes to power up the dozen or so disk towers, with disks some 2.5 feet across. We had a very expensive and fancy orange plasma display, with four terminals displayed at once. We mounted 60-100 batch tapes per night, and had to clean the tape drives several times during the night. Used a razor tape scraper to cut off the loosened oxide.
@TheRealTronGuy3 жыл бұрын
I love the 3290 (the orange plasma display you mention). I have two of them, and need to get at least one running. I do have the hardware to drive them, and even make them talk to Hercules. And I can tell you've been there and done that.
@vincei42523 жыл бұрын
Awesome. This is super cool. Thanks for sharing this. I've been around since my uni had vaxes and you went to the loud line printer to get your listings.
@TheRealTronGuy3 жыл бұрын
Loud is right. I can't speak to the VAX printers, but the IBM printers had a very distinctive screech when printing a job separator page. I can still hear it 30 years after the last 1403 I used.
@vincei42523 жыл бұрын
@@TheRealTronGuy Ha, indeed. We had an IBM4381 too and a VAX8600 but none of us were fans of CMS preferring VMS and the C compiler on there along with the brand new Apollo workstations that ran UNIX. I miss those days of wonder when we started to see stuff we'd never seen before. Current day just seems like recycling of the same old stuff from last year with very little real innovation. Maybe I'm jaded.
@Catchgate3 жыл бұрын
One of the world's greatest nerds!
@bernardvanderhelm44073 жыл бұрын
Jay, nice presentation! That brings back nice memories. You haven't aged a bit!! ;-)
@WilliamPayneNZ3 жыл бұрын
This is one of the best videos ever.
@michaelheimbrand54243 жыл бұрын
Level1Tech: Please more of this. I loved it. How about something similar on vintage UNIX´s and all of it´s dramatic history and versions? That and something on OpenBSD please.
@Geo2554203 жыл бұрын
As only a user under an IBM programing master. I can see the value of this kind of device. I know the episode is much more than just the hardware. I think a FANCY A$$ setup like that would make any IBM super user ( Mind above all) "Just someone who knows exactly how IBM Green screens functions." TO give the a beautiful gift like that. (I want one; to gift to just the right person who I I admire.)
@metallurgico3 жыл бұрын
Oh gosh I didn't know what was "The Tron Guy". Now I cannot remember him but for that. I love that movie BTW
@tokentech33183 жыл бұрын
Awesome committing this knowledge and history to a resilient and accessible platform
@TheRealTronGuy3 жыл бұрын
That's a lot of my motivation for working with Hercules: to preserve the knowledge and the software so folks who come after don't have to learn the same lessons over again the hard way.
@svenhoek3 жыл бұрын
Oh Wow! Such a cool episode! More like this please!
@zelmatrix7313 жыл бұрын
I really enjoyed your interview with Jay, the Mainframe transactional database and it's resilience to process many transactions, is not going away any time soon. This is why many big corporations including the government use mainframes, like IBM IOS . You just need some connectors to bridge the gap.
@TheRealTronGuy3 жыл бұрын
IBM mainframes process more transactions every day than Google does searches. Every time you use a credit card, or make an airline reservation, you're using a mainframe. We won't speak of the IRS...
@jirehla-ab16712 жыл бұрын
@@TheRealTronGuy what database model did they use on the system 370?
@TheRealTronGuy2 жыл бұрын
@@jirehla-ab1671 Typically, databases on the mainframe in the 370 era were either simple key-value stores (which were built into the OS) or hierarchical databases. The relational database was not really common in that era, and while IBM invented them and SQL, they did not perform well until the 1990s.
@edmartin6245 Жыл бұрын
ibm is now red hat a just another linux company
@whiskeylinux3 жыл бұрын
Fascinating watch! Thanks!
@pilsen89203 жыл бұрын
When a computer janitor and a Mainframe janitor meet, you're bound to hear some amazing stories!
@samghost133 жыл бұрын
This is Amazing! I have to go back and set up some nice code. Thank you!
@user-rc9jf8ng2k3 жыл бұрын
This channel needs more subs.
@MrDbrennen3 жыл бұрын
Amazing, I was talking to a fried of a friend who installed IBM System/370 this evening
@jwoody88153 жыл бұрын
Super interesting DIY machine and showcase. A+
@redsierra86313 жыл бұрын
what a lovely treat
@d79133 жыл бұрын
I love the videos in general but I especially love having these sort of features. Please bring back Ed from Sapphire when you can and of course Mr. Maynard.
