>It is possible to write code that runs on both the mainframe and a PC. If you want to run mainframe assembler (alias HLASM, ASMH, ASMG, ASMF etc) on the PC including privaledged operating system dependent instructions then you will need an OS emulator like Hercules which emulates down to the channel program level using virtual OS files on virtual OS volumes etc.
If you just want to use the power of the mainframe assembler macro processor and the rich capabilities of the problem state instruction set including all the data formats such as packed decimal, hex and binary floating point up to 128 bit precision plus the new decimal floating point, then you can use the www.z390.org open source J2SE based portable mainframe assembler. z390 assembles and links mainframe assembler code into mainframe compatible object code. The object code can be executed on Windows Vista, XP, or Linux or any J2SE compatible computer OS platform. z390 is targeted to be compatible at the macro interface for the most common MVS type macros such as OPEN, CLOSE, GET, PUT, READ, WRITE, CHECK, GETMAIN, FREEMAIN, TIME, WTO, etc. Different SVC's are generated which pass arguments to native J2SE Java svc routines which can perform I/O and other operating system functions using any J2SE supported files etc. The most recent z390 version v1.3.04 can execute a BCT mainframe instruction loop at over 1.6 MIPS on an Intel 2.1 GHZ Duo Core Processor running Vista. The most recent version also includes an EXEC CICS compatible subset tranaction processor allowing a CICS tranaction server on a TCP/IP network to support multiple remote CICS terminal clients on the network. This was contributed by Melvyn Maltz with open source and demos included. Don Higgins [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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
