Chatting With Jay Maynard (The Tron Guy!): Mainframe Emulation, IBM Keyboards, + More!
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 20 окт 2021
- Check out the Hercules Emulator here: github.com/hercules-390/hyperion
/ tronguy
**********************************
Check us out online at the following places:
+ Website: level1techs.com/
+ Forums: forum.level1techs.com/
+ Store: store.level1techs.com/
+ Patreon: / level1
+ L1 Twitter: / level1techs
+ L1/PGP Streaming: / teampgp
+ Business Inquiries/Brand Integrations: Queries@level1techs.com
IMPORTANT Any email lacking “level1techs.com” should be ignored and immediately reported to Queries@level1techs.com.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Intro and Outro Music By: Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/b... 
Наука
This type of content is what will keep Level1Tech going for a long, long time. Thanks! Also: big ups to whoever filmed and edited this, VERY nice quality and presentation.
You think ancient code and procedures are good?
Preservation.
@@MegaWhiteBeaner There have been many times where we just forget how it all started and when things go very wrong there are none of the older pioneers around to help.
Nasa had to bring in some old guys to fix something a while ago because the knowledge was lost. Languages die and skills are lost etc.
@@MegaWhiteBeaner oof, don't be naive
@@MegaWhiteBeaner When they are better than what we have, YES! As a species we have forgotten more than we will ever know, so, keeping something that shows us lost efficiency is not a bad thing.
This was awesome. I love interviews with older, "hardened", shall I say, tech folks. What a great guest. More like this please!
Wendell, as an old mainframe guy I appreciate that you had Jay on as a guest. What Jay didn't mention is that if if you run MVS and/or VM and understand how it works, your aren't far from understanding how mainframes work today. Please invite Jay back again for a deeper look into this subject.
Hi Bob, What do you mean by 'understanding how mainframes work today' ?
@@Winilu Hi Luc. I meant that if you use the old operating systems that are available for Hercules, you will have a good base for moving to the modern versions. Things like JCL and the general programming principles are mostly the same.
@@semuhphor Hi Bob, what you wrote is true. JCL and all stuff you can find under MVS... Good to know also is, that Hercules permits you to run actual releases of MVS and/or VM too.
Don't know whats you're experience ? Personnaly I find zOs a very robust and secure (the best) OS ever used. 😉
@@Winilu In the 70's to the early 80's, I was a VSE & VM programmer and systems programmer (did both). In college I did a fair amount with OS MVT 21.8. Since then, I've been in PC's (and wrote for PC Magazine and a couple of ZD books.) I would love to go back to writing assembler on the mainframe, but I doubt it will happen. I have thought about getting a learning the ZD&T Learners edition from IBM to play with z/OS. How about you?
@@semuhphor Hi Bob. I begun working on a IBM 370/145 (running OS/VS1) in the early 80's too .. as an operator. Quickly I switched to team System Team. Finally I never stopped exercising this work ! I dare to say today that I'm a z/Os Expert. I have indeed a very deep knowledgde of MVS. As System Manager it was of course my responsability.
I try to stay in touch with former engineers on all sides (IBM,...) but I feel that the world is changing. This is why young people everywhere are being trained for the IBM mainframe platform and this is very important today.
Now being retired, I continue to help young people interested in this world. Therefore Hercules helps me as wel.
It's too difficult for me today to leave/forget this world in which I've worked for so long 🙂
Luc.
Mainframes on level1techs, this is a dream come true.
+1
The epic crossover we didn't know was possible.
P.S. Please invite this man for future collabs.
Awe man, I worked at a Ministry of Natural Resources for a hardware update, updating old IBMs to Dell PCs and the amount of old mechanical keyboards that we trashed for the free Dell ones...made me wonder why at the time...now makes me really mad. There was only 1 person in the building that didn't want to change keyboards and man did he ever make the right decision.
I remembered a while back you (Wendell) met some cool guy in some event and said, this mainframe guy was the smartest dude you have met.
Glad you got him to be here and spill some knowledge. Great interview!
Wendell has come back from the future to teach Wendell some mainframe tricks to save the world.
I only just stopped using Mainframe after 16 years in 2021. Have to say I actually miss it. This is cool.
Once upon a time, I had an entire VAX-8800 Cluster (with about 50 disk-drives) as my own personal computer, since I was its only user, blasting away on ballistic missile defense (SDI Program) simulations programmed in both VAX-C, VAX-Pascal, and FORTRAN77! You could hear the drive heads thunking every time the program wrote out 1 time step, with 95% CPU utilization. Fun times indeed. P.S.: great breakdown on the Raspberry-Pi/Hercules!
