On 9/12/2013 1:53 AM, Timothy Sipples wrote:
I cracked open a (metaphorical) history book, and I discovered that IBM
introduced PDSEs in 1989 -- about 24 years ago as I write this.
I agree with John Gilmore. A 2013 PDSE prerequisite for Enterprise COBOL
5.1 is not too soon.
I should point out that IBM announced no charge 90-day trials of CICS
Transaction Server 5.1 and Enterprise COBOL 5.1. You can try these products
for 90 days without worrying about single version charge (SVC) periods. You
can confirm how much more efficiently your CPU-intensive COBOL applications
run after recompiling, for example. You can also get acquainted with PDSEs
and their impacts. (Did I actually just write that? :-))
By the way, I *frequently* encounter customers that don't submit SCRT
reports with Enterprise COBOL correctly associated only with the LPARs
where they run it. IBM receives SCRT reports where Enterprise COBOL is
assumed to be running in every z/OS LPAR, and then IBM bills accordingly.
(Thanks for that.) But Enterprise COBOL 5.1 now generates its very own Type
89 SMF records so you don't have to be aware of "NO89" (many aren't) and
don't have to worry about it. Hurray for that too.
Give the products a spin and kick the tires, at no additional charge.
You'll probably like them very much. Unless perhaps you're the person John
Gilmore is describing. :-)
Tim,
All due respect, the cost to IBM's customer base for converting all
COBOL executable libraries to PDSE will be measured in millions, if not
billions, of US dollars. This decision to require COBOL V5.1
executables only in a PDSE has extreme negative ramifications for every
COBOL shop on the planet. I have no understanding of IBM's thought
process here.
DFSMS is also rolling out PDSE V2, in order to correct some of the
shortcomings that have existed in PDSE from day 1. You are correct that
PDSE has been around for 24 years, but to this day, PDSE STILL generates
Sev 1 problems! A PDSE prerequisite for COBOL should NEVER have
happened, given the current state of PDSE. A conversion to PDSE V2 is
going to be difficult enough, let alone converting all COBOL executables
to PDSE.
This was a poor decision by IBM.
Regards,
Tom Conley
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