Hacker News: lboc

New comment by lboc in "FPS.cob: A first person shooter in COBOL"

lboc — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 01:43:09 +0000

I think Intercomm is bundled in the TK5 distribution of MVS 3.8 now. They got clearance from the owners a while back as I recall.

I'm assuming it's the same Intercomm you're talking about.

New comment by lboc in "Tristan Davey's Punch Card Archive"

lboc — Fri, 22 May 2026 04:52:38 +0000

The s390x Linux install under z/VM boots from a virtual card reader, from cards generated by a virtual card punch from the installation files.

New comment by lboc in "Is GitHub Down?"

lboc — Thu, 11 Dec 2025 13:59:05 +0000

Me too. Status page predictably claiming 'All systems operational'!

New comment by lboc in "At Least 13 People Died by Suicide Amid U.K. Post Office Scandal, Report Says"

lboc — Fri, 11 Jul 2025 12:41:39 +0000

A good summary from the UK IT trade publication that broke the story:

https://www.computerweekly.com/feature/Post-Office-Horizon-s...

Not sure if this requires sign-in/subscription, so apologies in advance. I did neither and have access to the full article.

New comment by lboc in "Show HN: Connecting an IBM 3151 terminal to a mainframe [video]"

lboc — Wed, 09 Apr 2025 04:46:29 +0000

Wow, Kilostream. There's a name I never thought I'd hear again :-)

New comment by lboc in "Show HN: Connecting an IBM 3151 terminal to a mainframe [video]"

lboc — Wed, 09 Apr 2025 04:45:24 +0000

There's a bunch of documentation for MVS 3.8J (or OS/VS2) on Bitsavers.

IBM provide free 1-year Z access via the Zxplore program.

New comment by lboc in "Show HN: Connecting an IBM 3151 terminal to a mainframe [video]"

lboc — Wed, 09 Apr 2025 04:43:45 +0000

Haven't used it for a couple of years, but I think it's still a free login ID with 1-year validity. You can re-apply every year.

New comment by lboc in "Recommendation for non-DOS/Unix open source OS outside x86/X64"

lboc — Wed, 26 Mar 2025 02:52:52 +0000

Are we to assume you want it to run on actual hardware? I imagine there are a number of OSes that qualify if emulation is acceptable. One I like:

http://www.vm370.org/

Full S/370 assembler source included.

New comment by lboc in "A tiny self-remaking C program"

lboc — Tue, 10 Sep 2024 08:36:32 +0000

Seems to be replicating mainframe JCL and in-stream data sets. Processing instructions and input are combined in a single file. Used all the time for compiling, running utilities etc.

I'm guessing that this (IBM) example is setting the delimeter to '@@' to avoid problems with the comment - JCL also understands the '/*' sequence. I've not seen it used with other languages (Cobol etc.)

    //jobname    JOB   acctno,name...
    //COMPILE    EXEC  PGM=CCNDRVR,
    // PARM='/SEARCH(''CEE.SCEEH.+'') NOOPT SO OBJ'
    //STEPLIB    DD    DSNAME=CEE.SCEERUN,DISP=SHR
    //           DD    DSNAME=CEE.SCEERUN2,DISP=SHR
    //           DD    DSNAME=CBC.SCCNCMP,DISP=SHR
    //SYSLIN     DD    DSNAME=MYID.MYPROG.OBJ(MEMBER),DISP=SHR
    //SYSPRINT   DD    SYSOUT=*
    //SYSIN      DD    DATA,DLM=@@
      #include 
      ⋮
      int main(void)
      {
      /*  comment   */
      ⋮
      }
    @@
    //SYSUT1     DD    DSN=...
    ⋮
    //*

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Job_Control_Language#In-stream...*

New comment by lboc in "Bash on Z/OS: My Journey and Contributions – The Mainframe Demystified"

lboc — Thu, 15 Jun 2023 05:36:15 +0000

Yes and Yes. Though there are options to get to the Unix shell via tn3270 too.

