In a recent note, Tom Schmidt said: > Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2006 12:14:08 -0600 > > > If SYSTSIN is a variable length data set (VB), the first 8 bytes of the > record will be treated as a sequence number and ignored. If SYSTSIN is a > variable length data set with ASA control characters (VBA), the first 9 > bytes of the record will be treated as a sequence number, followed by a > carriage control character and ignored. > ??? Gulp! Is there any printer driver or utility that honors ASA carriage control in column 9 as the above suggests? What's the point?
It fails to make clear what the behavior is for RECFM=VBM. > You cannot refer to concatenated data sets on the SYSTSIN DD statement. > Hmmm. I hadn't known this. I'll have to try one and see how it fails. Does it mean, perhaps, merely that concatenated data sets must have similar attributes? > Each command or subcommand must begin on a separate statement. > Sounds redundant. Aren't "command" and "statement" synonyms? > The fine manual being, in this case, TSO/E User's Guide Chapter 16, the > section heading is "Submitting Jobs in TSO Batch", subsection "Writing JCL > for Command Execution" subheading "SYSTSIN DD Statement". > FSVO "fine". (That's actually unfair. The manual is probably pretty fine; the subject matter is crude.) IBM's lexical conventions, traceable to the limitations of the 029 keypunch and 407 card reader (I know, but..) are unduly burdensome. They deter beginners starting on the mainframe career track. No professor, having a limited number of lectures to deliver, will choose to waste any of them describing the continuation conventions for JCL, or HLASM, or even TSO. It's more productive to teach UNIX or Windows instead. -- gil -- StorageTek INFORMATION made POWERFUL ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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
