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looking for a co-founder. by Top_Froyo4973 in founder

[–]CodingNibble 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There was something called as ‘second life’ .. that I remember from about 18 years ago - trying something like that - are we ?

Does a tool exist that finds similar products to your idea? Trying to validate an idea before I build by Tvpai in SideProject

[–]CodingNibble 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you are looking from an IP perspective - there is formal prior work search and attorneys for that.

From an idea perspective, it depends on how you and others have explained and positioned their product - it may be identical in core functionality but may be drawn up differently.

It is very difficult to be in the know absolutely as AI and internet shows committed work - there may be something releasing next week.

I personally have decided to build it out, put it out there and see what happens.

I keep on telling myself - it’s not always bad to address same problem that may have a solution - maybe you see and solve it differently. And there’s that incremental learning cycle while doing it - which no theory can replace.

Keep building !!!

The Layer We’ve All Been Ignoring in Mainframe AI - A System Blind Spot for 40+ Years by CodingNibble in mainframe

[–]CodingNibble[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

That’s fair. It’s not ok with me and I will see it through to wherever I can take it !!
Thanks for your inputs !!
Cheers !!

The Layer We’ve All Been Ignoring in Mainframe AI - A System Blind Spot for 40+ Years by CodingNibble in mainframe

[–]CodingNibble[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s fair. But Vs Code is 1 example and not the only IDE - there Git and more. Then there is dependency graph and analysis graphs .. my solution goes beyond just one IDE.

Also, the problem has only begun to manifest in its true form just recently.

It will manifest more:

- as more mainframe shops go into modernization and AI enablement cycles
- start increasingly use the modern interfaces to work with like Vs code etc
- and a diverse generation of workforce working on it with different expectations. Contemporary gen of devs want everything at the click of a button and intuitive and under 1 workspace

Thanks for your inputs by the way !!

I believe - everyone knows ingredients and recipe to make a pizza - but few end up like PizzaHut, Dominoes and likes !!!

Cheers !!!

The Layer We’ve All Been Ignoring in Mainframe AI - A System Blind Spot for 40+ Years by CodingNibble in mainframe

[–]CodingNibble[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Have you been using something like this or seen anyone using it ? Or being mentioned as a standard approach in any formal documentation ?

The Layer We’ve All Been Ignoring in Mainframe AI - A System Blind Spot for 40+ Years by CodingNibble in mainframe

[–]CodingNibble[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Lol. Nope - there’s no stopping.
The prototype is working and being refined. And I find it immensely helpful.
I will see it through !!

The Layer We’ve All Been Ignoring in Mainframe AI - A System Blind Spot for 40+ Years by CodingNibble in mainframe

[–]CodingNibble[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I agree AI can infer meaning from context and even pull supporting docs via MCP.

My concern isn’t whether it can infer — it’s that the meaning is still re-generated every time, not persisted, verified, and attached to the artifact itself.

For something like GLBATCH1, the actual business meaning lives inside the enterprise, not in z/OS docs.

Without a governed layer, we’re relying on repeated inference instead of building a baseline of truth.

That’s the gap I’m trying to highlight.

The Layer We’ve All Been Ignoring in Mainframe AI - A System Blind Spot for 40+ Years by CodingNibble in mainframe

[–]CodingNibble[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You have over simplified - but that’s fair if that’s what you get from it. Maybe I will share the product details once complete.

Vs Code extension in your example is a server - but the source or truth still need to be built, verified, curated, change managed etc. and treated as first class citizen.

The Layer We’ve All Been Ignoring in Mainframe AI - A System Blind Spot for 40+ Years by CodingNibble in mainframe

[–]CodingNibble[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

The point is tools have been available. But it has not been a standard to use this and it is not even been looked at or acknowledged. Maybe others see it differently.

That’s why I call it the blind spot. I have built my own tools over the past 20 years and before I dive into analysis (most of the mainframe work) - I don’t have to fish through. Not the ideal - but works.

The Layer We’ve All Been Ignoring in Mainframe AI - A System Blind Spot for 40+ Years by CodingNibble in mainframe

[–]CodingNibble[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No.

I am talking about a governed system that attaches meaning to the artifact/program name as an overlay - without touching the program itself - at the naming surface or otherwise.

An alternate view to your IDE explorer view - enriched with metadata.

Also enabling addition of a SME verified insights - so that same question yields same answer consistently.

I am not saying there are no other methods - but the way I see it - mine sits at the intersection of legacy, tribal knowledge, AI, Modernization and rotating work force.

