I suspect that the Format 1 DSCB would be the culprit for that speculation (how many F1's can we fit on a 2314 track?).
Peter From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Phil Smith III Sent: Thursday, October 23, 2025 5:56 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: IRXJCL oddity I'd love to know where that number came from! Why not 36? Or 52? Or 45? Or...? I imagine someone had a control block that was pushing <some limit> and of course "44 characters should be enough for anyone..." and all that! -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Seymour J Metz Sent: Thursday, October 23, 2025 5:46 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: IRXJCL oddity Maybe *some* MVS folks are content with 44 characters, but definitely not all. -- ________________________________________ From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> on behalf of Paul Gilmartin <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, October 23, 2025 5:39 PM To: [email protected] <[email protected]> Subject: Re: IRXJCL oddity On Thu, 23 Oct 2025 15:54:40 -0400, Phil Smith III wrote: >No no, I meant GLOBALLY: no filenames on the planet should ever have been >case-sensitive! Nobody sane would ever name two files "Foo" and "FOO", so it's >just stupid. I keep asking *ix folks about this--have for 40 years--and all >insist "It's good" without ever being able to justify it. > (What aboutism): It's human to find good in the familiar. The first time I unwittingly typed a 45-character data set name and got a JCL error and wondered at such an uncomfortably small limit, MVS folks all insist "It's good" without ever being able to justify it. *ix historians tell me of an era when filenames were limited to 14 characters. It's possible to overcome such limits formerly justified by hardware costs. I find value in consistency. It's just stupid that BLDL, STOW, Allocation, JCL, snd Catalog Services are case-sensitive whereas TSO, ISPF, (and the C RTL?) are case insensitive. -- 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
