Yahoo is not putting the text of the original message for some reason.
COBOL is a side issue (albeit small) in this case. Personally I find it
abhorrent to hard code anything like destination in any programs. JCL is the
ONLY way to go. It can be searched with multiple utilities (FILEAID and others)
rather easily. This issue is that when (I did not say IF) a destination changes
you must remember to recompile the program. If you do it in JCL then there is
now recompilation and the change can be made with minimal impact. I had a
programmer come to me a few years ago and he wanted to write a report that
could go to multiple places. He wanted to do dynamic allocation (we were a
strict COBOL shop). I do not have the memo I wrote him now or else I would
paste in in here. To make things really simple just code a DDNAME and a DD and
sysout=whatever,dest=newyork1 ddname2 DD sysout=whatever,dest=newyork2 etc etc
and then in you COBOL program have an FD for each possible destination. The
only rub to this is that there is a unknown
(back then I came up with a number) max number of FD's IIRC it is around 1200.
You may also want to code free=close on the DD statement. Yes it is a lot of
JCL but a COBOL program that does dynamic allocation (even if its written in
assembler or some other language) is a hard to maintain animal.
Trying to change JCL in the middle of the night is easy compared to recompile
and link edit and hey don't forget testing. If you set up the JCL correctly in
the test phase it is a cake walk to production.
I am not bad mouthing COBOL I am just say get realistic and look beyond coding
and testing. It will make life a lot easier. Plus if you want you can dd dummy
out the DDNAMES in testing and when the JCL goes to QA it will be easy, IMO.
Ed
ps: Do NOT forget reruns this brings up side issues as well.
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