On Mon, May 13, 2019 at 11:57 AM Paul Gilmartin < [email protected]> wrote:
> On Mon, 13 May 2019 16:04:04 +0000, Jesse 1 Robinson wrote: > > > >The problem with FB vs. VB--mostly in script management involving CLIST > or REXX--is as old as MVS. For most of affected shops, the conundrum is the > reverse of OP's. Vendor distribution is usually FB--SMPE pretty much > requires that-- > > > ??? > SMP/E has (almost?) forever supported RECFM=VB for IEBCOPY-unloaded > RELFILEs, and more recently in GIMDTS for inlined PTF elements. > > >The biggest problem with format conversion is that you have to keep up > with vendor updates. That's way more trouble than the original conversion. > So if pressure on the vendor gains you nothing, you need to live with the > hassle. One technique to simplify life works if you can isolate a product > to a particular set of users. For example, SMPE and IPCS are used by > sysprogs. You can write an 'INIT' REXX that allocates vendor-supplied data > sets--including e.g. REXX of the opposite format--and instruct users to run > *your* application. The INIT REXX almost never needs updating; vendor > updates everything else. > > > Vendors should distribute or customers should install as UNIX > directories/files. Those can > be seamlessly concatenated with either RECFM=VB or RECFM=FB PDS(E)s > (although not > both). > > Much of the problem lies in vendors' and customers' unwillingness to adopt > the newer, > more flexible facilities such as GIMDTS and UNIX that IBM has long made > available. > Nice idea. But vendors are stuck in the past too. I wonder if it is because they, like others, simply don't have any people around any more that really know how the current stuff works (we fired most of our mainframe SMEs), and they don't want the $$$$$$ of redeveloping a new process, and so they just stay with "the tried and true". > > SMP/E should support "patch" as an alternative to IEBUPDTE for USERMODs > and such. > YES! IEBUDTE should have been retired long before the last physical keypunch was junked. It was a good utility in its time. But it is like looking at a sundial to the the actual current time. Sundials are nice decorations. They are terrible timepieces. > > -- gil > > -- This is clearly another case of too many mad scientists, and not enough hunchbacks. Maranatha! <>< John McKown ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
