Goodbye!

[pete dashwood]

Hi!

I am retiring fully, and PRIMA Computing, (NZ) Ltd. will be liquidated
within the next few weeks.

I'll be doing some other projects at home. Mainly concerned with
writing... (prose, not software :-))

I don't plan on visiting here again as I have no further interest in
COBOL and can contribute nothing.

It has been great to come here over the decades and I treasure the
stimulating conversations and the people I have met.

In a few weeks time, I will be 78 years old and it's time to let it go...

The PRIMA web site will be taken down after the company is wound up so
some of you might like to save some of the information on that site. (It
takes a steady flow of visitors but I don't want to maintain it any
more, and it costs me money... :-)

I started programming in 1965 and it has been my life's work.

It is something I was born to do and I have always loved doing it.

The history of IT is pretty much the story of my 35 page CV... :-)

I was playing with ChatGPT yesterday and I realized (as I saw the dreams
I had as a young programmer being realized before my eyes (a world where
EVERYONE would communicate in their own natural language with their own
devices, and have instant access to the sum of Human Knowledge)), that
the future lies in that direction. However, it won't be MY future.

I'm just glad I was part of the foundation for it.

Pete.










--
I used to write *COBOL*; now I can do *anything*...

[Bruce Axtens]

On Tuesday, 14 February 2023 at 10:00:11 am UTC+8, pete dashwood wrote:
> I am retiring fully, and PRIMA Computing, (NZ) Ltd. will be liquidated
> within the next few weeks.

Fair enough. You sound pretty cheesed-off. A good time for a long rest.

> I'll be doing some other projects at home. Mainly concerned with
> writing... (prose, not software :-))

I look forward to seeing the results, should you get published.

> I don't plan on visiting here again as I have no further interest in
> COBOL and can contribute nothing.

You can contribute something. Mentoring the COBOL track at Exercism is a possibility.

You will be sorely missed. I will miss you. The rest of the comp.lang.cobol speleological society will miss you too.

As for ChatGPT, I'm not as rosy-eyed about it as you. ChatGPT will shine for a while until some government or corporate fool (who can make a decision without having to face the consequences) actually relies on it for something important, leading to the deaths of thousands.

-- Bruce

[docd...@panix.com]

[posted and emailed]

In article <k50898...@mid.individual.net>,
pete dashwood <dash...@enternet.co.nz> wrote:

[snip]

>I don't plan on visiting here again as I have no further interest in
>COBOL and can contribute nothing.

Your absence will cause diminishment, Mr Dashwood. Stay healthy, old man!

DD

[Arnold Trembley]

I second that!

comp.lang.cobol will be much less useful and interesting without you,
Pete. I will definitely miss your presence here.

Best wishes to you on your retirement!


--
https://www.arnoldtrembley.com/

[bill]

Let me add my Plus to that statement, You will be missed, Pete.

bill

[JM]

The COBOL community is dwindling :(

Unable to change license of PowerCOBOL Migration Tool to opensource or free?

Regards,

[Vincent Coen]

Hello pete!

Tuesday February 14 2023 02:00, pete dashwood wrote to All:

> Hi!

> I am retiring fully, and PRIMA Computing, (NZ) Ltd. will be liquidated
> within the next few weeks.

> I'll be doing some other projects at home. Mainly concerned with
> writing... (prose, not software :-))

> I don't plan on visiting here again as I have no further interest in
> COBOL and can contribute nothing.

You will be missed, although I will be winding down real soon as I am 76
this June and my programming throughout is noticeably slower in resent
years, pity it does keep me occupied in retirement :)

I will take a look at your site in case there is anything useful for me to
grab.


Vincent

[pete dashwood]

I did consider that, but it means I would need to keep the website and I
would need to maintain the tools and provide support.

I think that if anybody wanted PowerCOBOL migration they would have
contacted us by now, and anyone in future could try mailing me personally.

If I'm still alive I would be glad to help.

Pete.

>
> Regards,

[pete dashwood]

Please do, Vincent.

A huge amount of my time and effort went into the site development and
there is useful background for new COBOL people up there. The site is
taking regular hits but without people buying the tools or service, it
is simply not viable for me to continue it.

We've had a pretty good run and the site has been there for nearly 20
years in various guises.

The time for migration is pretty much over and I accept that people have
either migrated away from COBOL or have implemented other solutions.

The United States is the last bastion of COBOL, running mostly on
mainframes on government (State or Federal) sites.

It is difficult for companies outside of the USA to do business with
these sites. They (perhaps correctly), prefer to deal with American
companies.

Thanks for your kind words and the response.

Pete.
>
>
> Vincent

[pete dashwood]

I'd like to thank all of you who responded so kindly.

This group and the use of COBOL in general has been a big part of my
life, but I have to let it go and that's why I'm severing this connection.

I was humbled by your responses and also encouraged.

I am not "cheesed off" as one responder suggested.

I'm just older and tireder... it happens to all of us. :-)

Please feel free to contact me privately if you want my opinion on
something, or you can check my posts in Quora, where I have over quarter
of a million views.

Should any of you plan a visit to New Zealand I'd be very glad to see
you. I live in a very beautiful part of a beautiful country and I am
grateful to be spending the crepuscular phase of my life here.

I can't say it any better than Robert Louis Stevenson:

"Under the wide and starry sky,
Dig the grave and let me lie.
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will.

This be the verse you grave for me:
Here he lies where he longed to be;
Home is the sailor, home from sea,
And the hunter home from the hill."

