OmniScript and Other Languages

As I shared in my last post, OmniScript is a proprietary, server-side, interpreted scripting language for the OmniPlus System, a COBOL based financial application. Like any language, as I've been learning, OmniScript has it's strengths and weaknesses. There are some things it naturally does very well in dealing with the data structure of the OmniPlus system, and, as I've been learning about other languages, I'm seeing some of OmniScript's limitations (at least with my limited knowledge anyway).

Language Learning

In college I took two years of Greek. I found learning this ancient language, with it's different letters,fascinating. One interesting thing I found was that learning Greek had the added benefit of helping me with my English. The fresh experience of seeing grammatical concepts in Greek gave me a better understanding of similar concepts in English that I had taken for granted for the most part.

When it comes to OmniScript, my early understanding of BASIC helped to prepare me, and as I've spent time since learning Java and a little Python, that has given me a clearer understanding of the concepts I'm using in OmniScript. Studying Java through Stanford's Programming Methodology course online has made me a better OmniScripter. It's interesting to learn and compare the similarities and differences in languages and it makes me a better writer of whatever language I'm working with.

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My Introduction to OmniScript

In my retirement services recordkeeping job I worked mostly in Microsoft Access for the first 15 years or so. Due to that nature of the group of retirement plans that my department did the reocrdkeeping for, we had to perform the annual compliance testing on the plans outside of the main recordkeeping system, OmniPlus by SunGard (now FIS). Therefore my main job was maintaining and developing a growing Access database. But then when some changes came in 2011, I started in a new role shortly after I went back to working there fulltime. In these first 15 years I had limited experience with gathering and exporting data from the OmniPlus system. Then in 2012 I officially joined the technical team and began writing OmniScript fulltime.

OmniScript

What is OmniScript? OmniScript is a proprietary, server-side, interpreted or compiled scripting language for the OmniPlus System, a COBOL based financial application. It is a VBA type scripting language which provides access and update capability to the OmniPlus database, and access to internal operations.

When I started, I knew next to nothing about the scripts I started looking at. There were no good training materials available to me so my training was much like getting dropped into the pool to learn how to swim. Thankfully my past experiences with programming, limited as they may have been, provided a good foundation for learning this new language.

My first tasks were making modifications and enhancements to existing processes and reports. With each one I studied what was being done in the scripts, tracing the structure and flow. I quickly got a sense of things and soon came to enjoy scripting. 

Less Visual (sort of)

Because my work with Access was much more visual than looking at code and seeing data showing up in files and transactions, I was unsure at first if I would like it as much. Now though, I can say that I enjoy writing code more than anything else I have done. I like designing and structuring the logical flow needed to gather data and accomplish tasks. While I spend a lot of time just looking at text, in my mind I'm visualizing the structure of my program, seeing how the many details work together, step after step, to accomplish what's needed.

As I modified scripts and wrote new things I learned about OmniScript quickly. Neither my boss nor I expected it, but within six months I was assigned with writing a whole new product we wanted to offer our clients. I'll write more about that and OmniScript in future posts.

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