If true, I'm gonna assume this is some C thing related to a null [terminated] string. Agreed seems beyond stupid!
Which is on my time machine list: go back and stop them from ever using that horrible convention (along with EBCDIC/ASCII and *ix case sensitivity). -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Mike Shaw Sent: Thursday, October 23, 2025 1:45 PM To: [email protected] Subject: IRXJCL oddity Everyone, I saw this <https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/SSLTBW_3.2.0/pdf/ikja300_v3r2.pdf> gem in the z/OS V3R2 Rexx Reference (page 248) and I could not believe it. It dates back to z/OS V2R5. If you invoke IRXJCL to execute a Rexx exec in batch, and you want the Rexx interpreter to treat SYSEXEC as a sequential input file instead of as a partitioned data set, then you code the JCL PARM= field as a BINARY ZERO between single quotes! If that is done, IRXJCL opens the SYSEXEC file and reads in the exec within it and then interprets it. To pass an argument to the exec, you code PARM= as a single BINARY ZERO followed by the argument for the exec. Does anyone else think this is stupid? Instead of IBM adding code to IRXJCL so that it checks the SYSEXEC DD to see if it is DSORG=PS and then acting accordingly if it is, the user is supposed to edit their JCL PARM= field 'HEX ON' and type in a binary zero (which displays as a blank under ISPF) between single quotes to tell IRXJCL to treat SYSEXEC as a sequential file. I don't get it... Mike Shaw MVS/QuickRef Support Group Chicago-Soft, Ltd. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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
