Tim Shoppa wrote:
Well, almost all of them have probably been migrating
the same code
from hardware to hardware for two decades already now. I have
some appreciation for how the abstractions were done to make this
possible. But:
Literally, you could drop an AS/400 into my basement, along with all the
software and all the manuals, and I would find myself unable to use it.
I am that completely incapable of working in that architecture or
(even worse) corporate mindset. Obviously lots of people do useful
work in it all the time, but my quote-highly-trained-mind-unquote
is simply unable to adjust to that mindset.
I have written useful assembly code for 1802's, where any register
can be the program counter. I have microcoded for AMD bit-slice.
I have built my own logic devices out of vacuum tubes and relays.
I have rewritten hairy device driver modules for hardware with bizarre
undocumented side-effects on real-time OS's running $10Billion peripherals.
I eventually figured out that to shut down a Windows box, you click on Start
(that was a very tough hurdle for me - you'd be surprised!)
Yet I cannot, and probably will never be able to, use an AS/400
application succesfully. The stumbling blocks for me are really
that enormous.
Tim.
I think that your brethern in the computer world who need to process
customer data would find your world incomprehensible as well. But I
don't see what pointing out your inability to use this particular system
adds to the discussion. You would be lost on any system with a user
interface!