This month marks the 15th anniversary of a small newsletter called Datanetworks that was dedicated to helping programmers implement IBM’s minicomputer architecture. Fifteen years ago, Ronald Reagan was in the White House, the S/36 was IBM’s most popular business computer, RPG II was a mysterious proprietary programming language, and distributed interactive workstations were the new computing paradigm for business productivity. Back then, people in the computing industry had very strong opinions about where technology was going. The proprietary operating systems (OSs) that ran IBM’s minicomputer architectures—SSP and CLP—were often singled out as the bane of serious professional computer scientists. What were these OSs? No one knew much about them, and the opportunities to learn were confined to the handful of “captive customers” that composed IBM’s marketing niche. Why would anyone want to read a newsletter about an architecture that had such a limited future? Who would even care? Certainly not “real programmers.” Certainly not OEM vendors, who wanted the largest possible forum in which to advertise their wares.
A lot has changed since 1983, including that small newsletter. Today, IBM’s minicomputer architecture—in the guise of the AS/400—is the most popular business platform on the planet, with hundreds of thousands of installed machines and millions of users. Today, the terms client/server, Internet, Java, collaborative software, and e- commerce have replaced the past paradigms of computing productivity. And where is the AS/400? It’s in the forefront of promoting those technologies, bringing real productivity tools to the businesses it serves.
What about that tiny newsletter called Datanetworks? It’s now called Midrange Computing, and it has one of the largest numbers of loyal subscribers in the midrange market. Just as IBM has proven the critics wrong about the future of minicomputers, so too have our subscribers proven the resilience of a publication devoted to advanced tutorial instruction about the architecture of the AS/400. The results have been astounding. Today’s midrange arena has a thriving and growing market for new programs and products that
enable the AS/400 to benefit business organizations around the world. So too is there a thriving and growing group of information technology professionals who look to this magazine for the answers to their AS/400 technical questions. Yes, much to the chagrin of those critics of yesteryear, both the AS/400 and MC are poised to take users into the 21st century—with the best information systems and hands-on tutorials available anywhere.
Consequently, as part of our 15th anniversary issue, we’ve gathered our senior technical staff and our expert contributors from all over the United States to ask a simple question: What is the future of the midrange computing industry with regard to IBM’s AS/400? Where will we be going over the next 15 years, and what must IBM do to make certain our computing needs are met? Of course, 15 years is an unwieldy length of time in this industry, so, to be fair, we’ve put these same questions to the AS/400’s executive team and have included their responses in this issue as well. The result is an article destined to be a time capsule that should entertain all of us in the years to come.
Of course, we know the future for AS/400 computing will probably not be the rosy picture that IBM paints for us. Nevertheless, we at MC are confident that, given the right direction and adequate resources from IBM, the AS/400 platform can go anywhere. IBM has already proven—much to the dismay of its critics—that its minicomputing architecture has an amazing longevity. IBM has also proven its commitment to its customers with the recent delivery of OS/400 V4R2. So too have we at MC proven again and again that we are here for our subscribers. Wherever the technology leads, so too will MC go. We’ll experiment with V4R2, and each issue will offer new articles—articles designed to give our readers the technical edge they need to succeed with IBM’s AS/400 architecture. Read MC and learn about RPG IV, Java, Domino, and the Internet. We will continue to cover all of these topics with an attention to detail that only a magazine like MC can deliver. Learn what MC teaches you, and you will watch your careers thrive.
Yes, a lot has changed since the days of Datanetworks: the architectures, the paradigms, the languages, and even the name of the publication. But one thing has not: We’re here for the future of business computing in the world today. We’re here for our subscribers and their careers. We’re here for the midrange, to show how and to tell why. That’s why we’re now called Midrange Computing magazine. We’re in it for you.
Thomas M. Stockwell Editor in Chief
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