Who's Phil? and IBM DB2, a gift from the Gods
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My company has finally realized that relying on an amalgamation of legacy systems, spreadsheets, and in-house designed MS Access databases isn't a viable means of doing business.
I've been tasked with cleaning up all the data and migrating to some new system.
So far I've been able to determine that more than half of our products have some kind of data error or discrepancy - and figuring out which of the four or five duplicate records across the various databases is the correct one is lots of fun.
When I took a look at the actual table design of these databases, and I use the term "database" loosely, I noticed that the designers loved to use terribly informative names for the columns.
Given names like "Bud200?", "8000" through "8050" in increments of 5, "1225525" and let's not forget "1225525B", I had my work cut out for me.
For a few of the fields, however, I knew exactly who to go to for help. The Boolean fields "To Jen", "To Mort", and "To Phil" at least should be easy to figure out.
Except that nobody knows who Jen, Mort, or Phil are.
As best as I can tell, they never existed. I can only imagine that the original developer went mad and made up some imaginary friends to help him out, probably as a result of working with our central legacy system.
On that note - does anyone know where to get an IBM Universe/DB2 database reference book, circa the 70's or so? From what I've seen of our legacy system, I believe it uses some kind of mix between COBOL, IBM SQL PL, and R'lyehian. I think I might need to cut out my tongue to pronounce some of the commands correctly...
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@KrakenLover said:
On that note - does anyone know where to get an IBM Universe/DB2 database reference book, circa the 70's or so?
I bet my old elementary school library has it. They still have film projectors and Apple II's so it's only natural they'd have that lying around.
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This is Phil:
[img] http://images.thetruthaboutcars.com/2010/11/Murilee_Transmission.jpg[/img]
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Thanks to Weng, you know who Phil is.
I believe I can help you out with the others.
This is Jen:
And this is Mort:
Now you can finish your project. You're welcome.
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Jen == Gen
Mort == Death
Phil == Fill.
HTH.
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@tharpa said:
Jen == Gen
Mort == Death
Phil == Fill.
HTH.
Two out of three. "Mort" is actually a typo for the boolean expression "M OR t".
Which equals t.
Which rhymes with p, which is what this whole thread smells like.
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This is Phil:
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@El_Heffe said:
BAH! Yours doesn't even have facial hair. A proper Phil MUST have facial hair.This is Phil:
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No, you want uncle Phil. He went to the North Pole on a fishing boat.
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@lolwtf said:
No, you want uncle Phil. He went to the North Pole on a fishing boat.
<off-topic> Is your avatar a silhouette of Jane Lane? </off-topic>
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@aihtdikh said:
<off-topic> Is your avatar a silhouette of Jane Lane? </off-topic>
You comment on a visual thing, then link to a wikipedia article that has no images at all.
Man.
At least link to a google image search.
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@KrakenLover said:
On that note - does anyone know where to get an IBM Universe/DB2 database reference book, circa the 70's or so?
You may be referring to an implementation of the Pick operating system originally created by VMark software, and then sold by IBM with DB2, now owned by a small company, Rocket. If so, you are truly lost and you have my heartfelt condolences.
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@Rick said:
You're more or less correct.@KrakenLover said:
On that note - does anyone know where to get an IBM Universe/DB2 database reference book, circa the 70's or so?
You may be referring to an implementation of the Pick operating system originally created by VMark software, and then sold by IBM with DB2, now owned by a small company, Rocket. If so, you are truly lost and you have my heartfelt condolences.After taking a look at the source code (and I think the Library of Congress has fewer pages in it) my research pointed me to VMark, Pick, IBM Universe/DB2, and eventually to Rocket. I think it's some kind of bizarre combination of these different technologies. TRWTF is that they somehow made it Internet-enabled. o.0
The only people we can find to make changes to the system are ancient highly-paid consultants. I'd ask them for help, but our support contract doesn't cover migrating to a newer system. And, they really don't like me - given I'm the one designing the new system in-house, costing them hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenue with the impending contract cancellation...
Suffice to say, when I see some old guy with a long gray beard on the street, I walk the other way. You know how those COBOL programmers stick together.
The last time I talked with them, their scowls were practically audible through the email.
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I found a picture of Jen, Mort AND Phil ALL TOGETHER!
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@KrakenLover said:
@Rick said:
You're more or less correct.@KrakenLover said:
On that note - does anyone know where to get an IBM Universe/DB2 database reference book, circa the 70's or so?
You may be referring to an implementation of the Pick operating system originally created by VMark software, and then sold by IBM with DB2, now owned by a small company, Rocket. If so, you are truly lost and you have my heartfelt condolences.
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@Rick said:
@KrakenLover said:
Thank you! It's on the way.@Rick said:
John Sisk book from Amazon@KrakenLover said:
You're more or less correct.On that note - does anyone know where to get an IBM Universe/DB2 database reference book, circa the 70's or so?
You may be referring to an implementation of the Pick operating system originally created by VMark software, and then sold by IBM with DB2, now owned by a small company, Rocket. If so, you are truly lost and you have my heartfelt condolences.I can only hope that I won't need to use it for very long. And, afterward, I have a nice spot for it in my collection of vintage computer books.
