On Wed, 23 Sep 2009 12:57:46 -0400, Barkow, Eileen wrote: >The argument that an existing program cannot handle a longer parm area if it >was available is nonsense - just don't pass it the longer area and there will >not be a problem. > >A perfect example on why a longer parm area over 100 bytes is needed is the >CICS Web Service Assistant job streams (DFHLS2WS/DFHWS2LS) that IBM stupidly >wrote to require long-winded hfs file names passed in the parm field. I had to >use convoluted links and 1 character file names in order to fit every thing in. > The problem is endemic with Unix System Services. As a stopgap, BPXBATCH has provided DD STDPARM, but no symbol substitution. And, unwisely, the design makes STDPARM override PARM rather than be appended to it. If STDPARM were appended to PARM, symbol substitution would be available in at least the first part of the combined string.
>-----Original Message----- >From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of >Chris Craddock >Sent: Wednesday, September 23, 2009 12:30 PM > ... >Fast forward 4 decades and change the interface so the length could go over >100 and now you have valid programs that can suddenly overlay their 100 byte >area. Nothing good can come of it and if you're lucky you just abend right >then and there. If you're an APF program then things can go awfully pear >shaped. > >An interface definition is a contract. You can't break it, even if the >original contract (as in this case) was stupid. > As the Assembler Services Guide clearly states, that contract is valid and enforceable only for programs invoked by the JCL EXEC statement. (I take the mention of the 100-character limit in other documents cited in this thread as merely reflecting the JCL behavior -- or would you care to submit a RCF on the Assembler Services Guide?) And it's always wise for the called program to verify both the form and content of its arguments, even given the presumption of a trusted caller. Your old road is Rapidly agin. Please get out of the new one If you cant lend your hand For the times they are a-changin. -- Bob Dylan -- gil ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