I wish all of you good health, good fortune, and happiness, amidst the
current turmoil of our world.

Pete.

<Dashwood... out.>

[docd...@panix.com]

In article <16764...@f1.n250.z2.fidonet.ftn>,
Vincent Coen <VBC...@gmail.com> wrote:

[snip]

>You will be missed, although I will be winding down real soon as I am 76
>this June and my programming throughout is noticeably slower in resent
>years, pity it does keep me occupied in retirement :)

'(N)oticeably slower' should be fine as long as you hit your deadlines, Mr
Coen. If a client believes - for whatever foolish or full-mooned reasons
- that your work is worth paying for who are you, a mere COBOL-Codin'
fool, to gainsay them?

One of my clients is a Federal agency and every other week I log in
through a Java-generated 3278 emulator and make sure everyone gets paid.
Just a few pay-periods back one of the feeder systems sent such garbage
data that a program threw a S0C7 (arithmetic operation attempted on
non-numeric data, Mr Gunshannon). I shot the dump... well... I let
ABENDAID show me the PSW, recompiled with LIST (to my own library) and
found that the field which was supposed to contain the ID of the Approving
Authority was space filled.

(I sent off an email asking who in the name of Homer Babbage was doing
their move-to-Prod signoffs.)

They did some stuff and - cut to the chase - people got paid, I got paid
and Corner Office Idiots were infuriated that their ancient legacy
mainframe-platformed COBOL-coded payroll system performed better than all
its more-modern feeder systems.

DD

[docd...@panix.com]

In article <k557q0...@mid.individual.net>,
pete dashwood <dash...@enternet.co.nz> wrote:

[posted and emailed]

[snip]

>I'm just older and tireder... it happens to all of us. :-)

Not to some of the soldiers I've served with, the motorcyclists I've
ridden with other such folk that are Eternally Young.

DD

[bill]

On 2/15/2023 10:20 PM, docd...@panix.com wrote:
> In article <16764...@f1.n250.z2.fidonet.ftn>,
> Vincent Coen <VBC...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> [snip]
>
>> You will be missed, although I will be winding down real soon as I am 76
>> this June and my programming throughout is noticeably slower in resent
>> years, pity it does keep me occupied in retirement :)
>
> '(N)oticeably slower' should be fine as long as you hit your deadlines, Mr
> Coen. If a client believes - for whatever foolish or full-mooned reasons
> - that your work is worth paying for who are you, a mere COBOL-Codin'
> fool, to gainsay them?
>
> One of my clients is a Federal agency and every other week I log in
> through a Java-generated 3278 emulator and make sure everyone gets paid.
> Just a few pay-periods back one of the feeder systems sent such garbage
> data that a program threw a S0C7 (arithmetic operation attempted on
> non-numeric data, Mr Gunshannon).

Just out of curiosity, why single me out? Not that I mind, but
I did start my COBOL career on the IBM 360. I spent a lot of
time showing students how to use a DUMP to trace back to the
source code statement where the error occurred. No other system
I ever worked on had debugging capabilities to match IBM.

> I shot the dump... well... I let
> ABENDAID show me the PSW, recompiled with LIST (to my own library) and
> found that the field which was supposed to contain the ID of the Approving
> Authority was space filled.
>
> (I sent off an email asking who in the name of Homer Babbage was doing
> their move-to-Prod signoffs.)
>
> They did some stuff and - cut to the chase - people got paid, I got paid
> and Corner Office Idiots were infuriated that their ancient legacy
> mainframe-platformed COBOL-coded payroll system performed better than all
> its more-modern feeder systems.
>
> DD

bill

[docd...@panix.com]

In article <k56oim...@mid.individual.net>,

bill <bill.gu...@gmail.com> wrote:
>On 2/15/2023 10:20 PM, docd...@panix.com wrote:

[snip to my own midsentence]

>> ... a program threw a S0C7 (arithmetic operation attempted on

>> non-numeric data, Mr Gunshannon).
>
>Just out of curiosity, why single me out?

You were the first Burrough-jockey who came to mind. Just as I try to
remember this is an international forum and some of my Americanisms might
not be readily received I recalled that both you and Mr Nye used different
gear and I was using you as a name to be applied before '... and all
others'.

It was meant to be a gentle, jesting poke at IBM's center-of-the-universe
position.

>Not that I mind, but
>I did start my COBOL career on the IBM 360.

I wasnt aware of this... and I don't think I should be expected to
remember it. Decades of debauchery have caused much of my own life to
leak out of my admittedly porous memory and I'm not sure the time-smoothed
walls will find a place of purchase for the memory to hang a hat. Do you
know what I had for breakfast yesterday? Neither do I!

>I spent a lot of
>time showing students how to use a DUMP to trace back to the
>source code statement where the error occurred. No other system
>I ever worked on had debugging capabilities to match IBM.

The Blue had some wonderful stuff... that many shops were admantly
ignorant of; they insisted All Ya Gotta Do is debug with DISPLAYs.

DD

[Kerry Liles]

Pete,

many thanks for the YEARS of contributions to this newsgroup and for
your pioneering work with PRIMA. I wish you well and all the very best
in your next phase overlay... You will be missed here!

regards from Canada,
Kerry Liles

[Wolfman Jack]

You can move the webpage to github, put the source there, and also encourage people in the document to fork and continue it. Getting some software up & running is still much less work than writing it from scratch.

[Robert Jones]

I am sorry you are going and wish you well.