I couldn't agree more, Bruce. It has been interesting reading this thread and seeing people talking about suing and so on. My question is: Do Oracle or IDMS or any other 390-based DBMS have any facility for internal sorting? My guess would be "yes". Do they require the end-user to purchase an additional external sort routine to make them function? Probably not. DB2 needed internal sort functionality and decided to borrow code fro the DFSort folks rather than re-invent the wheel. Something about code-reuse which I seem to recall somebody making comments about IBM not reusing code. Here they are, and getting complaints about it. I don't recall anywhere in this thread where IBM said I couldn't use SyncSort or any other sort routine on the box that is running DB2, nor are they requiring me to buy DFSort, nor are they giving me a full, free license to use DFSort. This whole thread seems to be making a mountain out of a molehill. It almost seems like it's Friday the 13th or something like that...
Just my $.02. Rex > Interesting thanks for the Ă…PAR info. I would guess if I was > maintaining a system nowdays and having syncsort I could see this as > a issue (not sure how big or small) but another step needed to > customize DFSORT. I know you can't comment but has the Syncsort > started to sue yet?:) As I read this, nothing needs to be done to customize DFSORT. DFSORT comes with all z/OS systems but may not be licensed. DB2 has an interface which allows it to use certain DFSORT functions even if the customer is not licensed. I'm not a SORT or DB2 person, but it sounds pretty transparent -- Bruce A. Black Senior Software Developer for FDR Innovation Data Processing 973-890-7300 personal: [EMAIL PROTECTED] sales info: [EMAIL PROTECTED] tech support: [EMAIL PROTECTED] web: www.innovationdp.fdr.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html