------------------------------------<snip>-----------------------------------
Do you mean it's possible to reach in somehow and modify the data
following DD * or DD DATA?
There are a number of such utilities around, as you say. Their
prevalence is testament to the need for a more regular solution.
The drawbacks are:
o Restriction by the 100-character PARM limit.
---------------------------------<unsnip>-------------------------------
Many of those utilities, including mine, read those SYSIN statements,
make substitutions and store the results in a temp dataset.
---------------------------------------------<snip>----------------------------------------
o If several lines must be modified, it likely takes several job
steps with their outputs concatenated. In any case this is
cumbersome; in some cases it may encounter the JCL limit on the
number of steps in a job.
----------------------------------------<unsnip>------------------------------------------
Mine results in no additional job steps and only one additional DD
statement. Simple enough? APF authorization can be handled any way you
like and there are NO attempts to bypass ANY security measures or
mechanisms in place.
-----------------------------------------<snip>------------------------------------------
o I'd not be comfortable distributing this sort of complexity to
a customer.
----------------------------------------<unsnip>----------------------------------------
Don't prejudge before you examine and test. The vast variety of these
things floating around range from the super-complex to the relatively
simple.
-----------------------------------------<snip>-----------------------------------------
It would be far more elegant to simply be able to use symbols directly
in SYSIN data sets.
--------------------------------------<unsnip>--------------------------------------------
No argument, but don't hold your breath waiting for it. How would you
discern between a valid SYSIN value and a value intended for
substitution? It would be, to say the very least, a "non-trivial" task.
--------------------------------------<snip>----------------------------------------------
For personal use, I keep any JCL that needs such systematic modification
as a here-document in a shell script which edits it and submits it,
either to an internal reader or via FTP. Again, something I'd not
like to burden a naive customer with.
And ISPF file tailoring would likely be an alternative. But having
an alternative, I remain naive to the ISPF technique.
----------------------------------------<unsnip>-----------------------------------------
If you're willing to at least examine what I have to offer, shoot me an
address off-list and I'll share my code with you. It doesn't have to be
all that hard to at least examine and try a few examples that fit YOUR
environment. :-) Full doc is included in the program header in comment form.
Rick
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