Hmmm. Interesting. Not sure I agree, but I see your logic.
I mean, doesn't everything in vendor documentation have the same problem? If I
say "specify the name of a PDS(E) member" isn't there a risk that IBM comes out
someday with PDSX? Even so, I think the quote is clearer than if we wrote
"specify the name of a z/OS library member."
I would think people would be smart enough to say "well it worked with PDSE's,
it will probably work with the new PDSX's" just as how when I read "specify the
name of an HFS file" I know that a zFS file will probably work as well
(assuming the context is individual UNIX files, not the VSAM LDS's that
underlie xFS). I suspect most z/OS sysprogs would understand "zFS file" more
clearly than "UNIX file."
Charles
-----Original Message-----
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf
Of Tony Harminc
Sent: Wednesday, April 26, 2017 4:23 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Terminology - Datasets
On 26 April 2017 at 12:35, Charles Mills <[email protected]> wrote:
> It matters in documentation. If we were to document the FOO parameter
> as "specify the name of a file" that would leave you wondering what we
> meant, unless other context made it clear. We say "specify the name of
> an MVS dataset" or "specify the name of a zFS file" or some combination
> thereof.
While we're on this... I discourage people here from documenting things like
"specify the name of a zFS file". Who knows how long zFS will be around? HFS
seems to be effectively dead. Maybe in a couple of years a great new QFS or
something will be the UNIX file system du jour on z/OS.
One of our product's docs were full of "HFS" references from ten years ago, but
had nothing to do with defining a new HFS or the like; they just meant UNIX
file, as opposed to MVS dataset. So that's what we say now: "UNIX file", or in
the rare case it's possible to be confused with a file on another UNIX system,
"z/OS UNIX file".
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