On 06/26/2010 09:16 PM, Ted MacNEIL wrote:
>> But here we are talking about a case of manipulating directory entries
>> and internal content of an Operating-system-specific construct, a PDS.

> 
> I can do that with REXX and ISPF Library Management Services -- no HLASM on 
> my part.
>


This prompted me to check latest ISPF manuals for LM services to see if
I had missed something new.  I see the the member delete service that
has always been there, but there is still no PDS reset function (like in
the CBT PDS utility).  I wouldn't call deleting all individual members
via ISPF LM services a viable production approach except for a PDS with
a small number of members, or perhaps for a one time exercise.  Going
that route starts off requiring an order of magnitude more processing
resources than a "reset" for even a small PDS and gets exponentially
worse as the number of members increases.

My unquoted remarks after the quoted sentence were:
"Higher-level languages like COBOL, that are deliberately designed to be
machine-independent, provide no syntax to specify actions on that level.
 It just can't be done without depending at some point on code written
in Assembler - either a local utility or some vendor utility."

The LM management Services callable from REXX are of course vendor
supplied utilities probably written in Assembler, not part of the REXX
language itself, which simply re-makes my point that to do
machine-dependent type things you have to go outside the
machine-independent high-level language.  The issue in this case becomes
one of whether you use Assembler-implemented utilities that your
installation writes and maintains or Assembler-implemented utilities
from some other source.  I don't know of any IBM utilities or
non-Assembler interfaces included with z/OS that do a PDS RESET, but
perhaps they exist.  This capability certainly exists in freebie
utlities on the CBT collection, or non-free vendor product alternatives
if management insists that all utilities used have full maintenance support.
-- 
Joel C. Ewing, Fort Smith, AR        jremoveccapsew...@acm.org

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