Thanks a lot! :( I'm going to have nightmares of the early '80's, when I was an operator on a 370, processing 10's of thousands of punched cards per night for a knitting mill. The punch/reader literally had core memory, and the repair tech pulled out one of the boards, so I could see it. We were one of 3? remaining card users in the US at that time. Shockingly archaic even then. The 1600 bpi mag tape could be read by eye, when applying magnetic fluid. It took about 10 minutes to power up the dozen or so disk towers, with disks some 2.5 feet across. We had a very expensive and fancy orange plasma display, with four terminals displayed at once. We mounted 60-100 batch tapes per night, and had to clean the tape drives several times during the night. Used a razor tape scraper to cut off the loosened oxide.
I love the 3290 (the orange plasma display you mention). I have two of them, and need to get at least one running. I do have the hardware to drive them, and even make them talk to Hercules.
And I can tell you've been there and done that.
Oh gosh I didn't know what was "The Tron Guy". Now I cannot remember him but for that.
I love that movie BTW
I've worked with S/390 and AS400 for 15-16 years, love it.
I own an AS/400 model 170. Don't use it as much as I'd like to. One thing I want to do is to get it talking to my two R/390s (a mainframe processor in an RS/6000, and runs real mainframe operating systems).
Such an great guest! Love his calm demeanor.
I love how he has to be fidgeting with something while he talks, just like Wendel
The PDP8 was the 1st multi-tasking computer & I used to program the boot-load the PDP8 from my owe memory just before morning coffee (!Coast Guard Rules!).
What a legendary project I never knew about. Mind, blown. Thanks!
I'm in my middle 40s. Working in the hospital data center from 2000 to 2010 in the Chicago burbs. Brought back some good memories - Thanks!!!
Level1Tech: Please more of this. I loved it. How about something similar on vintage UNIX´s and all of it´s dramatic history and versions? That and something on OpenBSD please.
Man - this brings back stuff I have kinda forgotten. In my very youthful know nothing days (not much has changed), I was an operator on S/36 S/38 and went on to AS/400 ops. That's now I series..
I only remember the old stuff as limited, awkward - but I knew very little at the time..
I didn’t have my glasses on and for a moment I thought Ryan achieved time travel
my first IT job was a IBM mainframe Operator, what a great trip down memory lane. THANK YOU
As new blood in mainframe I love those kind of videos. It informs people that we are still kicking around. Vast majority of banking systems run still on z/OS, and someone needs to maintain/upgrade it :)
Good for you! Get established in the mainframe world and you'll have a job for life.
This took me back to earlier in my career. Back in the 80's I remember a colleague telling me that some day a mainframe would fit on my desk. It would have been just a laugh to imagine it fitting in a keyboard.
Even as a superficial GUI user I found this positively educational 👍
Wholesome nerds talking about their passion. Truly enjoyable.
I used to think I knew a bit about computers and systems. Then I watch this channel and realize just how much deeper this vast ocean is. I'm still treading water in the Marianas trench. Its like staring into the abyss.
Believe me, there's a whole lot more to know about this field, even when you think you're an expert...Wendell's forgotten more than I ever knew about the ins and outs of PC hardware and software.
@@TheRealTronGuy that's an incredible compliment coming from you sir. Admittedly the lack of knowledge is terrifying, and makes me (and probably most people) apprehensive about diving to deeper waters. Especially when it's a hobby and not a career. But the temptation of capability is always keeping us in it the water isn't it?
@@ravenovatechnologies6554 There's no reason to fear learning about this stuff...that is, unless you're scared of getting sucked in so deep you don't have time for the basics like eating and sleeping... :-)
@@TheRealTronGuy some days I do find the requirements of being a biological creature to be frustrating. I completely empathize with the notion of building a world inside a computer, with potentially no limitations. But then, how many layers deep does the simulation go?
Hey there are young people here! Dozens of us! But really though, this type of content is super cool
When a computer janitor and a Mainframe janitor meet, you're bound to hear some amazing stories!
Fascinating watch! Thanks!
Awesome committing this knowledge and history to a resilient and accessible platform
That's a lot of my motivation for working with Hercules: to preserve the knowledge and the software so folks who come after don't have to learn the same lessons over again the hard way.
Possibly my favorite piece of content you’ve ever made. Well done
What a treat! Thank you so much both L1T and Jay for sharing your experience and a glimpse to the past! It's really great to see how much current UNIX-like interfaces still builds on the older mainframes.
Jay, nice presentation! That brings back nice memories. You haven't aged a bit!! ;-)
I love the videos in general but I especially love having these sort of features. Please bring back Ed from Sapphire when you can and of course Mr. Maynard.
