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andrewduckerIn answer to Julia:
I work as a systems developer for Standard Life. This means I get to program computers all day, or rather at the moment it means I get to surf the web while my mentor and my analyst change the specification I was working from about a foot to my left.
I work mostly in COBOL, a programming language that was first invented in the 60s, although I'm largely working with a version that dates from the 90s, which isn't quite so bad. At some point I hope to manouver myself into either the VB or Java teams (both more modern languages), and I've been assured that this won't be too hard once I've got some experience.
I currently spend most of my time looking at an entirely textual screen that looks something like this:
which is pretty sucky, but we've been assured that more modern tools are on their way and we should be working in something that uses, *gasp*, windows by the end of 2012.
I actually enjoy programming, so I'm putting up with the basicness of my current work with the intention that it will turn into something better in a bit.
I work as a systems developer for Standard Life. This means I get to program computers all day, or rather at the moment it means I get to surf the web while my mentor and my analyst change the specification I was working from about a foot to my left.
I work mostly in COBOL, a programming language that was first invented in the 60s, although I'm largely working with a version that dates from the 90s, which isn't quite so bad. At some point I hope to manouver myself into either the VB or Java teams (both more modern languages), and I've been assured that this won't be too hard once I've got some experience.
I currently spend most of my time looking at an entirely textual screen that looks something like this:
which is pretty sucky, but we've been assured that more modern tools are on their way and we should be working in something that uses, *gasp*, windows by the end of 2012.
I actually enjoy programming, so I'm putting up with the basicness of my current work with the intention that it will turn into something better in a bit.
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no subject
Date: 2003-06-10 04:05 am (UTC)VB isn't hard (but is too easy for non-experts to do 'wrongly' - i.e. slow and crap). I can read and make sense of Java code just fine (even though I haven't done any beyond 'hello world' I was once offered a job in it, so it can't be hard).
If you are a programmer with decent grasp of concepts then it takes about 3 weeks to get useful with a new language (to be truly expert depends these days on size of the standard libraries/object models/framework).
The code is never the hard bit, as you well know. The people are the hard bit.
no subject
Date: 2003-06-10 04:10 am (UTC)But it's much nicer working with a nice IDE and a language that can manage function calls (and has local variables would be nice too).
Oh, and the people here are great.
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Date: 2003-06-10 04:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-10 05:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-10 05:18 am (UTC)It's getting tranferred to that team that's the tricky bit...
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Date: 2003-06-10 05:25 am (UTC)But ..... WinCE is crap .... It doesn't do what it says it does .... It doesn't document what it does do ..... and it sometimes does something completely different than you expect a windows machine to do.
Oh and the IDE crashes up to three times a day
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Date: 2003-06-10 05:30 am (UTC)Or are all WinCE systems compatible?
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Date: 2003-06-10 05:35 am (UTC)This means that you end up with a customised SDK which you then program against.
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Date: 2003-06-10 05:44 am (UTC)Roll on .NET CLR for WinCE. That should simplify things a hell of a lot.
heh
Date: 2003-06-10 07:29 am (UTC)Re: heh
Date: 2003-06-10 07:38 am (UTC)SLACs legacy systems have been around since the dawn of time. Trust me, compared to the Delta or Assembler programs they have, coding in Cobol is a god-send. It's not the language that's bad, anyway - though it's a little rigid and simplistic. It's the interface.
My team (I sit across the room from Andy) will shortly (licences and bugs permitting) be piloting Microfocus' Mainframe Express - which basically sticks a nice GUI and comiler onto Cobol, and turns it into a sort of VB6-lite. Hopefully, if that goes well, we'll get it rolled out across the division and start dragging SLACs systems kicking and screaming into the 20th century....
Sadly, there are more issues with the Mainframe environment that just 'Cobol', so MFE will only sort one wee aspect of what makes our jobs such 'fun'.
On the bright side, I will shortly be working on a VB project for a wee while. Huzzah!
Re: heh
Date: 2003-06-10 07:40 am (UTC)Well, not so much problems as limitations. no functions, for a start. I'd kill for functions.
Re: heh
Date: 2003-06-10 07:41 am (UTC)Other languages (VB or Java) are sometimes used for writign front-end applications in tho.
Re: heh
Date: 2003-06-10 07:45 am (UTC)That is, why not use VB or Java for the new development?
Re: heh
Date: 2003-06-10 07:49 am (UTC)2)VB and Java don't work on mainframes.
3)New development needs to fit in seamlessly with the old development.
4)COBOL works very well for it's purpose, it just looks clunky compared to more modern languages.