Boney Fingers - The Song

MVS IS BREAKING MY HEART (BONEY FINGERS) {CASSETTE TAPE}
      
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MVS IS BREAKING MY HEART - BONEY FINGERS Words (printed below) were written by Dave Thewlis and Anne Ashley This parody is based on the original old country song of the same name that was written and performed by the late Hoyt Axton. Performed by Dave's sister Karen Cooper and her husband, California country singers who knew nothing of MVS! This song was played for the first time at the very first SHARE session on MVS Performance, 1975, to an audience of over 900 attendees.

Words to follow along with... (glossary at bottom)
If it IPL's then JES won't start,
And if it gets up then it falls apart,
MVS is breaking my heart,

  Maybe things will get a little better in the morning,
  Maybe things will get a little better.

The system is crashing, I'm having a fit,
and DSS doesn't help a bit,
the shovel came with the debugging kit,

  Maybe things will get a little better in the morning,
  Maybe things will get a little better.
  Work Your Fingers to the Bone and what do you get?
  Boney Fingers, Boney Fingers!

The SRM is a turkey in disguise,
and MF-1 is a telling' me lies,
Start a JOB and the whole thing dies,

  Maybe things will get a little better in the morning,
  Maybe things will get a little better.

The memories won't communicate,
and the ASM simply doesn't relate.
Swapping seems to be controled by fate!

  Maybe things will get a little better in the morning,
  Maybe things will get a little better.
  Work Your Fingers to the Bone and what do you get?
  Boney Fingers, Boney Fingers!

Control BLock Structure is really a mess,
who designed it Armonk won't confess.
Inbreeding and Incest is our best guess!

 but
  Maybe things will get a little better in the morning,
  Maybe things will get a little better.

There still exists the CVT,
but it lost out to the ASCB,
and where the hell is my TCB?

  Maybe things will get a little better in the morning,
  Maybe things will get a little better.

Address Spaces are all the rage,
my TCB must be out in a page,
we think the architect's kept in a cage.

  Maybe things will get a little better in the morning,
  Maybe things will get a little better.

I can't get dispatched.  Without a doubt,
the SRM's in charge of the rout,
and he's got the APG swapped out!

  Maybe things will get a little better in the morning,
  Maybe things will get a little better.
  Work Your Fingers to the Bone and what do you get?
  Boney Fingers, Boney Fingers!

Once upon a time there was JES2,
Another definition is you really get screwed,
when JES3 comes it will do it to you.

 but
  Maybe things will get a little better in the morning,
  Maybe things will get a little better.

JES2's there and they say it works,
no JES3 but they claim it lurks,
We suspect JES5 will be written by Turks.

  Maybe things will get a little better in the morning,
  Maybe things will get a little better.

TSO is another big mess,
the System gets more and the User gets less.
Let's replace the sucker with TSS.

  Maybe things will get a little better in the morning,
  Maybe things will get a little better.
  Work Your Fingers to the Bone and what do you get?
  Boney Fingers, Boney Fingers!

With SMP they've fumbled the ball,
and PL/S means your taking a fall.
The system staff is climbing the wall.

  Maybe things will get a little better in the morning,
  Maybe things will get a little better.

PDS's are really good files.
The PID has developed new styles.
The System now is shipped in piles.

  Maybe things will get a little better in the morning,
  Maybe things will get a little better.
  Work Your Fingers to the Bone and what do you get?
  Boney Fingers, Boney Fingers!

Our salesman tells us that it's all a breeze
the conversion's done with the greatest of ease.
Our development doesn't even have to freeze.

  well
  Maybe things will get a little better in the morning,
  Maybe things will get a little better.

But he doesn't mention with his usual tact,
the Round Heels we never seem to lack,
'cause he get's $4K to keep us on our back!

  Maybe things will get a little better in the morning,
  Maybe things will get a little better.

In IBM everyone's a brother.
Like most families they don't talk to each other.
and MVS clearly starts with Mother.

  Maybe things will get a little better in the morning,
  Maybe things will get a little better.

  Work Your Fingers to the Bone and what do you get?
  Boney Fingers, Boney Fingers!

Someday maybe they will do it right,
but not without one hell of a fight.
Can we ever get them to see the light?

  Maybe things will get a little better in the future,
  Maybe things will get a little better.

Whether Q or FS, the results the same.
Getting screwed will still be the name of the game.
And we all know where to lay the blame.

  Maybe things will get a little better in the future,
  Maybe things will get a little better.

To obtain our input is a current ambition,
so we offer this critique of our own volition:
couldn't IBM learn a new position?

  Maybe things will get a little better in the future,
  Maybe things will get a little better.
  Work Your Fingers to the Bone and what do you get?
  Boney Fingers, Boney Fingers!
  Work Your Fingers to the Bone and what do you get?
  Boney Fingers, Boney Fingers!


Glossary:


  $4K   - MVS was the first operating system for which the IBM Salesman
          got a $4000 bonus if he/she could convince their customer to
          install VS 2.2 circa 1975.  IBM was really pissed off that this
          fact became known thru this song.
          

  APG   - A range of Dispatching Priorities that included most real work.


  Armonk  The New York city in which IBM's Headquarters is located.

  ASCB  - Address Space Control Block, a handle for MVS to keep track of
          address spaces.   
  
  ASM   - Auxillary Storage Manager, the MVS task that moves pages to and
          from real memory ('core', now called "RAM") to page and swap 
          datasets on DASD.
          
  CVT   - Communications Vector Table, a table of pointers to the entire
          world in MVT and MVS.
          
  DSS   - Dynamic Support System: The debugging facility built into the
          Original VS2, Release 2.
  
  IPL's - Initial Program Load, the start up of MVS operating system.
          Same as three-finger-salute (ALT-CTL-DEL) on a PC. On all
          systems Except mainframes, the term used for this process is
          "boot" (short for "bootstrap").

  JES   - Job Entry Subsystem.  JES2 replaced HASP, JES3 replaced ASP.
          JESs accept jobs from users and spool the printed output they
          generate.


  MF-1  - Measurement Facility One, a free predecessor of the not-free
          Resource Measurement Facility, RMF.   MF-1 was forced on IBM
          Software Development by the Field Support Division, who wanted
          "to know as much about MVS as do our current customers that use
          hardware monitors know about their MVS measurements".


  PDS   - Partitioned Data Set, a data set with members, like the MXG
          Source Library.

  PID   - Program Information Department, the group that sent out MVS 
          and other IBM Software Products.

  PL/S  - Programming Language for Systems, the language in which some
          of MVS was written. By not providing the PL/S compiler with 
          MVS, IBM made it impossible for customers to modify MVS.

  Q or FS Two names of internal developments at IBM that ultimately
          became MVS. ("FS" stood for "Future System")
          
  Round - Round Heels, a reference to easily laid down on (her) back.
  

  SMP   - System Maintenance Package, IBM Product that installs the
          operating system and its component.
          
  SRM   - System Resource Manager, an internal component of MVS that
          controlled who got what CPU, I/O, and main memory.

  TCB   - Task Control Block, represents your program in execution.


  TSO   - Time Sharing Option, the interactive MVS application for most
          programming development and some production work

  TSS   - Time Sharing System, The original Operating system for IBM's
          first virtual-storage mainframe, The System/360 Model 67.
          TSS was rapidly supplanted by CP67/CMS 
          (Control Program 67/Cambridge Monitoring System).