Here's an interesting observation. The ISPF "Edit Entry Panel" (what I have been calling the edit file name panel) supports UNIX mixed-case file names in the "Other ... file" field. So ISPF is clearly not converting everything to upper case.
Yet "tso foo bar" on the Command===> prompt produces upper case output. Not quite sure how to fit that into the "order of upper casing/command recognition" detective work. Charles -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:ibm-m...@bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of Dave Salt Sent: Monday, March 01, 2010 9:46 PM To: IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu Subject: Re: Mixed case to a CLIST from ISPF command line? When a command is entered on a command line, ISPF checks to see if the command is recognized as an ISPF command. If it is (for example, if it's SPLIT, SWAP, HELP, TSO, etc) then ISPF processes the command and the underlying dialog (e.g. the ISPF panel) is completely unaware a command was even entered. If the command isn't recognized by ISPF (e.g. if a user enters DOG, FISH, DOIT, etc) the command is passed through to the dialog. The dialog can then process the command, or reject it if the command is unknown. Suppose 'TsO' is entered on a command line that has (or defaults) to CAPS(ON). I'm guessing (but not 100% sure) that the panel attributes cause the command to be uppercased to 'TSO' even *before* the data stream is sent to the mainframe for processing. If this is true, it means even ISPF itself has no idea what was actually entered on the command line, and therefore has no possible opportunity to preserve the original case of the command. If this assumption is wrong I'd think it would be fairly easy for ISPF to preserve the original case of the command. But as this isn't being done, I have to conclude that the order of processing is something like this: 1) A user enters a command on a command line and presses an interrupt key (e.g. ENTER). 2) The data on the panel is pre-processed by the terminal (or emulator) based on the attributes of the panel; e.g. if the command line is defined as (or defaults) to CAPS(ON), the command is converted to uppercase. 3) The data stream is then sent to the mainframe, where it is inspected by ISPF. 4) ISPF converts the first 'word' of the command to uppercase (just in case it was entered on a command line that isn't defined as CAPS(ON)). 5) If the command is recognized by ISPF (e.g. SPLIT,SWAP, HELP, TSO, etc) then it's processed by ISPF. Otherwise, ISPF passes the command through to the underlying dialog (e.g. the procedure that displayed the ISPF panel). I don't know anything about data streams and how they're passed back and forth between terminals and the mainframe, but it would certainly be interesting if someone on this list could confirm whether commands are converted to uppercase before they're sent to the mainframe? In other words, if step 2 above is incorrect and no conversion takes place prior to the data stream being sent to the mainframe, then maybe there is an opportunity for ISPF to preserve the original case of the TSO command? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