@jacobnoori3 жыл бұрын
More like this please and thank you!
@carbon_wavelight3 жыл бұрын
Hey there are young people here! Dozens of us! But really though, this type of content is super cool
@wb8ert2 жыл бұрын
My first work computer was an IBM 370/148, which we later upgraded to an IBM 4341 (1979-1981). In college we had an IBM 370/158 with 2MB of RAM running first VM/370 R6 and later VM/BSEPP (1977-1979 at The Ohio University).
@TheRealTronGuy Жыл бұрын
Mine was a 370/158 with attached processor, with a whopping 6 megabytes of memory - and 4 of that wasn't IBM, but came from some company nobody ever heard of...yeah, Intel, that's the name. Wonder what became of them. We ran MVS 3.8 and CICS on it, and served a coupe of hundred engineering and accounting users.
@TheMarkFerron63 жыл бұрын
I have no idea what you guys are talking about. Just happy to be here.
@hollowknut94733 жыл бұрын
I didn’t have my glasses on and for a moment I thought Ryan achieved time travel
@benjamintrathen61193 жыл бұрын
Great Video, best in class.
@neohubris3 жыл бұрын
never knew the Tron Guy had this project, cool stuff
@happydawg26633 жыл бұрын
This was super interesting, I had to do stuff on 3270 4/5 years ago, banks still use it.
@zbc_1523 жыл бұрын
Holy shit, this is pretty awesome!
@MrFido7up3 жыл бұрын
all these things were there before i am born, but still I watched it and enjoy it. even thu I had to google bunch of things to understand
@ravenovatechnologies65543 жыл бұрын
I used to think I knew a bit about computers and systems. Then I watch this channel and realize just how much deeper this vast ocean is. I'm still treading water in the Marianas trench. Its like staring into the abyss.
@TheRealTronGuy3 жыл бұрын
Believe me, there's a whole lot more to know about this field, even when you think you're an expert...Wendell's forgotten more than I ever knew about the ins and outs of PC hardware and software.
@ravenovatechnologies65543 жыл бұрын
@@TheRealTronGuy that's an incredible compliment coming from you sir. Admittedly the lack of knowledge is terrifying, and makes me (and probably most people) apprehensive about diving to deeper waters. Especially when it's a hobby and not a career. But the temptation of capability is always keeping us in it the water isn't it?
@TheRealTronGuy3 жыл бұрын
@@ravenovatechnologies6554 There's no reason to fear learning about this stuff...that is, unless you're scared of getting sucked in so deep you don't have time for the basics like eating and sleeping... :-)
@ravenovatechnologies65543 жыл бұрын
@@TheRealTronGuy some days I do find the requirements of being a biological creature to be frustrating. I completely empathize with the notion of building a world inside a computer, with potentially no limitations. But then, how many layers deep does the simulation go?
@jarrodurban69272 жыл бұрын
That was fun. Thanks 😀
@jimberry78652 жыл бұрын
This took me back to earlier in my career. Back in the 80's I remember a colleague telling me that some day a mainframe would fit on my desk. It would have been just a laugh to imagine it fitting in a keyboard.
@SpinDlsc3 жыл бұрын
Now I want to get a large keyboard and put a Raspberry Pi inside. Thanks Jay and Wendell! It's always fun to take a little dive into computer history.
@AugustusStClair3 жыл бұрын
I'm still a pc enthusiast newbie, but I love this kinda content!
@satanem3 жыл бұрын
Jay Maynard is Master Controller great interview
@SRQRay3 жыл бұрын
we had a 360 at my jc in bradenton fl 1974
@schtive813 жыл бұрын
You are an internet legend, Mr Tron Guy!
@HellsingSage3 жыл бұрын
This interview was fascinating.
@TheElijahMinistries3 жыл бұрын
Hercules Code is likened to H8622 ; 7345H in a Place turned UPside down, then right side UP like a keyBOARD spinning around.
@ChrisJackson-js8rd Жыл бұрын
the pdp-11 was still in production in 1995 lol (ended in 1997) tho the later hardware was very different than what you'd picture when someone says pdp-11
@h4X0r992213 жыл бұрын
Amazing! A slice of the past!
@bloozee2 жыл бұрын
I loved the teletype as it gave a paper printout ..
@josephroblesjr.89443 жыл бұрын
I'm not on the older side. Just finished high school and am hoping to end up as a Cobol programmer!
@emeraldcelestial10583 жыл бұрын
This is super cool, I'm a lit nerd but you can't ignore computers now! Wendel should have his own late night show he looks comfy in this position.
