Hello Forum!

[Tanu Banerjee]

Hi,

I work in COBOL, JCL, DB2, VSAM and some more technologies. Most of the time I see people working in these technologies. How can we learn other technologies in mainframes? What is best way to learn something new in this field?

[Anuj Dhawan]

Hello Tanu and welcome to the Forums,

As they say in Bengali - Āpani kēmana āchēna!

It's nice to know that you want to learn more in this field. Actually, the very thought to have a will-to-learn is the first step to learn anything; if you have that half the battle is already won. Said that, these days there are many alternatives to learn new disciplines tough I think studying (note - I did not said 'read') the manuals remains at the top of the list. Though I understand this might not be applicable when you want to learn about a specific tool but I doubt you'd do that unless you are required to work with the tool.

You can get started with participating in Forums to see what is happening and what kind of questions are asked in the area of your interest. Study to find the answers to those questions. Some of the disciplines I think you can learn your own, for example:

1. For assembler try these:
   1. Re: How can I learn Assembler?
   2. Hercules, z390, zCOBOL, CBT Tape Files.
2. You can also try your hands with Hercules:
   1. Do we have some free Mainframe simulator somewhere?
   2. Re: Do we have some free Mainframe simulator somewhere?

[Tanu Banerjee]

Hello Tanu and welcome to the Forums,

As they say in Bengali - Āpani kēmana āchēna!

It's nice to know that you want to learn more in this field. Actually, the very thought to have a will-to-learn is the first step to learn anything; if you have that half the battle is already won. Said that, these days there are many alternatives to learn new disciplines tough I think studying (note - I did not said 'read') the manuals remains at the top of the list. Though I understand this might not be applicable when you want to learn about a specific tool but I doubt you'd do that unless you are required to work with the tool.

You can get started with participating in Forums to see what is happening and what kind of questions are asked in the area of your interest. Study to find the answers to those questions. Some of the disciplines I think you can learn your own, for example:

1. For assembler try these:
   1. Re: How can I learn Assembler?
   2. Hercules, z390, zCOBOL, CBT Tape Files.
2. You can also try your hands with Hercules:
   1. Do we have some free Mainframe simulator somewhere?
   2. Re: Do we have some free Mainframe simulator somewhere?

Hah ha...Āmi bhālō āchi!

Thanks for the inspiration and links. Do we have some download link for z390 on this site? Does it require some special setup on the PC?

[nicc]

Do we have some download link for z390 on this site?

Why not look around yourself?

Does it require some special setup on the PC?

Why not research those links, and the many others that you can find by a simple google?

[Tanu Banerjee]

I did and installed it too. But as I am new to this and we have a Forum here, I ask to avoid newbie errors.

[nicc]

newbie error - asking first instead of last. You want to know if somethng is available on a site? Look around, search, ask only if you cannot find something - you may have missed it.