For the record. 'Structured Programming' was a big deal in the 70s. I took at least one class in the subject. SPF's contribution to structured programming can be debated, but it was a pervasive buzzword at the time. As for the power of 'indenting', SPF took advantage of the 3270 characteristic of assigning exactly one screen position for every byte of data. This made it possible to shift text right or left and have everything line up vertically. Try that in your favorite Windows or Unix editor. And with modern 3270 emulators, it's trivial to cut/paste an arbitrary block of text that includes all and only the portion you want. Again, WYSIWYG editors in general cannot do that.
ISPF was far more than a product rename, though IBM gets snaps for repurposing an acronym almost seamlessly. The major advance in ISPF was the modern day 'dialog' and all the rich support we associate with it. In the old SPF, it was unofficially possible for a clever person to tailor an existing function to perform some user purpose. We had some of those in my first shop in the late 70s. But the results were clumsy and primitive at best. ISPF opened up a whole new career path that encompassed application programmers on one side and sysprogs on the other. Everyone had fully documented access to a brand new arsenal of APARable programming tools. I read once that IBM was astonished at the huge and complex 'data bases' that customers created around ISPF tables. Far beyond the expectation of ISPF's creators. Credit where credit is due. . . J.O.Skip Robinson Southern California Edison Company Electric Dragon Team Paddler SHARE MVS Program Co-Manager 323-715-0595 Mobile 626-543-6132 Office ⇐=== NEW [email protected] -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Wayne Bickerdike Sent: Friday, February 24, 2017 11:12 PM To: [email protected] Subject: (External):Re: Fujitsu Mainframe Vs IBM mainframe SPF was Structured Programming Facility. The Structured bit came from the *amazing* ability to indent code using the > margin commands. :) IBM later renamed it ISPF (Iteractive System Productivity Facility). On Fri, Feb 24, 2017 at 12:29 AM, Edward Gould <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Feb 23, 2017, at 4:07 AM, Mike Cairns <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > The first ten years of my mainframe career I never saw a true IBM > installation. First I worked with a Fujistu and MSP, then I moved to > a shop that had Amdahl kit, and after that a shop that was Hitachi. > At least for the Amdahl and Hitachi the OS was really MVS, OS/390 etc. > > > > The Fujitsu environment worked almost exactly the same as the MVS > > system > from the perspective of an applications programmer. The sysprogs > probably knew more about the differences than I did at the time. We > ran Adabas/Natural, lots of PL/1, SAS, and probably many more besides > that I didn't know about (this was my first shop, I was quite young > and completely inexperienced of course). > > > > Interesting things I remember about the Fujitsu OS: > > > > MVS was called MSP - Multiple Systems Product if I recall correctly. > But apparently you could see the IBM copyright in the load modules in > some places... > > TSO was called TSS - Time Sharing System RACF was still called RACF > > - and worked exactly the same Though JCL was the same, we had > > something called JOL - Job Oriented > Language. This was a set of ISPF panels that walked you through > creation of each jobstep and built (awful) dynamically allocated JCL. > > ISPF was called SPF - Systems Productivity Facility > > ISPF was originally called (and IMO named incorrectly System > Programmer > Facility) > > We had something called GEM - I forget the acronym, this was a > source/version control system if I recall correctly. > > Used to have to use the TSO SUBMIT and OUTPUT commands a lot - but I > guess this was no different from MVSes of the same era (early 80's). > OUTPUT command has been there day 1 with TSO. > > We didn't have SDSF. > SDSF came in the late 80’s ?? I think I remember the white page(s) > sheet but its lost in the great bit bucket. I am reasonably sure that > it was a FDP (field developed program but wouldn’t bet lunch on it). > > > > > Mike ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
