The Good Old Days of Mainframes? Is Vibe the Answer?
October 29, 2025
This essay is the work of a dumb dinobaby. No smart software required.
I like mainframe stories. I read a very good one titled “That Time I Trashed The Company Mainframe, And The Lesson I Learned.” The incident took place decades ago. The main idea is that a young programmer wrote an innocuous program, stuffed it in a mainframe, and generated instant chaos. The lesson for the young programmer was to check and double check one’s code. Easy to say.
There were several gems in the write up. I want to highlight these.
The future is in the hands of smart software. Thanks, Venice AI. Good enough.
First, there is a reference to the programming required for the F-16. Keep in mind that these aircraft are still operational today. The aircraft entered service in the early 1980s. Yep, mainframe code. What does that tell you about fixing up software for some F-16s? Some special knowledge is going to be required. This information is not routinely presented in university computer science courses. My mainframe wizard is darned old and not too peppy. Just whip out your iPhone and bang out some Rust. You can get the F-16 up to speed in no time.
Second, a number of product names appear in the essay. These include:
- Fortran, yep just like JavaScript
- Zilog 8000, a definite fave in electrical engineering courses today
- Job Control Language, easy peasy.
What’s interesting is that I believe that many major systems today are still in daily use.
Third, the write up captures the approach that made those who worked in data centers so darned popular. Emily Post’s mom approved of this behavior:
In 1982, we had no email (executives did, but no one else); therefore, we all had a phone as our primary communication device. When I picked up the phone, all I heard was a lot of swear words and yelling. The IBM mainframe operator was screaming at me for submitting a job that caused his operator console to overflow with errors. He was acting as if I had trashed the entire mainframe and made his life a living hell.
Would some of the young data snowflakes melt with this professional exchange. Gee, of course not. Just head to a Googley relaxation pod and chill. You hope.
I wish to quote form the wrap up of the cited article:
That is the lesson I learned here: reading source code is essential, and I could actually understand a codebase I had never seen before. Confidence-building things like this really helped me move forward in becoming a more professional programmer.
Just keep in mind that smart software is going to do this type of job in the future. There will be absolutely no problems. I am confident that experienced humans will fail their automated hiring tests administered by a tailored large language model. A perfect world with perfect software is arriving.
Stephen E Arnold, October 29, 2025
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