A couple points (and not new ones, but I guess they need repeating): 1. You don't need a zPDT, RUTz, or zEnterprise machine to develop and test for z/OS and its middleware. In fact, in many cases you don't need to pay even one dollar. IBM's PartnerWorld Validation Program for z/OS is one notable example:
https://www-304.ibm.com/partnerworld/wps/servlet/ContentHandler/stg_com_agr_zos That's a real zEnterprise machine located in Dallas, as it happens. Free is a rather good price! Here's some more information: https://www-304.ibm.com/partnerworld/wps/servlet/ContentHandler/isv_com_tsp_iic_resources_systemz_remote_offerings As an aside, software vendors sometimes cannot replicate customer-experienced bugs no matter what resources they have internally or externally. That's a common problem on other platforms and, in my experience, substantially less common (though not unknown) on IBM mainframes. At least with IBM mainframes there's an incredibly rich set of diagnostic facilities for problem determination and fault analysis, even in the base z/OS operating system and zEnterprise hardware products. 2. You're *already* developing for mainframes if you selected among several popular application hosting environments. Java Enterprise Edition (JEE) is one notable example among several. In fact, lately (with IBM's WebSphere Liberty Profile) you don't even need to add a JEE runtime to z/OS to run JEE applications. You just add the application itself, and if you're licensed for base z/OS you already have what you need on z/OS. If you've tried the WebSphere Liberty Profile you know what I mean, and if you haven't you should. I think this reality is a major part of the story that an awful lot of forum participants have missed or don't fully appreciate. Almost nobody develops on the same machine to which they deploy -- anybody heard of the Internet? -- and most developers are developing in ways entirely consistent with deployment to zEnterprise machines. IBM has "brought the mountain to (you know who)" and continues to do that as application hosting environments evolve while also preserving, enhancing, and extending existing application environments. It has always been so, actually. So whether you're a JEE, JRuby/Ruby, Jython/Python, LAMP, Mono, MUMPS/M, or... whatever you develop with, chances are excellent you're already developing for zEnterprise (z/OS and/or Linux on z). And if you want to validate that reality for your particular application, is free OK? I hope so. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Timothy Sipples Consulting Enterprise IT Architect (Based in Singapore) E-Mail: [email protected] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
