On Tue, May 9, 2017 at 10:03 AM, Paul Gilmartin <
[email protected]> wrote:
> On Tue, 9 May 2017 09:54:22 -0500, Tom Marchant wrote:
>
> >On Tue, 9 May 2017 08:16:48 -0600, Paul Gilmartin wrote:
> >
> >>The JCL Ref. indicates that they are available to the
> >>//*FORMAT PR statement.
> >>
> >>("//*FORMAT PR" looks uncomfortably like a comment. Is
> >>this a reserved comment? Ugh!)
> >
> >It's a JES3 JECL statement.
> >There is a good reason it looks like a comment.
> >It allows JCL to be coded that contains Job Entry Control Language
> statements
> >for both JES2 and JES3, so that it can be run in either environment.
> >
> I don't consider it a good reason. It would have been better to provide a
> PRAGMA directive as many other languages do, rather than to usurp
> part of the comment grammar with attendant risk of astonishment.
>
In a perfect world, you are correct. But JES2 was originally HASP, whereas
JES3 was ASP. And those "products" were non-IBM developed (as not in PID)
"add ons" back in the days of OS/MFT & OS/MVT. Many of the strange things
in JES2 (such as the DUPL_JOB=DELAY) were inherited from HASP. Since they
were "add ons", they could not introduce any changes to the JCL
converter/interpreter. After 40+ years, changing all your old JES{2,3} JECL
to the "new and improved!" stuff would cause people to tear IBM a new one.
One big problem with z/OS is all the "cruft" left over from restriction in
the past which were _required_ (due to the "smallness" of the computers) at
the time but are now just a PITA.
IMO, IBM needs to _replace_ JCL with "something else". But, honestly, I'm
not knowledgeable enough to design the "something else". And, even then,
you'd need to allow both the old JCL and the new WCL (Workload Control
Language, just to give it a name) to be "submitted". But, also quite
honestly, I'd really prefer that IBM use its time and money for better
things. If you don't like JCL (and I don't really), then just run UNIX
scripts via JCL using Dovetailed Technologies' Co:Z Launcher. It has the
nice property of being able to allow the reading and writing of physical
sequential data sets defined in DDs using their "fromdsn" and "todsn" UNIX
commands.
>
> -- gil
>
>
--
Advertising is a valuable economic factor because it is the cheapest way of
selling goods, particularly if the goods are worthless. -- Sinclair Lewis
Maranatha! <><
John McKown
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