@camerong49443 жыл бұрын
Do more mainframe content! 25 in the mainframe world. Love the job.
@bartoszm843 жыл бұрын
More history stuff like this pls
3 жыл бұрын
man I wish there would be more mainframe stuff on youtube... I work in mainframe OPs for little over 2 years, I'm just learning REXX, still getting to know lot of things (I feel confident with JCL, but there's lot of stuff that I want to learn that is specific to our site and similar, like Tivoli automation, netview stuff, TWS (especially TWS WAPL)...) at work, I have access to ZPDT, so I can test lot of stuff in safe environment and I wish it would be more accessible, it's just so much better than hercules and tk 4- (hercules is great, but tk4- unfortunately isn't, because IBM doesn't allow it to be) oh yeah, I'm in my 20s and I love this stuff also, I never touched cobol (I'm in back-end of back-end)
@northwanderer8003 жыл бұрын
You should make a dedicated channel to interview all these old guys 🙏
@heimvar3 жыл бұрын
Looking good in tights and tight with code this man is the full package huh
@frosty2953 жыл бұрын
He really should use I3 and configure that theme to match the IBM 360 UI, nice work!
@TheRealTronGuy3 жыл бұрын
I'm not a fan of tiled layouts. It works a lot better on a 1920x1024 monitor, which it what I use it with at home. And thanks!
@frosty2953 жыл бұрын
@@TheRealTronGuy ahh okay I see well your making use of what you've got on the pi desktop and your enjoying it is all that matters! :) Would of taken a long time to learn what you've learnt and watching you explain it all was very interested.
@bloozee2 жыл бұрын
Security was important at my college because they had government contracts on the Burroughs 6700 and the student records of course.
@lko2181cp3 жыл бұрын
Mainframes, if you haven't noticed, still run the world...
@Justin-fn4oe3 жыл бұрын
Where did you get that diet Orange Crush?? Here in SC, its disappeared from the shelves!
@TheRealTronGuy3 жыл бұрын
Wendell keeps cases of them in his office. There was another one out of shot to my right.
@zelmatrix7313 жыл бұрын
So great way to shut it down. That is very important. CMS?
@TheRealTronGuy3 жыл бұрын
Actually, the VM SHUTDOWN command is processed by the CP component itself. I could have shut the machine down with it without ever IPLing CMS, but I would not have been able to cleanly shut down MVS.
@brandonpfister3 жыл бұрын
The production on this was David Letterman quality. Wendell just needed some cards to throw through the screens behind them!
@Nec893 жыл бұрын
I think we need "I janitor with the best of them" on a mug or a shirt.
@christopherjackson21573 жыл бұрын
Wendell always has the best book recommendations
@InquisitorBC3 жыл бұрын
I am trying to find the time segment where he talks about the design book. What was the books name?
@christopherjackson21573 жыл бұрын
@@InquisitorBC the mythological man month
@Level1Techs3 жыл бұрын
Mythical man month and the design of design. Both by Fred brooks
@edmartin6245 Жыл бұрын
MVS HERCULES IS A GREAT LEARNING TOOL: 80% OF Z/OS(IBM CURRENT OS) USES THE SAME COMMANDS AS 1980 MVS THAT YOU CAN RUN ON HERCULES!!! Hercules MVS runs on any laptop or desk top windows or linux or apple computer. IBM software requires a very steep learning curve!! when I taught IBM mainframe courses in the 1980's and 1990's at colleges. MVS/os was a semester course. (jcl and utilities). c, cobol, rpg, pl1 were all semester courses. Good luck if you want to learn IBM software. YES this is still relevant and used today as Z/os. Moshix mainframe channel(youtube) has 200 videos on mvs. IBM manual are on bitsavers website,
@andrekz91383 жыл бұрын
"Those are the blinking lights!" *screen isn't moving* o_O Ahhhh... I love watching people talk about their passions, even if I have zero idea what is happening.
@andrekz91383 жыл бұрын
I also have to say, thank you for coming into L1T for this interview, Jay. You're a legend.
@TheRealTronGuy3 жыл бұрын
@@andrekz9138 Thanks! I had a lot of fun doing it.
@NatesRandomVideo3 жыл бұрын
Good to see Jay still kicking. Hope he's still flying and enjoying aviation also. (Super long story.)
@TheRealTronGuy3 жыл бұрын
I haven't flown an airplane in years, sadly...basically ran out of money and lost the Zodiac during the Great Recession, and have been concentrating my money elsewhere ever since.
