Bernd, I agree. This is what I was thinking of in a previous post calling it "new JCL". Not enhanced JCL. Something totally new. But that means a lot of cost. I would almost think the only hope for this would be something like a FOSS project of z/OS "heavy weights" getting together, designing and implementing it. I am not sure, but perhaps we should rally around JOL? http://start.oscar-jol.com/about-jol . It is not truly FREE. But it does seem to have some good stuff in it.
On Sun, Nov 10, 2013 at 9:26 AM, Bernd Oppolzer <[email protected]>wrote: > Hello John, > > I would like to clarify my viewpoint: > > first, I believe that traditional JCL must stay and needs to be improved > in the way that the other posters suggested. > > What I would like to see is a second way of doing batch on z/OS, where > we have a sort of command line interface, like TSO ALLOC, FREE and > ISPF SELECT PGM, for example, but without the burden of starting > TSO, REXX and ISPF first - and with the power of REXX to manipulate > the batch commands. > > We need some sort of clever replacements for > > - DD statements > - EXEC statements > - STEPLIB concatenations > > which can be used from this new command line interface (in batch !) > without much limitation compared to the existing JCL interface, if > possible, > but with the possibility to add REXX as a control language (or other > scripting languages, BTW). > > I don't want this to replace traditional JCL, but to add a second line of > batch processing. Maybe some shops do more and more work with this > technique, > maybe others stay with (old) JCL. > > Restart problems have to be solved; if the new batches contain loops etc, > the > restart information has to contain information about the status of the > controlling > REXX. There is no general solution to that, and there will be batches that > are > not restartable (same situation as today, I believe). > > Could we maybe make the mainframe platform more attractive this way to > younger people? I could imagine that JCL is one of the reasons why they > don't like the mainframe now. At least that's what I often hear when doing > classes with 20 year old students on PL/1 and similar topics ... they like > the language, but they dislike the environment and especially JCL ... > > BTW: I don't really think that this will happen, but if we're talking about > dreams, that's what I'd really like to see. There are some efforts to make > the platform attractive (RDZ etc.), but that's too expensive IMO, and it > leaves the platform unchanged and only hides the old things from the > novice users, instead of really improving the platform itself. > > Kind regards > > Bernd > > -- This is clearly another case of too many mad scientists, and not enough hunchbacks. Maranatha! <>< John McKown ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
