I was delighted to learn---authoritatively from Chris Blaicher---that SYNCSORT no longer makes routine use of BSAM or QSAM to read/write its sortin/sortout datasets.
His point that there are no generic, one-size-fits-all solutions is also important. It conceded, my own experience nevertheless strongly suggests that strung-out, multiple job-step schemes of the sort that the OP outlined are almost always inferior to those that attach the sort and use its exits, at least for traditional I/O-bound commercial processing, MFUs and the like. (Well used, COBOL QSAM i/o can be very efficient indeed; but it is almost always used in what I shall politely call suboptimal fashion.) The question whether the sort can itself do any required preprocessing needs always, of course, to be examined John Gilmore, Ashland, MA 01721 - USA ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
