I agree that it is counter-intuitive (and unfriendly) that, for proc symbol yyy, you can do SET xxx=&yyy but that SET xxx='&yyy' or even SET xxx='&yyy.' (if a trailing period were necessary to clearly identify a symbol's usage) do not do what you'd expect.
Specifically, it appears that the substitution does not happen within the quotes (so when you use &xxx, you get, literally, &yyy). So it's more than just that IEFC657I gets issued if &yyy is not used anywhere else, it's that the SET symbol substitution value is not what is desired. Maybe this can be improved compatibly (it's important that it be felt that it can be done compatibly -- while individuals hate the inconsistency of the function, customers hate it even more when things that worked last release don't work this release). Obviously one could consider a parmlib-specifiable option to identify a changed set of rules if such a change were provided by option and a customer was willing to take the risk of activating it for all their users, so that each individual would not have to ask to use a new set of rules. As to justification, it's surely the obvious one: $$$. Why should that be a surprise? These are business decisions and tradeoffs. Presumably, the case that needed to be handled involved special characters. And presumably that case was handled. Would it have been nicer to have a more general solution? Sure. Would it have been worth the resource investment? I don't know the answer. And, by the way, the future outlook (to me) is getting dimmer. I long for the days when "MVP" stood for Most Valuable Player. The new MVP (which includes the word "Minimum") can lead towards "what's the least that we can get away with doing" thinking. I far prefer "what should we do" balanced with "what can we afford to do" (because maybe that leads towards a staged delivery plan that might start with "not as much" but could end up at "what should we do" -- if the plan gets carried to fruition, although I've seen too many cases of not being good at carrying a plan to fruition). Peter Relson z/OS Core Technology Design ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
