On Wed, Jan 15, 2014 at 2:02 AM, Dale Miller <[email protected]>wrote:
> Some have asserted that tab characters should be removed from source. > However, for makefiles, according to the GNU Make Manual (for version 3.80) > "You need to put a tab character at the beginning of every command line." > This has always struck me as lunacy, but it's an example of the IT golden > rule - " Who writes the software makes the rules." > > Dale Miller > Not just GNU make, but z/OS UNIX make as well. I can proffer an possible reason. Remember from whence UNIX came. The original terminals were serial terminals connected via RS-232. The tab key, then as now, was close to the left pinky finger (along with the shift key). So my guess is that the original programmers were thinking: "What is an easy to hit key for a field delimiter which will allow us to use any printable character in a field value. Space? No, we might want spaces in the field value (such as a user's name in the /etc/passwd file). Hum, well, there is that TAB key placed nicely for relatively easy use, if we don't need it too often. Sounds like a winner." Why to z/OS people hate it? Because it cannot be easily inserted into a file/data set record when using the 3270 emulator. That's easy to fix. Don't try to shoe horn the 3270 emulator into the UNIX environment. It wasn't designed for it. You could, as I do, use an SSH connection to a UNIX shell prompt. Or, if in a secure environment, use line mode telnet directly into a UNIX shell. Yes, I know, ISPF EDIT won't run in a UNIX shell environment. We only have a really crappy version of "vi". Well, we could try the "nedit" or "the" editors. They aren't my favorites. But if people want to complain about lack of a TSO ISPF environment in a UNIX shell from SSH/telnet, then I'll complain that I can't use "grep" or "awk" as a TSO command to process one or some or all members of a PDS. Or even as a TSO command from ISPF option 6 to run against a UNIX file or subdirectory. Yes, I know that I can write a REXX program which can be run from ISPF 6 which would properly use SYSCALL to invoke a UNIX program to process a UNIX file/subdirectory. Too bad there appears to be no way to run a REXX program from the UDLIST display of UNIX files as you can from ISPF 3.4 for data sets. IOW, UNIX and TSO could be better integrated. But that is unlikely. From what I can see, IBM wants us to migrate from TSO ISPF to the workstation based Eclipse RD/z product. One reason is that it is seat licensed. And damned expensive. Which is one reason why this company is unlikely to migrate to it. The other is that "it doesn't work the same as ISPF". I've already handled complaints from others in Tech Services that z/OS UNIX is unusable because "it doesn't work like Windows". E.g: It uses / instead of \ as subdirectory (sorry folder) separators. It doesn't have a GUI (like Windows file explorer) for a UNIX shell session (not that they use anything other than TSO OMVS). You can't (easily) put spaces in file/subdirectory (sorry, folder) names. It uses a - instead of a / to introduce command options. And so on it goes. -- Wasn't there something about a PASCAL programmer knowing the value of everything and the Wirth of nothing? Maranatha! <>< John McKown ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
