Hello All!

[Pradeep Kumar]

Hi,

I am working in a mainframe company on Support mostly. But get to work in development too. I work with COBOL, JCL and VSAM.

Can I move to a pure development project? What should I learn more for this?

Thanks,

[Anuj Dhawan]

Hello Pradeep and Welcome to the Forums,

Moving to a development project should not be a big challenge. But this question can be best answered by someone at your shop. If I were you, I'd ask to my superior and the superior from Development team. Tell them my aspirations. Before doing that, you can do a small homework also by writing some brand new program, similar to an existing COBOL program (assuming COBOL is one of the languages used in development) - this might help to showcase your readiness and understanding of the development process.

Good Luck!

[Pradeep Kumar]

Hello Pradeep and Welcome to the Forums,

Moving to a development project should not be a big challenge. But this question can be best answered by someone at your shop. If I were you, I'd ask to my superior and the superior from Development team. Tell them my aspirations. Before doing that, you can do a small homework also by writing some brand new program, similar to an existing COBOL program (assuming COBOL is one of the languages used in development) - this might help to showcase your readiness and understanding of the development process.

Good Luck!

Thanks for a thoughtful suggestion. We are not allowed to write the program then how can I write a new program?

[nicc]

Do you have a PC at home? If so you can get free rexx interpreters, free cobol compilers/interpreters, free python, ruby, perl etc etc etc to practice programming.

[Anuj Dhawan]

Thanks for a thoughtful suggestion. We are not allowed to write the program then how can I write a new program?

I want to learn driving but I'm a cook - how can I do that? 

Either find ways to do it or find excuses not to do it!


You've ISPF editor with you, start from there. Write program in it when you get time, ask a co-worker to compile it for you. I'm very much sure with continuous persuasion you'll get it going. If that's not what works for you, download GNUCobol (like nicc indicated) and start from there. Write program and talk to your manager about your capabilities. 

Try!