> How about a version to where during the install you specify what is the 
lowest processor you might run on?

You have not yet read the materials it seems. The "Automatic" of the name 
is perhaps not as automatic as you're thinking. You basically tell the 
optimizer for which architecture level(s) you want optimized library 
versions to be produced, and (when the z/OS infrastructure is available) 
the system will select (based on your specification) the proper library 
that you have had the product build (without that support, you get to do 
that library selection yourself, by manipulating the JCL or by use of data 
set aliases or some such).

Please note that while the ABO product is available now, the z/OS 
infrastructure will not be available until December 10 or so (this is the 
IEFOPZ infrastructure mentioned in the z/OS 2.2 announce).

>And since this is machine code, why would this be limited to Cobol?
>It should be able to handle any language as long as you can analyze
>the run time libraries too.

Only if it is omniscient. This is machine code. You cannot (by definition) 
tell data from instructions. Knowing that the machine code is "something 
in particular" (in this case COBOL) lets some assumptions be made about 
what are data and what are instructions.

>It is essentially an alternative to V5

It is an alternative, but for a different use case (as a subsequent append 
mentioned) -- where you don't have the source or where you have reason not 
to want to use COBOL V5.

>Seems like some extra steps.
Steps, yes. Extra? I'd say "pretty necessary steps". Sure the system could 
automatically rerun the optimizer at every time that you re-save your 
source (or at some other level of granularity). And then you'd be spending 
orders of magnitude more machine cycles doing the processing than you'd 
gain back by the improved performance when running the program. Likely a 
huge net loss. So the choice is to let the customer who knows make the 
decision of when it's worth running the ABO. For one of the use cases (no 
source), of course, there never will be source updates.

Peter Relson
z/OS Core Technology Design


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