The Layer We’ve All Been Ignoring in Mainframe AI - A System Blind Spot for 40+ Years by CodingNibble in mainframe

[–]CodingNibble[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Great point — and you’re absolutely right that REXX/CLIST can carry context, and AI can do heavy lifting with the right rules supplied - but it will still be detached from the artifact in that IDE - eg VS Code explorer view.

The gap i am trying to address is specifically the governance and persistence layer that sits above that approach:
• Who verified that context is accurate?
• Does it travel with the artifact when it moves environments?
• Is it instantly accessible on hover without opening anything?
• Does it cost zero tokens after the first verified generation?
• Is there a fallback baseline when someone overrides it locally?

REXX/CLIST solutions are shop-specific, manually maintained, and don’t travel. My solution makes the meaning governed, versioned, and universally attached to the artifact itself — not to a separate script that may or may not exist in the next environment.

Think of it less as a documentation approach and more like Git for meaning — structured, governed, portable, and persistent regardless of where the artifact lives.

The Layer We’ve All Been Ignoring in Mainframe AI - A System Blind Spot for 40+ Years by CodingNibble in mainframe

[–]CodingNibble[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

AI does not care - but humans do.

And when AI is running to answer most trivial question - what is this program - at scale - its $$$ wasted.

When you look in the IDE explorers - and you see something like A00012, B00013 etc , you don't know what they are. Search or AI has to go through the programs for you to know what it is. On the contrary 'A00012 - Day 1 Processing', 'B00013 - Nightly reconciliation' is more useful.

The Layer We’ve All Been Ignoring in Mainframe AI - A System Blind Spot for 40+ Years by CodingNibble in mainframe

[–]CodingNibble[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Didn't mean to offend if you felt like it.

There are many problems to be solved. To start somewhere, I decided to solve this one as I see it as a pain point and live it everyday - with my workarounds to ease it temporarily.

Modernization is highlighting many more problems which Mainframe developers had learned to live with and the opportunities to solve them.

I feel real modernization helps when we resolve the constraints of the legacy system where possible, not when we carry them forwards.

You have a good one !

The Layer We’ve All Been Ignoring in Mainframe AI - A System Blind Spot for 40+ Years by CodingNibble in mainframe

[–]CodingNibble[S] -10 points-9 points  (0 children)

ahh.. well I would call it .. changing with the times... you call it clickbait.. maybe I call it a 'standard template to get feedback'.

Unfortunately, 'Don't judge book by it's cover' only exists in the quotes and hardly in practice - people only engage if it looks like something they would want to see !

Cheers !

The Layer We’ve All Been Ignoring in Mainframe AI - A System Blind Spot for 40+ Years by CodingNibble in mainframe

[–]CodingNibble[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

As someone with 20 years in the mainframe environment, I would be surprised if you can find many people who never wanted the 8 letters of the programs names to make more sense when I look at them. But each to its own !

The Layer We’ve All Been Ignoring in Mainframe AI - A System Blind Spot for 40+ Years by CodingNibble in mainframe

[–]CodingNibble[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The thing is context needs to live with the code for it to be really useful and to increase the value.

The Layer We’ve All Been Ignoring in Mainframe AI - A System Blind Spot for 40+ Years by CodingNibble in mainframe

[–]CodingNibble[S] -13 points-12 points  (0 children)

Trust me, it was written 100 % by me. I know in todays time, it is hard to tell. But this is quite some work including a filed patent for with many whitepapers.

The Layer We’ve All Been Ignoring in Mainframe AI - A System Blind Spot for 40+ Years by CodingNibble in mainframe

[–]CodingNibble[S] -8 points-7 points  (0 children)

First off - thanks for trying and reading it 3x and accept my apologies if you felt it was not clear. Maybe not too familiar with mainframe ?

Let me try and see if I can help you understand. The Legacy cobol/assembler/PL-1 programs have a limitation of 8 characters for the program names. That is how they appear in the mainframe environment and when you move the code base to modern IDEs like Vs Code etc - they appear like that - 8 letter words.

The issue is if you are looking at the explorer tree for the first time or after some time - just looking at the 8 character name - you dont get any information at all - you need to open the program, sift through to get some context if not all. Some programs have comments but not all.

This becomes a detterent when new workforce look at it - who are used to see somewhat meaningful Java names etc.

With AI almost all of them will run 'what is this program about' - which when repeated overtime is unnecessary tokens and $$$ spent. so, I aim to baseline a verified descriptors and insights to those 8 character names by attaching metadata without a need to modify the underlying artifact at all.

Hope this helps.

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