Thanks, John. I think this is a classic example of what I think is a major obstacle standing in the way of the Z system: the answer is easy to find, assuming you already know it.
You see, I did not think of my problem as "how do I delete all of the members of a PDS?" I already knew how to do that. (For a small PDS, 3.1 and D line commands; and for a larger PDS, I would use 3.2 to delete and re-create.) My problem was "how do I issue a STOW I without having to write a program?" Yes, I might have used Google once I had Lizette's suggestion of using AMS, but FWIW I turned instead to the IBM tool Softcopy Reader. My complaint was about the doc there, not about Google. I think the DFSMS doc team could make the version numbering not muck up the collation without upsetting existing users. Charles -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of John Eells Sent: Monday, January 28, 2013 6:57 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Mislocated doc (was: ... STOW Initialize?) Charles Mills wrote: > The problem for me starts with the incredibly inconsistent titling, which > causes the manual titles to sort in no meaningful sequence, making it doubly > hard to find the relevant manual. Many of the IBM bookshelves have this > problem, but DFSMS is IMHO the worst. > > Look at the list below and tell me "quick, which one of these manuals will > tell you how to use the IDCAMS utility to delete all members of a PDS(E)?" > > z/OS DFSMS Software Support for IBM System Storage TS1130 and TS1120 Tape > Drives (3592) SC26-7514-04 <snip> While I do recognize the problems (who wouldn't?), I must express considerable sympathy for the writers and editors. Why? They cannot win. A comprehensive reorganization of the library could easily cause people who are experienced in a particular area of the system to stumble about for years while perhaps simplifying things for the less experienced in any given area. At the same time, leaving things as-is keeps people who know how to find what they need happier, perhaps at the expense of people who do not. However, the library's organization is not the only way to approach things. The search arguement "z/os delete all members of a pds," which I happened to try first on Google, yielded this URL at the top of the results list (watch the wrap): http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/zos/v1r13/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.ibm.zos.r13.idak100%2Famspdse12.htm ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
