Talk:Job scheduler

message: "Benefits of a Job Scheduler" is referring to something I believe is called a "resource scheduler" - which is where you schedule workers, meeting rooms, etc. It has nothing to do with computers. Do a google on "resource scheduler" for examples. I'm pretty sure this doesn't belong in this article.
JPalonus 19:29, 20 August 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Benefits of a Job Scheduler 

message: I removed the supplementary software section but this action was contested by User:Jordiferrer (see his rationale above), so I'm holding a request for comment on the matter. Is this section appropriate?  Is it not?  If not, what course of action should be taken about it? ThemFromSpace 22:45, 30 October 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: I went ahead and removed it again, per WP:EL and because Wikipedia is not a directory. - MrOllie (talk) 18:57, 8 October 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Is it OK to have the [[Job_scheduler#Supplementary_software|supplementary software]] section or should it be removed? 

message: "batch system, Distributed Resource Management System, and Distributed Resource Manager" are not synonyms for "job scheduler".  They are related concepts, certainly, but it's as if Wikipedia were to say "fire trucks, airplanes, and trains" are synonyms for "car".  Vixie cron is a job scheduler, but it's not any of those other things; many other examples exist.
Batch processing refers to the practice of creating "batches", composed of one or more programs, and running them sequentially as a single process or set of processes without allocating interactive terminal hardware such as a keyboard.  Batches are not necessarily run by job schedulers, and job schedulers do not necessarily run batches - job schedulers are perfectly capable of kicking off interactive processes such as call center campaigns.  Batches were run manually by operators before the widespread implementation of job schedulers.
Job scheduling refers to the practice of executing programs at pre-designated times or at regular intervals.  The salient feature is chronological triggering of execution, unlike batching where the salient features are sequential ordering of multiple co-dependent jobs and little or no terminal interaction.  For example, many email systems implement calendaring functions that include scheduling of reminder jobs that are fundamentally interactive - the end-user is presented with a reminder box that requires human response.  Similarly, cron jobs that force programmers to take eyestrain breaks have to be considered interactive.
Further, the statement that job scheduling can be divided into a "mainframe era" based on JCL and an "open systems era" including everything else is frankly laughable.  Products from DEC (such as RSX, RSTS/E, VMS) and many other companies (such as Burroughs, Honeywell, and Unisys) implemented job schedulers and batch processing that had nothing to do with JCL (which is a literal card-image language still widely used today to control batching on IBM systems) long before the phrase "open systems" became a computing shibboleth, and mainframes continue to be used despite the conncurrent use of equally ancient open system such as BSD unix.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 205.153.180.229 (talk) 14:58, 7 January 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  factually incorrect and ungrammatical 

message: I think this article conflates too many different things, and should try to separate them more clearly.  E.g, I came here to read about batch queueing systems (which apparently is a synonym for job scheduler) for clusters (e.g. PBS or Gnu Queue), and clearly this is quite a different beast from cron.  kzm (talk) 08:22, 7 April 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Confusing article