The Code-a-thon
In light of the IBM Z Day on the 1st of October where I was invited to speak on 2 panels, I thought I’d write a little about the first time I came in contact with the Z community. During my training Leendert, our trainer, thought it was really important for us to not just have the knowledge of the mainframe but also about the people around it. So because we were doing really good lesson wise and we were ahead of the course he invited Frank and Joris from IBM to organize a little code-a-thon for us.
So when the day of the code-a-thon came around I have to admit I was a little nervous. That might have been my social anxiety playing up a little but I think that’s normal. Especially because me and my colleagues saw the elitist side of mainframe on some of the forums, where the snarky and snooty prevailed. But that feeling immediately dissipated as I walked into our training room and I saw both Joris and Frank. They were really warm and welcoming towards all of us. I think that interaction combined with the passion of mainframe passed on from our trainer made me want to be part of the IBM Z Community. And look at me now, I love it here, everyone here is so amazing in their own right.
Back to the code-a-thon, it was a really nice day with a good program. Before lunch we talked a little about the impact mainframe still has and about some of the new developments like ZOAU and others. Frank also showed us some interaction between C and COBOL which was really interesting. I have to say you could tangibly feel the passion they have for the mainframe. During lunch we were talking about the Z community at large and events that could possibly be interesting for us but also how we could contribute to the community.
After lunch the actual code-a-thon started. it was a fun little exercise where we first had to find a password and then with that password decrypt a record we retrieved through db2. This is the first time we came in contact with db2. It felt nice to finally be able to retrieve something from a database. Doing that in other languages than COBOL and JCL is so easy but then you get on the mainframe and it genuinely feels so difficult. Having to pre-compile and bind a plan feels so excessive and complex for no reason but more on that later when I write about my experience learning db2.
Eventually I got everything working, found the answer, got my prize and had an amazing time.
Until I write again,
Lennie