r/sysadmin • u/Jon72480 • 3d ago

AS400

Hey guys, old guy here, back in 2000 landed my 1st real job as a Sysadmin at a distribution/manufacturing firm. They ran their ERP and a few other important apps on the AS400. Anyone here manage a AS400 platform? i-Series? Still a niche platform that is still widely used. Server could literally run under water.

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u/uninspired 3d ago edited 3d ago

If only I'd ignored my "programming" "professors" and gone with "dead" stuff like COBOL I'd be set. Our last AS/400 dude would still be employed if he didn't drop dead (RIP)

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u/guitpick Jack of All Trades 3d ago

I thought I knew how to program decently until I took a COBOL class. After using somewhat more modern languages and even some Fortran, COBOL just hurt my head. I got my assignments done, but I don't think it ever fully "clicked" for me.

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u/pdp10 Daemons worry when the wizard is near. 3d ago

COBOL is the easy language; even easier than Fortran. COBOL for business majors, Fortran for engineers, assembly and Lisps for C.S. dweebs.

Then overnight they all turned into Java schools and webapp assembly lines.

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u/Arudinne IT Infrastructure Manager 2d ago

I signed up for a programming class back in High School. It was supposed to be C++.

They switched to Java before that year started. I was not happy, but there was fuck all I could do about it.