Some websites would call this a "Guest Book" but here we call it the Nomad Users' Wall of Fame and the best thing is, you can induct yourself! Just fill out this online form and, in a day or so, you'll join the rest of us in immortal web-greatness.
Rodney Highsmith has 10 to 15 years experience in Nomad on VM. Employed by Bank of America (Brea, Ca) which uses Nomad on VM.
VM Nomad system description:
"We use Nomad mostly for
MIS from Nomad databases and also to front end Teradata. One
example is a very large (5 VM 3390 packs) Nomad database that has
information from the consumer loan applications that are received
at BofA."
Don DeCosta has 5 to 10 years experience in Nomad on VM. Employed by Medical Insurance Exchange of California which uses Nomad on VM.
Additional personal info:
"Webmaster of the "Unofficial
Nomad Website""
VM Nomad system description:
"We run the company on
Nomad, from data entry to production of policies and statement of
account as well as all those reports! And we run it all on a P/390,
the little mainframe that could!"
Jim Borta remembers when it was just called Nomad! Has experience in Nomad on VM, MVS, Unix, VMS and Front & Center. Employed by James R. Borta & Associates, Ltd. which uses .
Additional personal info:
"I started using Nomad in 1976, dialing
in at 110 baud. At that time training and documentation were free. It was a much
simpler life. The Nomad manual filled up a one and one-half inch binder (I still
have one). Since that time I have built hundreds of Nomad applications for a
number of companies. Applications developed have been for finance, human
resources, room reservation system, class scheduling and tracking, project and
time management, and materials requirements tracking."
Kevin Larson has 10 to 15 years experience in Nomad on VM. Employed by Bank of America which uses Nomad on VM and MVS.
Additional personal info:
"I spent 4 years on the
OASIS (NOMAD User Group) Board, as Secretary, Vice President,
Newsletter Editor and Treasurer. I attended 7 of the NOMAD
conferences, including the Las Vegas conference where I spoke at
one of the sessions. My career path (somewhat reluctantly moving
into management) and the bank's direction (away from NOMAD) are
limiting my use of NOMAD these days, but I still think it's the
best database/reporting language ever written."
VM Nomad system description:
"NOMAD is becoming a
legacy language in my area. We are moving toward PC solutions and
Front and Center is not considered a viable option. There are
many areas of the bank which do still use NOMAD heavily, mostly
for reporting in the VM environment."
Hugo Greco has 5 to 10 years experience in Nomad on VM. Employed by GLD Consultores which uses Nomad on VM.
Additional personal info:
"More than 8 years working
as a consultant for Exxon Corporation in Argentina"
VM Nomad system description:
"Mostly in the production
environment"
Doyle Bryant has 10 to 15 years experience in Nomad on VM, MVS and VMS. Employed by Custom Software Design & Development which uses .
Additional personal info:
"My experience includes
project management, data analysis, data base administration,
production and ad-hoc development. I've attended several of the
OASIS User Conferences, serving on the Board of Directors for one
term."
Russell Judge has 2 years experience in Nomad on MVS. Employed by Banc One which uses Nomad on MVS.
Additional personal info:
"I have spent the last
five years as a systems developer. I"
MVS Nomad system description:
"NOMAD is used as the
front end to our DB2 database on MVS for"
Henry J.H. Hom remembers when it was just called Nomad! Has experience in Nomad on VM. Employed by Homatec, Inc. which uses Nomad on VM.
Additional personal info:
"I've been building Nomad
applications since 1978 (on VP/CSS and later on VM) for a major
telecommunications company in the Northeast. Since 1997, I am an
independent consultant working on a financial application using
Nomad on a VM environment at a client site."
David P. Graf remembers when it was just called Nomad! Has experience in Nomad on VM and Unix. Employed by Bank One which uses Nomad on VM and Unix.
Additional personal info:
"I have used NOMAD since
1980 starting out as a Technical Support Representative for the
original vendor of NOMAD known as NCSS. Most of my experience has
been using VM on a variety of applications, but we have recently
converted a credit exposure application to UNIX/NOMAD and that
will be our platform for the foreseeable future."
Unix/AIX Nomad system description:
"We have a financial
application which allows us to track credit exposure and which
provides informative reports as well as data files for interfaces
to other applications."
Doug Grant uses Nomad on VM and VMS. Employed by Lotus which uses .
