Guy Gardoit wrote:
For the life of me, I can't understand why this is such a surprise or
problem. How many bad programmers were-there/are-there anyway?
Sorry, but one who breaks the rules, end ups broken.
Even good programmers make mistakes. That's why we have testing. What's
needed are test tools to help detect problems early, before
newly-developed programs are used in production environments.
Thanks to Jim Mulder's efforts, the IgvInitGetMain DIAG trap is just
such a tool. It has been available since OS/390 V2R6 and has been
disclosed to IBM and ISV development organizations for many, many years.
In that light, there is very little excuse (IMHO) for 21st-century
program product code to have problems related to uninitialized GETMAINed
storage. (I just know Sam Knutson will adopt the "Prodigal Son" approach
and praise developers that waited until 2009 to *finally* fix their
"broken" code. But, I digress...)
OTOH, customers have not had the luxury of this tooling. There are a few
tech-savvy sysprogs that have enabled this and other undocumented DIAG
traps based on information they received at SHARE, IBM-MAIN, or other
avenues (include Barabara Nitz in this category). But, the rest of the
user community is completely unaware that such tooling is available.
Their exits and applications are at risk and they have no way of testing
them.
This ignorance, and the fall-out we'll be feeling from it for some time
to come, could have been avoided. IMHO, IBM should move to document
these tools ASAP!
--
Edward E Jaffe
Phoenix Software International, Inc
5200 W Century Blvd, Suite 800
Los Angeles, CA 90045
310-338-0400 x318
[email protected]
http://www.phoenixsoftware.com/
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