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Anyone do it or have done it? I'm pretty familiar with Java already and read that the JVM on an AS400 is pretty darn good. I'm applying for a position where I may eventually end up working with one from time to time and want to know if there's any vital info I should be aware of or research. How much is Java even used on them? Do developers primarily stick with Cobol? And what do you suppose most of the current software would have been written in?

Welcome to my world! I've programmed on the AS400 for the last 17 years.

Things that will make you look like you know your stuff:

The language of choice used to be RPG (but not the kind people around here would associate with that acronym!) My company now develop in Java, with a lot of legacy RPG customers on the books.

The AS400 is now called the iSeries, has been for a few years now.

They are "midrange" servers, generally serving up to 2 or 3 thousand clients. Usually though, it's much less.

Java is extremely robust, but development suffers slightly as a result. Everything gets pre-compiled when loaded, which means the very first time a program is used, it takes a few seconds longer to start. For a brand new installation of a business application, you'd tend to hit the button and wait a few hours before you let the users loose. To install a correction, you have to restart the JVM to clear the precompiled cache for that program.

They are black

You tend to use Websphere as the web server, being IBM and all that

They are extreeeeemely secure

The operating system is OS/400. Current version is V5R3M0. Any version starting V4... is 32-bit CISC, V5... is 64-bit RISC.