Additional personal info:
"I'm pleased to see that
Nomad didn't die when Thomson pulled the plug. I was the manager
of Nomad Development in the late 70s and early 80's (I don't
exactly remember when!!). Anyway good luck to you all. I saw Nick
Rawlings last weekend (his son is my stepson), and I am still in
touch with a few others. I joined National CSS in the mid-70s and
left D&B 10 years later."
Chuck Nichols has 10 to 15 years experience in Nomad on VM and Front & Center. Employed by J & Consulting which uses Nomad on VM.
Additional personal info:
"I began with Nomad in
1984 while working with Champion International Corp. After 30+
years with Champion, retired and now work for Champion as a Nomad
Consultant, working out of my home in Oregon. Attended every user
conference with the exception of the first conference. Hosted
MANAGE conference in Cincinnati. I've used Nomad for sales,
marketing, production, and everything in between."
Mike Adel remembers when it was just called Nomad! Has experience in Nomad on VM, MVS, Unix and Front & Center. Employed by Fremont Compensation (they bought Industrial Indemnity) which uses Nomad on VM.
Additional personal info:
"This may be the last year
(1999) we use Nomad. We expect to shut down our mainframe systems
around 1Q00. I've done mostly SQL and SQLPlus for the last couple
of years. We are going to be using Sagent for reporting from our
data warehouse."
VM Nomad system description:
"A few legacy Nomad
databases still being used. Every so often a new project arises
that is a good fit for Nomad. (Try coding a Hierarchical Flat
File in any other language!)"
James Kilmartin has 5 to 10 years experience in Nomad on VM, MVS and Unix. Employed by Microsoft which uses SQL Server.
Additional personal info:
"I worked at National CSS
in the Professional Services, D&B Marketing, and DunsPlus
groups for 7 years (77-84) and wrote many applications using both
NOMAD and NOMAD2 for NCSS Customers. I'm currently a Senior
Consultant for Microsoft in the New England district."
Edward Stepec has 10 to 15 years experience in Nomad on VM and MVS. Employed by which uses .
Additional personal info:
"Started Nomad with Exxon Corp for 8 years follwed with AT&T for 8 years. Probably the most gratifying project was converting VM to MVS. Conferences were educational and meeting fellow NOMAD programmers were enjoyable. Still plenty of users out there."
Jon Rosen remembers when it was just called Nomad! Has experience in Nomad on VM.
Additional personal info:
"Wow! This is WAY COOL! I remember when there wasn't any Nomad. I was
working at NCSS at the time (in the Los Angeles office - anyone else
remember Carol Dunkle, Barbara Danz, Dennis Hackbarth or Joe Filipelli? :-)
and I was one of many from the company who participated in a corporate
meeting in Stamford, Connecticut where we roughed out the first set of
requirements which would ultimately become Nomad. Others in that group
included Nick Rawlings and Kate Kalleen (sp?). Shortly thereafter, I left
NCSS and went to Mathematica where I managed the Los Angeles office and
watched as Gerry Cohen left to build IBI and Focus, while we carried on with
RAMIS. In late 1974, there was one brief moment when it was possible that
all three products might have never diverged and only one, owned by NCSS,
would have triumphed (most likely a better version of RAMIS using many of
the new features that were being implemented in Nomad). But Mathematica's
management refused to permit Gerry to go to work for NCSS (NCSS had a
contract with Mathematica which restricted Gerry's rights to do that) and in
the end, all three groups split apart like an atom and the rest is history.
Many years later, at Teradata, I managed a development group which was
responsible for third party products, including, of all things, Focus AND
Nomad. So things came full circle. Nowadays, I spend most of my time
managing SQL application development using SQL Server and Oracle. But
remember, before Access and numerous SQL variants, Nomad, Focus and RAMIS
held sway over the IBM user-oriented database world and gave the world
personal computing long before we ever had personal computers."
Additional personal info:
"I worked at NCSS in 79-81 where Scott Stoney taught me NOMAD and I taught
others. I worked with Tom Simalckik and Roger Cox to name two. I'm a
contractor now."
The Weller Group, Inc.
www.wellergroup.com
Additional personal info:
"Nickname used
to be "Dr. Nomad." I still have my NCSS necktie. Anyone remember HSYS,
"Ann Discala" and Larry Smith? The Mini Group? Piggy Nomad P? PC Nomad
0.83?"
Additional personal info:
"I remember when it was 441SUM. That was its 1st name, as we were developing it in 1974 at 441 Summer Street in Stamford, CT. All of those years were wonderful - great people and places and projects. Sadly, Yale (where I landed in 1997,) had Focus and now lots of Oracle.
