I think the reason that PARM remains as-is and the new PARMDD implemented is due to the format of JCL internal text. Internal text allows for a maximum length of 255 . Which explains why the value of PATH on a DD is a max of 255 characters. On Apr 7, 2013 12:58 PM, "Paul Gilmartin" <[email protected]> wrote:
> More questions keep occurring to me. > > When is the data set associated with PARMDD read? > > o Is it early enough in processing that: > > // SET DSNAME=MY.DATA.SET > //UNAUTH EXEC PGM=MYPGM,PARMDD=PARMS > //PARMS DD *,SYMBOLS=(JCL) > // ... &DSNAME ... > > ... can be effective? > > o Is it late enough in processing that PARMDD can refer to a > temporary data set passed from an earlier job step? > > (Are both even logically possible?) > > o In the absence of SYMBOLS=JCL, or if PARMDD is a data set > external to the job's JCL, will symbol references appearing in > that data set be resolved by JCL processing? > > Questions such as above impel me to wonder, why was > PARMDD introduced, rather than simply allowing a longer > PARM= string? This might be continued over 585 lines, if > necessary to accommodate 32760 characters, possibly read > from JCLLIB. But the facility to access the PARM from an > external file may have its own peculiar added value. > > -- gil > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
