My introduction to z/OS mirrors the posters. A week of trying to google random keywords, copy JCL, waffle about the system trying to get anything done. Eventually copied out some JCL from a frame of a paused youtube video, and another four hours to track down a system library I needed. But the entire system is fascinating and it kept me going. The once unappealing 600page manual on IBM Enterprise Cobol became the defacto documentation, reading Redbooks and listening to the Terminal Talk podcast became valuable sources of information and the acronym soup started to be a little less fuzzy. Stack Overflow became nearly useless.
Then I found Master The Mainframe and got to play with a properly maintained LPAR with some (admittedly handhold-y guides). Joy! Non-crusty versions of z/OS. Did you know you can generate JSON with Cobol and I've managed to bolt this on to a webservice that interfaces with DB2? I sure as hell didn't! (z/OS Connect is a better way to do this though).
It's only been a month or two, but the amount of time I spend going against my intuition is beautiful. It's really made me reconsider the way I use/design computing facilities in other avenues. I'm not a professional or employed programmer, but this is the most fun I've had since playing with distributed computing, and in Cobol nonetheless. I even set up a 3270 styled blog due to it.
Then I found Master The Mainframe and got to play with a properly maintained LPAR with some (admittedly handhold-y guides). Joy! Non-crusty versions of z/OS. Did you know you can generate JSON with Cobol and I've managed to bolt this on to a webservice that interfaces with DB2? I sure as hell didn't! (z/OS Connect is a better way to do this though).
It's only been a month or two, but the amount of time I spend going against my intuition is beautiful. It's really made me reconsider the way I use/design computing facilities in other avenues. I'm not a professional or employed programmer, but this is the most fun I've had since playing with distributed computing, and in Cobol nonetheless. I even set up a 3270 styled blog due to it.
[1] https://iebdg.tumblr.com/