Developing application for DB2 Mainframe

[Gil Lapid]

Hi,

What is the recommended way to develop DB2 Mainframe application
without buying this expensive hardware/software ? I'd like to develop
the software for a Mainframe customer.

Thanks,

Gil

[Phil Sherman]

Re: Developing application for DB2 Mainframe

You should be able to develop batch applications on the LUW platform if
you restrict yourself to SQL that is common to the different platforms.
THe biggest problem you will have is developing for the
telecommunicati ons environment that your mainframe customer uses. If,
for example, they use IMS for the telecomm front end, you would have to
write IMSDC (Information Management Systems - Data Communications)
programs, using MFS (Message Format Services) to manage the screen
interface.

CICS, I believe, may have been available (may still be available?) on
the RS6000 platform. Assuming that you could use this for development
purposes, it would be much less expensive than a mainframe but would not
be inexpensive.

If you develop a Java application, then it should be runnable on both
the LUW and mainframe platforms. The caveat here is that Java is an
interpreted language and may present performance issues when used in
some environments.

Your best bet is to arrange remote access to your customer's mainframe.
This will give you a development environment (TSO), access to the
compilers, and hopefully testing facilities that use the customer's
telecommunicati ons environment.

Good Luck.

Phil Sherman



Gil Lapid wrote:

Hi,
>
What is the recommended way to develop DB2 Mainframe application
without buying this expensive hardware/software ? I'd like to develop
the software for a Mainframe customer.
>
Thanks,
>
Gil
>