New comment by lboc in "Z/OS Introduction"

lboc — Fri, 17 Feb 2023 09:23:05 +0000

This is a reasonable introduction.

https://www.ibm.com/z/resources/zxplore

There's also a bunch of (sign-in required) free training at learn.ibm.com. And I think there's something on Coursera too.

New comment by lboc in "A 23-byte “hello, world” program assembled with DEBUG.EXE in MS-DOS"

lboc — Mon, 31 Oct 2022 03:46:38 +0000

I've seen it done fairly often in mainframe assembler - embed an 'eyecatcher' string near the top of your program and jump to the real entry point. Used as an aid for debugging when reading dumps I believe. Not generally program data though, ususally metadata like program name, author, date assembled etc.

New comment by lboc in "What have we lost? – Demo of exotic OSes (2021) [video]"

lboc — Fri, 26 Aug 2022 02:14:50 +0000

Agreed. I've only limited experience with i, but more with z. After using them, the other OSes you might use start to look and feel pretty similar to each other.

New comment by lboc in "Has Mainframe Computing Inadvertently Started Its Own Culture War?"

lboc — Wed, 25 May 2022 09:21:35 +0000

z/PDT and zD&T will run current z/OS under emulation on Linux. The ADCD for use with those products includes almost all the IBM software you'd come across in a mainframe environment:

http://dtsc.dfw.ibm.com/adcd/adcd.shtml

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tI5jk-1OI-g

https://ibm.github.io/zdt-learners-edition-about/

New comment by lboc in "Has Mainframe Computing Inadvertently Started Its Own Culture War?"

lboc — Wed, 25 May 2022 09:12:57 +0000

zxplore is a free z/OS course (what used to be called 'Master the Mainframe'):

https://ibmzxplore.influitive.com/users/sign_in

Also a bunch of free courses here:

https://learn.ibm.com/

(free registration required)

(EDIT) If you're in the US and meet the requirements (take free courses) you might also be interested in this for (I believe) $120/year:

https://ibm.github.io/zdt-learners-edition-about/

Email in profile if you want to know more.

New comment by lboc in "Has Mainframe Computing Inadvertently Started Its Own Culture War?"

lboc — Wed, 25 May 2022 09:05:26 +0000

Go at least, is available for z/OS:

https://www.ibm.com/products/open-enterprise-sdk-go-zos

New comment by lboc in "IBM Parallel Sysplex"

lboc — Fri, 01 Apr 2022 05:19:31 +0000

One possible reason why: customers might want to be able to upgrade their hardware/OS/whatever and retain their 5 9s.

New comment by lboc in "Ask HN: Where to find opportunities to practice z/OS CICS development?"

lboc — Wed, 20 Oct 2021 08:55:16 +0000

Try this for a bunch of free z courses (with real machine access for labs)

https://www.ibm.com/training/

I've done 4 or 5 including z/OS and COBOL.

There's also:

https://www.ibm.com/it-infrastructure/z/education/zxplore

Which appears to be the replacement for the Master the Mainframe program. Includes real machine access.

Although it's usefulness in comparison to real z/OS access is debatable, you might also check out the TK4- system which is an old MVS packaged along with the Hercules emulator. A lot of stuff hasn't changed in z/OS, but a lot has.

http://wotho.ethz.ch/tk4-/

New comment by lboc in "A Hole in the Head: A History of Trepanation"

lboc — Thu, 17 Jun 2021 08:48:47 +0000

Makes me think of:

https://web.archive.org/web/20010406062920/http://crank.com/...

Issue #2 and a follow-up in Issue #4.

New comment by lboc in "Nq – A simple Unix job queue system"

lboc — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 07:48:44 +0000

It mentions using 'cc' here:

https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/ssw_aix_72/print...

An example using ksh:

https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/ssw_aix_72/files...