? Nobody suggested the ASCII PSW bit had anything to do with comms. -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Seymour J Metz Sent: Friday, June 19, 2026 10:06 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Two TSO terminal I/O from Rexx questions
“It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.” — Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes The ASCII bit in the PSW is the to modify the behavior of decimal instructions; it has no relevance to telecommunications access methods, which support a variety of character sets. -- Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz http://mason.gmu.edu/~smetz3 עַם יִשְׂרָאֵל חַי נֵ֣צַח יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל לֹ֥א יְשַׁקֵּ֖ר ________________________________________ From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> on behalf of Jay Maynard <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, June 19, 2026 9:09 AM To: [email protected] <[email protected]> Subject: Re: Two TSO terminal I/O from Rexx questions External Message: Use Caution It would require talking with an ASCII-native host, and I doubt any of them ever implemented a 3270 driver. AFAIK, there certainly were no ASCII-native OSes for the 360/370 (plus or minus UTS or AIX/370, which ran under VM anyway). On Fri, Jun 19, 2026 at 7:40 AM Phil Smith III <[email protected]> wrote: > I am astounded. Did a ton of 3270 stuff back in the day and have ZERO > memory of it ever mentioning ASCII! > > Weirdly, it's all over that book--but it never seems to discuss what they > mean about using it. There's ONE index entry, which points to an entry > about structured fields, where it says simply: > > "Note: The use of structured fields requires that the full 8 bits of a > byte be used; > therefore, WSF is not supported in an ASCII environment." > > Makes me wonder if anybody ever used that support?! > > Thanks. > > -----Original Message----- > From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> On Behalf > Of Seymour J Metz > Sent: Thursday, June 18, 2026 11:06 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: Two TSO terminal I/O from Rexx questions > > My point is that the 3270DS supported ASCII from day one. > > IBM 3270 > Information Display System > Data Stream Systems Programmer's Reference > > also mentions both encodings. > > -- > Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz > http://mason.gmu.edu/~smetz3 > עַם יִשְׂרָאֵל חַי > נֵ֣צַח יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל לֹ֥א יְשַׁקֵּ֖ר > > > > > ________________________________________ > From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> on behalf > of Phil Smith III <[email protected]> > Sent: Thursday, June 18, 2026 10:50 PM > To: [email protected] <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: Two TSO terminal I/O from Rexx questions > > > External Message: Use Caution > > > Not sure what your point is. The displayable data in a 3270 data stream, as > sent to a 3270 device, is not ASCII as far as I've ever seen. Of course a > controller might rework it as an emulation thing, but I don't think any > 3270s spoke ASCII, did they? > > On June 18, 2026 10:33:44 PM Seymour J Metz <[email protected]> wrote: > > > "Data, commands, and orders transmitted between the control unit and the > > host system > > are in the form of interface codes. Two different codes are used in the > > United States: > > extended binary-coded decimal interchange code (EBCDIC) and American > National > > Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII). The EBCDIC codes are > > also used > > in the World Trade countries (ASCII is available only in the U.S.); refer > > to IBM 3270 > > Information Display System: Character Set Reference, GA27-2837, for > details. " > > > > > > -- > > Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz > > http://mason.gmu.edu/~smetz3 > > עַם יִשְׂרָאֵל חַי > > נֵ֣צַח יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל לֹ֥א יְשַׁקֵּ֖ר > > > > > > > > > > ________________________________________ > > From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> on > behalf of > > Phil Smith III <[email protected]> > > Sent: Thursday, June 18, 2026 10:03 PM > > To: [email protected] <[email protected]> > > Subject: Re: Two TSO terminal I/O from Rexx questions > > > > > > External Message: Use Caution > > > > > > Ehhhhh...the 3270DS itself still isn't doing ASCII, I don't think. > > > > On June 18, 2026 9:36:18 PM Seymour J Metz <[email protected]> wrote: > > > >> That depends on the 3271 model. > >> > >> > >> -- > >> Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz > >> http://mason.gmu.edu/~smetz3 > >> עַם יִשְׂרָאֵל חַי > >> נֵ֣צַח יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל לֹ֥א יְשַׁקֵּ֖ר > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> ________________________________________ > >> From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> on > behalf of > >> Paul Gilmartin <[email protected]> > >> Sent: Thursday, June 18, 2026 7:53 PM > >> To: [email protected] <[email protected]> > >> Subject: Re: Two TSO terminal I/O from Rexx questions > >> > >> > >> External Message: Use Caution > >> > >> > >> On Thu, 18 Jun 2026 22:30:08 +0000, Seymour J Metz wrote: > >> > >>> My TSMBIRD was ASCII art on a 3277; is your ILRBIRD fancier? > >>> > >> ASCII ? 3277? > >> It's easier to believe EBCDIC character cell. > >> Or do 3277 data streams support ASCII? > >> > >> -- > >> 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 > > > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > 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 > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > 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 > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > -- Jay Maynard ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