It's easy to see why so many of us wish we still had NOMAD.
Got a NOMAD problem? Send me an email."
System description:
"Nomad was used here under TSO in 1983, but not since. The chief DB OS here is AIX, and we run Oracle."
Additional personal info:
"I helped develop NOMAD with National CSS when it was still a time-share arrangement using its own operating system. I have since developed many programs and systems as a contractor, primarily for Exxon and now
ExxonMobil. I just wish that D&B had done a better job marketing the product instead of letting Focus take the market."
Additional personal info:
"I wrote my first Nomad code in September, 1976, and began contracting in Nomad several years later, have loved it ever since. I had the contract from Bank of America to certify/fix its Nomad I programs when they upgradded to Nomad II, wrote the Bid-Calc system for Pugeot Sound P & L to price insulation upgrades, did projects for Nabisco, AmEx, Georgia Power, Motorola, Boston City Hospital, Atlantic City Electric, etc etc. Nicknamed the
'Nomad's nomad'". Wish it would have won."
System description:
"When I can get some Nomad work, I write the code."
Additional personal info:
"I joined MUST Software in 1992 and left Thomson Software Products, as the last remaining NOMAD/VMS developer, in 1996. This was one month before the bloodletting pre-AONIX days.
It was great while it lasted, but like the late Digital Equipment Corporation, it had trouble selling water in the desert. Head-to-head, it could blow the doors off the Green Slime, but
no one seemed to know that. There were a lot of great, highly talented people working there and it was a fantastic, fun ride."
Additional personal info:
"I joined NCSS in 1977 in Los Ageles CA. I was a Cobol programmer when I joined, but after learning NOMAD I never wrote another line of code. What a great product. A real shame that it is no longer with us or we with it. My favorite customer using NOMAD was 20th Century Fox, Feature Film Division. That was a lot of fun. One of the few customers that actually created flat files from NOMAD to pass to Infotab. (You remember Infotab, the mainframe spreadsheet software) Anyway NOMAD in my mind (feeble as it is) was one great product and I had fun using it.
"
System description:
"Sadly to say we do not use NOMAD here. I lost touch with Nomad until I did a search and found you guys. Keep up the good work."
Additional personal info:
"Wow, this is great. I worked for NCSS back in the
80's as a Technical Support Representative in the Dallas office. I do Asset Management now, but remember going to Connecticut and staying at that Marriott. What a trip."
Lori Fries Raub remembers when it was just called Nomad! Has experience in Nomad on VM, MVS, Unix, VMS and Front & Center.
Additional personal info:
"I started as a Senior Tech Rep for the New York Telephone group under Bob Schraer, back when they were generating $1Million / Month! Graduated to becoming one of the first Information Center Tech Reps! I wrote the Computer Based Training guides for basic and procedural Nomad2 and taught many a workshop. I remember when Scott Stoney was considered a fast speaker by talking at 9600 Baud! Ruth Morely talked
"IBM Land" and Chris Grejtak ruled 97 Danbury Road.... those were the good
ol' days!
I got back into Nomad through many consulting jobs, criss-crossed with Focus along the way. I worked with Front and Center, at Hitachi Corp, and ultimately back with Aonix creating the "web based" Ultraquest Nomad2 they still sell today. NOMAD WILL NEVER DIE, good things last forever! (at least that's what I keep telling myself!)"
System description:
"I'm not currently using Nomad, but wish I were. I have web sites, on Unix, where I would like to use Nomad but
don't how to do that so I will be researching to see if that might be possible."
Additional personal info:
"It's hard to believe it was about 20 yrs ago that I trained in Norwalk, and was awe-struck by Nick Rawlings and the other trainers. They really turned my brain on. Wish I were still working with Nomad, but time marches on."
Additional personal info:
"I started working at NCSS in 1978 as a Tech Rep in Santa Clara. Nomad was the first programming language I ever used. It has always been my favorite. I was searching the web for a query tool to link to an Oracle database hoping to find a
"Nomad" solution. Instead I found this site confirming my worse fears that Nomad is almost dead. I find it interesting that we all loved the product so much and hated to give it up. I also enjoyed my years at NCSS/D&B Computing and appreciate the valuable training and dedicated employees I found there."
Additional personal info:
"I
worked for Must Software for a handful of years in the professional services
organization out of Texas. Most of my time was spent consulting to 3M and
Motorola. I had the honor/challenge of rolling out some of the very first Front
& Center applications."