Being an ex-sysprog and now a developer I go for SMP/E every time (and I haven't got *that* many grey hairs...)
There is a small amount of extra pain to setup the environment in the first place - but after that the benefits way exceed any issues. >From a development point of view, SMP/E helps me make sure that when I ship a PTF that I am hitting all of the objects that I intend to. Maybe development shops with fancy source-control software feel comfortable without - personally I need the belt and braces of both what SCLM *and* SMP/E tell me. Without SMP/E - I would probably go for some sort of full library replacement technique (maybe with some sort of build number) and I can see how that might work quite well for small self-contained products. As for supplying individual member replacements outside of SMP/E - it sorta makes me shudder. Rob Scott Rocket Software, Inc 275 Grove Street Newton, MA 02466 617-614-2305 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.rs.com/portfolio/mxi/ -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Mark Zelden Sent: 12 September 2006 09:49 To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Non-SMP/e packaging I would hope 99% of us who have worked on this platform know and understand the benifits of SMP/E. I personally would choose an SMP/E install if I can over a non-SMP/E install but that may just be my "old-timer" prejudice showing. Trying to keep an open mind... Excluding major components (OS, subsystems like CICS/DB2/IMS etc.), would it really be that bad if you just replaced the run time libs when you needed to upgrade / put on maintenance? Since almost all shops have high speed internet access and vendors have electronic downloads, think of all the time and DASD (even though DASD is "cheap") you would save by not having to deal with an SMP/E environment and distribution libs. I hate to say it - but think win-doze, PFCSKs, zNextGen. Think of a small shop with few support people. If we truly want to attract new comers to this platform (or at least keep the existing install base) and make it easier and quicker to install and maintain software, this may be a fine alternative to SMP/E for many products. I think what is important is to know exactly what level of software you are running to help in problem determination and to know "where do I go from here" to upgrade. If vendors distributed well defined levels of their software in run-time only format, this isn't an issue. A perfect example is Innovation's FDR. I have used it in virtually every shops I've been at for 20+ years. I have never missed having an SMP/E install nor have I had any issues / problems related to problem determination because I didn't know exactly what level of software I was running. Oh..and guess what... FDR only takes a couple of hours to install (if that). Some of the people on this list keep telling us to get over ourselves and we probably need to. The IT world has changed a lot in the last 20 years but this platform really hasn't for the most part. Putting windows GUIs and web wizard front ends to everything doesn't cut it because the underlying processes are still too complex and "old-timer" experience is still needed when there is a problem. My 2 cents... Mark -- Mark Zelden Sr. Software and Systems Architect - z/OS Team Lead Zurich North America / Farmers Insurance Group mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED] z/OS and OS390 expert at http://searchDataCenter.com/ateExperts/ Mark's MVS Utilities: http://home.flash.net/~mzelden/mvsutil.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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