@NatesRandomVideo3 жыл бұрын
@@TheRealTronGuy understand Jay, completely... but also a touch sad. Various old-timers at PoA say hi. I tossed the link to this video there.
@TheRealTronGuy3 жыл бұрын
@@NatesRandomVideo *wave* Hi! And I do want to get another airplane, or even get my Zodiac back, but that's going to take a lot more money than I have.
@NatesRandomVideo3 жыл бұрын
@@TheRealTronGuy the only constant in aviation... How much money does it take? All of it! Lol.
@OverKillPlusOne3 жыл бұрын
I hate the modern “sysadmins” that think rebooting it when it panic’s is an appropriate response. Nothing ever gets fixed when reboot it or restart the app is the first and last trouble fixing step.
@karlschuneman79603 жыл бұрын
I have used many 3270 presto screens
@ChrispyNut3 жыл бұрын
No, he's not who he reminds me of, which is the guy from the "Cocoon" movie (Wilford Brimley). I know this because the movie's nearly 40 years old, so he ain't gonna look like that anymore (I just checked and he died last year).
@troyblanks8308 Жыл бұрын
Hail the Tron guy
@hawaiianhaole3 жыл бұрын
We just turned off our mainframe at work a couple months ago. We had a company wide party.
@TheRealTronGuy3 жыл бұрын
What did you replace it with, and what had it been doing? Also, what was it, if you remember, and what did they do with it? If it's of a good vintage, there are museums that would love to have it...
@hawaiianhaole3 жыл бұрын
@@TheRealTronGuy It was replaced with Salesforce and a bevy of other applications. It was used for a health insurance company backend holding all the master records for members. When I started here about 5 years ago only a few people and processes were still using it and it wasn't part of my day job. I get the feeling they are still hurting from decommissioning it (because it couldn't easily replace everything) but it had to be done - I heard the yearly costs to keep it running were exhorbant. "Getting rid of the mainframe" has been a running joke here for 10 years. I don't know the exact model but it was installed in the late 80's, I will see if I can find out. As far as what they are doing with it - I can definitely ask - but it would have to be shipped from Hawaii to whever so it might not be worth the cost!
@TheRealTronGuy3 жыл бұрын
@@hawaiianhaole "Get rid of the mainframe" is a rallying cry at lots of shops, but far fewer actually do it. While you're looking, could you see if they still have install tapes of the operating system software? The applications programs and data are, of course, both private and uninteresting to anyone, but the OS itself should be preserved. If you like, I'll be happy to talk with folks there about that.
@hawaiianhaole3 жыл бұрын
@@TheRealTronGuy I can sure try. I don't actually work in the IT department any more so I don't have the pull I used to in that arena. I do miss my days in the datacenter though!
@TheRealTronGuy3 жыл бұрын
@@hawaiianhaole Well, if you don't ask, the answer will definitely be no! Thanks for trying, even if you don't get anywhere.
@adamkekow65583 жыл бұрын
Moshix ma fajny kanał na ten temat.
@lko2181cp3 жыл бұрын
Unicode IS in the mainframe and has been for 10-15 years at least, FWIW...
@EthanStandel3 жыл бұрын
"Ah yes tight fast code in serverless systems is so important," I say while I deploy another Node Lambda
@TheRealTronGuy3 жыл бұрын
It's important to the guy who's paying for it!
@EthanStandel3 жыл бұрын
@@TheRealTronGuy It's probably better than a full-blown Express server running all the time, depending on the number of invocations but in the case of Node it's probably not great 😅 Fantastic interview btw, pleasure to watch!
@TheRealTronGuy3 жыл бұрын
@@EthanStandel Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it.
@hammerheadcorvette43 жыл бұрын
3:57 "Dusty Old Cobalt" . . . You can make $150 p/hr today maintaining old Cobalt code.
@musclesmouse3 жыл бұрын
I would like to get code forever fixed.
@teamtechworked82173 жыл бұрын
Ironic. I hit the floor in 1981 when my doctor dropped me shortly after birth.
@b2bb3 жыл бұрын
Should I feel old being born in 1995..? Or... _engagement_
@joshinbama832 жыл бұрын
Does he have social media?
@edwuave3 жыл бұрын
Did anyone told you that you looked like Guillermo del Toro?
@KHos733 жыл бұрын
Did you make this video just for CICS? get it?
@TheRealTronGuy3 жыл бұрын
*rimshot*
@KHos733 жыл бұрын
@@TheRealTronGuy Stop giving me that JC-HELL about it :)