On Mon, 1 Sep 2025 14:57:16 +0100, Jonathan Scott <jonathan.scott...@gmail.com> wrote:
>There's a big difference between stuff that can be used in practice for >programming purposes > and official programming interfaces, which are expected to be long-term > stable. Ask Peter Relson about the "long-term stable" message requirements. I guarantee major message changes (unjustified) would be met with fury from the automation community. >It's only a programming interface if it is documented as such. Are you saying the Netview message programming interface is not extremely well documented in the Netview manuals? It clearly documents selecting messages, assigning to REXX exec and accessing the message attributes. This is clearly an "official programming interface" despite not saying so. Why are ALL message changes included with the z/OS installation and migration considerations? The message programming interface has migration considerations! https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/zos/2.5.0?topic=changes-message-code-zos-v2r5 Migration of mixed-case message changes are critical as noted by migration considerations like "the following JES2 messages were changed from all uppercase characters to mixed-case characters". If case were irrelevant, why is it a consideration. >> This publication primarily documents information that is NOT intended to be >> used as >> Programming Interfaces of DFSORT. That ship sailed long ago. DFSORT messages are included in the migration considerations mentioned above. "NOT intended" tells us customers are using this programming interface, but IBM is not happy about it. IBM is clearly supporting DFSORT messages. >> Note: Although the compiler listing is for your use, it is not a programming >> interface and is subject to change. This note tells us customers are using listings as a programming interface. Customer support for compilers will not support listing but other groups like DFP do support this programming interface. >Message identifiers are expected to be stable enough to be used for >product-specific programming purposes, >but I would certainly not rely on the exact text of a message >(especially as for many products it can be in multiple languages). Every automation sysprog heavily relies upon exact message text. Any message changes are supposed to notify the automation sysprog.
