Wow, I thought I had been called everything in the book, but this
is the first time for: "lacking in referential transparency". I think I
actually like it. No doubt my wife would agree with this evaluation, and
add a few creative epithets of her own.
As I said before about JCL. Yes, it is older than most of its
users, and quirky and cranky like its older users, or a Model T Ford or a
DC-3. But like them, it still works. As I also said before "IT AIN'T
BROKE, DO NOT FIX IT". REPALCE it... fine. Why not just come up with a
WHOLE new language. But there is WAY too much investment in its quirks to
make it pretty without messing up a WHOLE BUNCH of existing JCL. Some
folks have suggested using REXX... it works, but who wants to run
everything under the TSO overhead.
I think IBM made this change without properly considering the
millions of lines of existing JCL, and the number of them which may rely
on this quirk.
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