Very cool guest, talk, and demonstration/exploration. Love it
Oh Wow! Such a cool episode! More like this please!
Amazing to see such a cool interview, such a cool guy.
Just keep learning and enjoy it. That’s the way to be productive and most importantly love your job.
My first work computer was an IBM 370/148, which we later upgraded to an IBM 4341 (1979-1981). In college we had an IBM 370/158 with 2MB of RAM running first VM/370 R6 and later VM/BSEPP (1977-1979 at The Ohio University).
Mine was a 370/158 with attached processor, with a whopping 6 megabytes of memory - and 4 of that wasn't IBM, but came from some company nobody ever heard of...yeah, Intel, that's the name. Wonder what became of them.
We ran MVS 3.8 and CICS on it, and served a coupe of hundred engineering and accounting users.
More like this please and thank you!
One of the world's greatest nerds!
Awesome. This is super cool. Thanks for sharing this. I've been around since my uni had vaxes and you went to the loud line printer to get your listings.
Loud is right. I can't speak to the VAX printers, but the IBM printers had a very distinctive screech when printing a job separator page. I can still hear it 30 years after the last 1403 I used.
@@TheRealTronGuy Ha, indeed. We had an IBM4381 too and a VAX8600 but none of us were fans of CMS preferring VMS and the C compiler on there along with the brand new Apollo workstations that ran UNIX. I miss those days of wonder when we started to see stuff we'd never seen before. Current day just seems like recycling of the same old stuff from last year with very little real innovation. Maybe I'm jaded.
all these things were there before i am born, but still I watched it and enjoy it. even thu I had to google bunch of things to understand
This is Amazing! I have to go back and set up some nice code. Thank you!
This is one of the best videos ever.
I really enjoyed your interview with Jay, the Mainframe transactional database and it's resilience to process many transactions, is not going away any time soon. This is why many big corporations including the government use mainframes, like IBM IOS . You just need some connectors to bridge the gap.
IBM mainframes process more transactions every day than Google does searches. Every time you use a credit card, or make an airline reservation, you're using a mainframe. We won't speak of the IRS...
@@TheRealTronGuy what database model did they use on the system 370?
@@jirehla-ab1671 Typically, databases on the mainframe in the 370 era were either simple key-value stores (which were built into the OS) or hierarchical databases. The relational database was not really common in that era, and while IBM invented them and SQL, they did not perform well until the 1990s.
ibm is now red hat a just another linux company
Now I want to get a large keyboard and put a Raspberry Pi inside. Thanks Jay and Wendell! It's always fun to take a little dive into computer history.
This interview was fascinating.
As only a user under an IBM programing master. I can see the value of this kind of device.
I know the episode is much more than just the hardware.
I think a FANCY A$$ setup like that would make any IBM super user ( Mind above all) "Just someone who knows exactly how IBM Green screens functions."
TO give the a beautiful gift like that.
(I want one; to gift to just the right person who I I admire.)
Amazing, I was talking to a fried of a friend who installed IBM System/370 this evening
Super interesting DIY machine and showcase. A+
Great Video, best in class.
This channel needs more subs.
never knew the Tron Guy had this project, cool stuff
what a lovely treat
This was super interesting, I had to do stuff on 3270 4/5 years ago, banks still use it.
I'm still a pc enthusiast newbie, but I love this kinda content!
Jay Maynard is Master Controller great interview
More history stuff like this pls
man I wish there would be more mainframe stuff on youtube... I work in mainframe OPs for little over 2 years, I'm just learning REXX, still getting to know lot of things (I feel confident with JCL, but there's lot of stuff that I want to learn that is specific to our site and similar, like Tivoli automation, netview stuff, TWS (especially TWS WAPL)...)
at work, I have access to ZPDT, so I can test lot of stuff in safe environment and I wish it would be more accessible, it's just so much better than hercules and tk 4- (hercules is great, but tk4- unfortunately isn't, because IBM doesn't allow it to be)
oh yeah, I'm in my 20s and I love this stuff
also, I never touched cobol (I'm in back-end of back-end)
That was fun. Thanks 😀
Holy shit, this is pretty awesome!
I have no idea what you guys are talking about. Just happy to be here.
Do more mainframe content!
25 in the mainframe world. Love the job.
He really should use I3 and configure that theme to match the IBM 360 UI, nice work!
I'm not a fan of tiled layouts. It works a lot better on a 1920x1024 monitor, which it what I use it with at home. And thanks!
@@TheRealTronGuy ahh okay I see well your making use of what you've got on the pi desktop and your enjoying it is all that matters! :)
Would of taken a long time to learn what you've learnt and watching you explain it all was very interested.
