// designates end of JOB /* designates end of Data (default setting) Note the difference too, between,
//SYSIN DD * and //SYSIN DD DATA,DLM=some 2-8 char string (JES2) //SYSIN DD DATA,DLM=some 2 char string (JES3) When the first is used any JCL statement will terminate the data. The second requires whatever the DLM value is. You may consider all this bad design. However, it was designed for use with punched cards back in the early 1960s. Since then, compatibility requirements have maintained it from being changed in any incompatible manner. Compatibility has been a major factor in the longevity of IBM mainframe technology. Lennie -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Paul Gilmartin Sent: 07 May 2025 16:58 To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Check for ENQ at GDG level from rexx (non-ispf) On Wed, 7 May 2025 11:11:46 +0000, Seymour J Metz wrote: >The default //SYSIN DD * and /* have been documented for half a century. Both >are very convenient as long as your instream data never have a / in column 1. > My question is, is there any way to disable the delimiter so that an instream data set may freely contain any or all of the 65536 possible digraphs in 1-2? Related: colleagues only slightly older than I habitually ended each JCL file with "//". I never bothered -- it seemed to be two otiose keystrokes, an obsolete habit. I consider the default //SYSIN DD * bad design. Once it may have economized valuable pulpwood. Nowadays, it only conceals coding errors. I once received from a co-worker a REXX file in dented with a blank beginning every line. Worked fine in SYSPROC or SYSEXEC, but failed in OMVS, which didn't recognize a magic number and interpreted it as a shell script. -- 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
