AnthonyGiorgio

Nearly all of them!

In all seriousness, because z/OS has such a rich history, it's written in many languages. Some of them include:

• C / C++
• Java
• z Systems Assembler
• UNIX shell
• REXX
• An internal language similar to PL/I.
• JavaScript / HTML

The mainframe offers a tremendous amount of capability and value in the areas of availability, resiliency, and security. These are way more than "marketing" attributes. The capabilities are designed into our systems and significant development goes into QoS and driving service levels. There is a reason that banks, utilities, and airlines use z/OS, and it comes down to being able to bet their business on it.

For more details, you can check out the release announcement.

It depends on what product you'll be working on. I'd just be sure that you know about good software development practices, including source code control, using an IDE, collaborating with teammates, and similar things.

We're readers of Bob Cringely's columns, and we find them interesting.

The OpenJPA version inside WebSphere is carefully maintained to pick up required fixes without regressing existing behavior, especially in the service stream. So it depends on which version of WebSphere you are using.

WebSphere Liberty on z/OS uses OpenJPA for the jpa 2.0 feature, and EclipseLink for jpa-2.1.

If you have more specific questions, please let us know.