I loved the teletype as it gave a paper printout ..
Amazing! A slice of the past!
You should make a dedicated channel to interview all these old guys 🙏
"Those are the blinking lights!" *screen isn't moving* o_O
Ahhhh... I love watching people talk about their passions, even if I have zero idea what is happening.
I also have to say, thank you for coming into L1T for this interview, Jay. You're a legend.
@@andrekz9138 Thanks! I had a lot of fun doing it.
This is super cool, I'm a lit nerd but you can't ignore computers now! Wendel should have his own late night show he looks comfy in this position.
I'm not on the older side. Just finished high school and am hoping to end up as a Cobol programmer!
You are an internet legend, Mr Tron Guy!
we had a 360 at my jc in bradenton fl 1974
Looking good in tights and tight with code this man is the full package huh
Hercules Code is likened to H8622 ; 7345H in a Place turned UPside down, then right side UP like a keyBOARD spinning around.
Security was important at my college because they had government contracts on the Burroughs 6700 and the student records of course.
Mainframes, if you haven't noticed, still run the world...
The production on this was David Letterman quality. Wendell just needed some cards to throw through the screens behind them!
I think we need "I janitor with the best of them" on a mug or a shirt.
So great way to shut it down. That is very important. CMS?
Actually, the VM SHUTDOWN command is processed by the CP component itself. I could have shut the machine down with it without ever IPLing CMS, but I would not have been able to cleanly shut down MVS.
MVS HERCULES IS A GREAT LEARNING TOOL: 80% OF Z/OS(IBM CURRENT OS)
USES THE SAME COMMANDS AS 1980 MVS THAT YOU CAN RUN ON HERCULES!!!
Hercules MVS runs on any laptop or desk top windows or linux or apple computer.
IBM software requires a very steep learning curve!! when I taught IBM mainframe
courses in the 1980's and 1990's at colleges. MVS/os was a semester course.
(jcl and utilities). c, cobol, rpg, pl1 were all semester courses. Good luck if you
want to learn IBM software. YES this is still relevant and used today as Z/os.
Moshix mainframe channel(youtube) has 200 videos on mvs.
IBM manual are on bitsavers website,
I hate the modern “sysadmins” that think rebooting it when it panic’s is an appropriate response. Nothing ever gets fixed when reboot it or restart the app is the first and last trouble fixing step.
the pdp-11 was still in production in 1995 lol (ended in 1997)
tho the later hardware was very different than what you'd picture when someone says pdp-11
Wendell always has the best book recommendations
I am trying to find the time segment where he talks about the design book. What was the books name?
@@InquisitorBC the mythological man month
Mythical man month and the design of design. Both by Fred brooks
Moshix ma fajny kanał na ten temat.
I have used many 3270 presto screens
Hail the Tron guy
this should be pretty cool
this is huge
Where did you get that diet Orange Crush?? Here in SC, its disappeared from the shelves!
Wendell keeps cases of them in his office. There was another one out of shot to my right.
COBOL is alive and well.
Good to see Jay still kicking. Hope he's still flying and enjoying aviation also. (Super long story.)
I haven't flown an airplane in years, sadly...basically ran out of money and lost the Zodiac during the Great Recession, and have been concentrating my money elsewhere ever since.
@@TheRealTronGuy understand Jay, completely... but also a touch sad. Various old-timers at PoA say hi. I tossed the link to this video there.
@@NatesRandomVideo *wave* Hi! And I do want to get another airplane, or even get my Zodiac back, but that's going to take a lot more money than I have.
@@TheRealTronGuy the only constant in aviation... How much money does it take? All of it! Lol.
Ironic. I hit the floor in 1981 when my doctor dropped me shortly after birth.
No, he's not who he reminds me of, which is the guy from the "Cocoon" movie (Wilford Brimley). I know this because the movie's nearly 40 years old, so he ain't gonna look like that anymore (I just checked and he died last year).
Should I feel old being born in 1995..? Or...
_engagement_
Man I thought it was Tom Smykowski in the thumbnail
Lol. I hate emojis! They did bring down a file rename script I wrote
3:57 "Dusty Old Cobalt" . . . You can make $150 p/hr today maintaining old Cobalt code.
"Ah yes tight fast code in serverless systems is so important," I say while I deploy another Node Lambda
It's important to the guy who's paying for it!
@@TheRealTronGuy It's probably better than a full-blown Express server running all the time, depending on the number of invocations but in the case of Node it's probably not great 😅 Fantastic interview btw, pleasure to watch!
@@EthanStandel Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it.
Does he have social media?