-----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Craddock, Chris Sent: Wednesday, August 09, 2006 10:49 PM To: IBM-MAIN@BAMA.UA.EDU Subject: Re: Vendor JCL (was: WHY IS JCL ALLERGIC ... )
<snip> It is all very well to say you don't like assistance from the autocurse software <snip> I think maybe I should clarify something. I mentioned that Autocust was known internally as autocurst (formerly a Boole & Babbage product customizer for two product lines). I did not intend to imply that any pre/post SMP/E customization provided by any vendor was a detestable thing. The reason that we referred to it as autocurst was you were cursed if you had to work on it. This was because it was a mixture of CLIST, REXX, ISPF tables, panels, some programs, etc. When you made changes to it you had to recognize the level of the OS you were under, the level of ISPF (and if PDF was available), which level of TSO/E you were running under, the level of JES, etc. And it was so easy to break the whole thing (and there were a few people who managed to do this enough that no one wanted them to touch it again). Finally, one person (I honestly can't recall his name, but he got transferred to Empact (Stop X37 folks)) sat down and overhauled the whole thing, getting rid of obsolete code, poor coding constructions etc. On the other hand, if you got interrupted while doing the install, it could remember the last thing you had completed and upon re-entering autocust it would take you to the panel for the next thing you needed to do (and it might grind for about 5 minutes to do it). And it tended to be used by customers to help them customize their next install as it remembered most all of their site customization data. But it was a royal pain to have to change to fix something or add a new function/feature or option. Later, Steve Thompson ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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