Dear Generation Z,
Mainframes are old technology! Even the tech nerds of Gen Z might not know what a mainframe is, or they might think mainframes became irrelevant a long time ago. Well, Gen Z, if anyone tells you that mainframe is dead, you can tell them “that’s cap!” Banks still process millions of transactions on mainframes, airlines still schedule thousands of flights on mainframes, and governments still store critical data on mainframes, even in 2023.
“So what?” I can hear you saying. “Sure, the global finance system, along with lots of governments and big businesses rely on mainframes, but what does that have to do with us?” Well, Gen Z, our venerable custodians of the arcane secrets of the mainframe are growing a little long in the tooth. Many of these Mainframe Magicians, Intrepid IBMers, and COBOL Crusaders are nearing retirement. Before they cross the threshold into the next life of HOA payments for their Florida condominiums, we need to get ready to take up the mantle of the mainframe and wield the power of Big Iron!
Grandpa’s Mainframe
Mainframe systems used to communicate mainly through a terminal, a particularly ancient bit of technology. The easiest way to understand a terminal is to take one of those really old TVs with the curved screen, attach a keyboard to it, and then put a little computer in it that interprets the keyboard strokes and data from the mainframe and then displays both of those as text on the screen. That sounds kind of like a PC with a keyboard and a monitor, right? Well, terminals are different from modern monitors because they only print a grid of letters and numbers, usually 80 by 24 characters, while monitors display a grid of pixels, typically millions of them, where the graphics card in your PC draws the display. Using a terminal is like looking at a big spreadsheet; using a monitor is like watching a movie. Most mainframes used a specific type of terminal called a 3270 that became popular for technical reasons.
The basic mode of using a 3270 terminal was viewing text written to it by the mainframe, and then typing over some text and sending the page back to the mainframe to process. There were no buttons to click or skeuomorphic controls to operate. Instead, you moved a cursor that pointed at one of the characters around the page to start typing. Then, you typed information into fields in forms or entries into a command bar.
Millennial Chic
The times have moved on from interacting with a physical terminal with a curved screen and heavy keyboard. Nowadays, pieces of software called terminal emulators have supplanted the physical thing, so you can use your 4k gaming monitor and oh-so-smooth mechanical keyboard. Most terminal emulators offer nice features like tabs for opening multiple terminals, handy buttons to emulate those keys your modern keyboard doesn’t have, and the ability to customize the appearance and behavior of your terminal.
The HOT, NEW Thing!
I’ve introduced you to the old, clunky tools that mainframe used to work with, but the mainframe of the future is expanding its horizons and adopting modern interfaces. Mainframes are moving into the next phase of accessibility by running web-based UIs and modern REST APIs so users and administrators can ditch the terminal! Mainframe developers are busy right now building tools to open up the possibilities of mainframe and bring the closed-down mainframe into the world of open source and open standards.
I’ve personally had a lot of fun working on building these types of tools to modernize the mainframe experience. It’s been valuable to gain experience combining my knowledge of modern frameworks with the foreign world of mainframe computing. I think that working in mainframe is a great way to encounter a side of software development that doesn’t get much thought in the mainstream, and I’m hoping that Gen Z will join me in taking up the task of supporting and modernizing this important part of our world’s infrastructure!
Conclusion
Mainframes aren’t going anywhere in the future. Working with this essential piece of technology is still a very useful skill to have for Generation Z members interested in Information Technology or working with software. While developers interested in building for mainframe used to have no choice but to learn the 3270 interface, modern SDKs are giving developers the flexibility to work with the mainframe in new and exciting ways.