Gil, While the exits are not needed if the volser has alpha/numeric on the left and all numerics on the right; the exits are still available. And we have worked up the 01AAAA-01ZZZZ ranges, as well as the base-16 ranges. The client wanting base 36 (0-Z) decided against it after seeing how many volumes could be obtained by simply having 1 or 2 alpha/numeric (base 36) with 4-characters of all numeric.
Russell On 03/17/14, Paul Gilmartin<paulgboul...@aim.com> wrote: On Mon, 17 Mar 2014 21:53:19 +1100, Greg Price wrote: > >The reason for the non-numeric characters? >Management thought it might be nice if the first two characters were >alphabetics forming a common abbreviation of the corporation name. > SMP/E product tapes are 2 letters and 4 digits, aren't they? >Yes, this did limit the tape library to 10**4 carts (this was the epoch >of 3480 cartridge drives), but that limit was not reached while I was there. > Not 26*26*10**4? IIRC, in the 1960's an organization (SHARE?) attempted to establish a global registry of tape volumes, assigning a 2-letter prefix to each member entity. UQ for University of Colorado. >I am sure you can imagine our delight when we found out yet another >little set up (the new system) task that could have been oh-so-easily >avoided. ... > Yup. On Sat, 15 Mar 2014 23:10:27 -0500, Russell Witt wrote: > >1) If you code VOL=SER=1234,UNIT=xxxx does that mean it is leading blanks or >trailing blanks? In either case, CA 1 will support both 4-character volsers >and 5-character volsers. > >2) Boy, when was the last time you worked with CA 1? Must have been about 15 >years ago if you don't know about TMSXTEND. We eliminated the need (in most >cases) for the alpha/numeric volser translation exits a long time ago. Of >course there are some exceptions we haven't done yet, the 0000NT-9999NT and >the 00AAAA-00ZZZZ (base 26) that IBM Europe likes to play with. And we have >seen 1 request for 000000-00ZZZZ (base 36) and even 1 request for >000000-00FFFF (base 16). But as long as the Alpha's are on the left and >numerics on the right; no exit is needed. > Sounds like shirking; ad-hoc knee-jerk reaction; nothing to boast of. First support all numeric because that addresses a market for which there's a business justiification. But provide an exit to collect niche revenue. Later, as the market saturates and remaining prospects resist implementing and maintaining an exit, progressively accommodate their particular conventions. Why not simply Do the Right Thing, and support the full syntax documented in the JCL Reference? -- gil ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
