On Wed, 22 Apr 2009 12:50:49 -0400, Tony Harminc <tz...@attglobal.net> wrote:
> >Well, Tim's original post was about "What (More) Open Source Software >Do You Want for z/OS?". I can speak only for myself, but when I think >of open source software, I don't mean what IBM has mostly done with >things like the Ported Tools, which is to take open source software >and provide OCO versions for z/OS. What I expect is ported versions >*with source*. Without source, they're only shadows of their former >Open Source selves, that will atrophy unless kept up to date by IBM, >which has notably happened to a number of earlier ports to OCO. While >IBM has unquestionably contributed a huge amount to the open source >community, they have also done their fair share of closing off >existing open source code. IBM has on occasion even hidden such >activities behind the banner of open source, which leaves a bad taste. > >Asking what open source software is wanted on z/OS, with the >likelihood that it's going to arrive OCO, is really just asking what >new function people want in z/OS. Which is a perfectly fine question, >of course, but the answers are likely to have rather a different >flavour. > >Tony H. I totally agree. I like the fact that IBM ported OpenSSH to run on z/OS. But I hate the fact that, for whatever reason, they decided to not share the updated source. Given the license on OpenSSH, this is perfectly legal. But if IBM should someday decide that they want to develop a competing product and discontinue maintaining OpenSSH, then I'm up a creek. This is, again, why I like the GPL license over other OSI licenses. Not that I want to start a license war here, too. Now, as to what I'd like in z/OS UNIX? Wow, I have a bunch of things. I'd like something like Linux's /proc pseudo-filesystem. It would take a lot of lines to detail what all I'd like. But, just as some examples, an interface to the SPOOL so that I can see what jobs are in the SPOOL (subject to security). Perhaps even access their SPOOL files, if I have appropriate authority. An interface to the RMF information (read-only). And, I still want /dev/intrdr to do job submission. Yes, I have a REXX program which submits JCL from a file or STDIN (if no file is specified), so piping works. But piping uses a second process, which is not as efficient. -- John -- John ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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
