It is still “a thing” because IDCAMS PRINT was programmed to print the character side of the record ”DUMP” option using the most restrictive printed character set available at that time on actual printer devices (likely based on the 1403N1 48-character print chain most used for the fastest “business” report printing).
Personally, I always use 'GRAPHICS(CHAIN(TN))’ rather than “SN” because that print chain had the most available printed characters. IIRC the “SN” chain lacked the EBCDIC super-script and sub-script characters that “TN” had, and perhaps a few others as well. If you reported this to IBM I strongly suspect you would get WAD as the response. Peter From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Paul Gilmartin Sent: Thursday, October 5, 2023 12:20 PM To: [email protected] Subject: PARM='GRAPHICS(CHAIN(SN))' In a recent post, I saw: //TESTDIR EXEC PGM=IDCAMS,PARM='GRAPHICS(CHAIN(SN))' o Why is PARM='GRAPHICS(CHAIN(SN))' still a thing? o Cui bono? o In this 21st Century, why isn't the default the identity translation? o If it needs to ba thing, why doesn't every utility support it? o If it's generally needed, why isn't it an option on DD SYSOUT? (I was dismayed the first time I used IDCAMS and my comments vanished.) -- This message and any attachments are intended only for the use of the addressee and may contain information that is privileged and confidential. If the reader of the message is not the intended recipient or an authorized representative of the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail and delete the message and any attachments from your system. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
