I'm not as fluently in speaking english as J.G., of course, because
I'm not an english native speaker, but that's exactly what I would have answered
to Mr. W.B., too, if I could.
Of course, in my classes, which last 3 or 4 days, I only can teach the very
basis of z/OS, which are necessary to start with dump reading, and the
experience has to come from practicing. The participants who really want to gain
experience start reading all the dumps from their department, which consists of
some 50 developers - that is: a dump every day. And there are some strange
situations, when programs write over the code of other programs etc. and the
save areas are all zeroed out - nice exercises.
Thanks,
Bernd
Am 26.07.2013 14:42, schrieb J.G.:
> W.B.'s post is in most respects a superb one.
>
> There is, however, an important omissis. I already had IBSYS
> dump-reading skills; I learned to read OS dumps beginning with OS/PCP,
> i.e., in a radically simpler world; I was able to come to terms with
> increasing complexity incrementally, over many years; and I had others
> to talk to about my perplexities.
>
> 'Learn it alone and unaided!' is now a counsel of despair. If you
> want to learn these skills you need to apprentice yourself, at least
> part-time, to someone who already has them. Find a situation in which
> you can consult him or her several times a day, and make sure that he
> or she has something of a vocation for teaching.
>
> I have found it possible to impart these skills to two inexperienced
> but admittedly very able teenagers using such an apprenticeship
> scheme. In doing so I avoided introducing them to dump-reading aids
> (other than hexadecimal calculators) until very late, but I did give
> much attention to the many ways in which all IBM systems are similar,
> to frequently encountered control-block chaining schemes, stacks,
> pools, queues and unholy, impure mixtures of them.
>
> I have not compared notes with anyone else who has imparted/taught
> these skills successfully; but there are certainly other equally
> viable ways to do so that differ in substantial detail from mine. I
> suspect, however, that the availability of a mentor or mentors is
> crucial. They figure centrally in other professional training
> schemes, be they for surgeons or steamfitters.
>
> Exclusively do-it-yourself schemes will fail; homo sapiens is too
> short-lived a species; and preternatural dedication must anyway not be
> expected or required.
>
> J.G.
>
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