Gerhard Postpischil wrote:
At my installations we handled vendor products by:
[snip]
There seems to be some confusion about what's been proposed in this thread.
Paul Gilmarten's comments -- inspired by my observation that, unlike
ISPF, TSO EDIT does not require a "slew" of data sets allocations with
uncertain names -- were not about data sets distributed with ISV
products. Rather, they were about assigning fixed names to data sets
that come with z/OS: names on which anyone can always count.
In the real world, some installations keep the ServerPac HLQs, others
rename them all to SYS1, and still others implement elaborate data set
naming conventions. Because of this, it is impossible to distribute JCL
or similar application or construct that must refer to system data sets
because the names cannot be known in advance.
I can still remember a time when esoteric unit name specifications were
unreliable. For example, unit names like DISK or SYSDA didn't work in
all shops. Once SYSALLDA was implemented, life got easier. The same
would be true if something similar was done for required system data set
names.
Perhaps Paul's idea could be implemented using a standard set of system
catalog aliases -- e.g., prefixed by "SYSALIAS". That way, it wouldn't
matter if the installation called their standard ISPF panel library
ISP.SISPPENU, SYS1.SISPPENU, or SYS2.ISPPLIB. JCL distributed by IBM,
ISVs, etc. could use a standard name e.g. SYSALIAS.ISPF.PANELS and work
unchanged in any z/OS shop worldwide.
FYI: z/VSE handles this problem with a facility called "standard
labels". It is like having a set of pre-allocated DDs that every address
space gets by default. It's really quite a powerful concept. Not unlike
our LNKLST -- a concatenation of program libraries available to all --
but for any arbitrary list of data sets.
--
-----------------------------------------------------------------
| Edward E. Jaffe | |
| Mgr, Research & Development | [EMAIL PROTECTED] |
| Phoenix Software International | Tel: (310) 338-0400 x318 |
| 5200 W Century Blvd, Suite 800 | Fax: (310) 338-0801 |
| Los Angeles, CA 90045 | http://www.phoenixsoftware.com |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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
