I have to disagree with you on this point: "While it's certainly not impossible, it's certainly very difficult to retrain a HLASM programmer to Java, Python, Javascript etc. It's not because they're not smart enough, they just don't want to."
Maybe I am an exception (though I tend to doubt it) but I thoroughly enjoy learning about new technologies, and I have been in the mainframe programming business since 1968 (at IBM as a co-op student worker in college). Lately I have been doing quite a lot of python and bash shell programming solving "challenges" on IBM's zXplore site and having a great time learning a bunch of new (to me) stuff. I believe that there are a great deal more folk "out here" that would enjoy learning "new stuff" if only they were given the opportunity to do so. YMMV of course, but I wanted to make the point that not ALL "old timers" are technophobes of the "new stuff". Peter -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> On Behalf Of David Crayford Sent: Monday, February 14, 2022 3:26 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Holy Moly ... You make some good points in this post. None of us on this forum are getting any younger and IBM-MAIN doesn't seem to attract young people who prefer platforms like Stack Overflow or Slack workspaces. It may be an unpopular opinion, but it's important to concentrate on millenials now. A large percentage of developers in my location are in their 60s and close to retirement. It's not easy to train young people to back-fill as our legacy products are written in HLASM and require deep technical knowledge of MVS subsystems. It's optimistic to speculate that it will take 5 years to bring somebody up to speed when it's probably more like 10. We hope that now we are all working from home that some of our guys will go on until 70. We are also modernizing our products and for that we need young guys. While it's certainly not impossible, it's certainly very difficult to retrain a HLASM programmer to Java, Python, Javascript etc. It's not because they're not smart enough, they just don't want to. -- This message and any attachments are intended only for the use of the addressee and may contain information that is privileged and confidential. If the reader of the message is not the intended recipient or an authorized representative of the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail and delete the message and any attachments from your system. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
