On 2017-05-09, at 10:20, Farley, Peter x23353 wrote:

> Burroughs 5500 MCS (and possibly later, I didn't get to see those) had WFL, 
> Work Flow Language, which was nearly the full Burroughs Algol language, minus 
> the I/O facilities.
> 
> Very powerful and flexible.  Your "JCL" was an actual program, and IIRC it 
> was compiled for execution.  Fun stuff.
> 
> Shell scripts are all well and good for those who understand them I suppose, 
> but they have their quirks and deficiencies too.  I can read and write them 
> myself, but many application programmers cannot yet do so, and are stuck with 
> JCL.
>  
Don't consider a deficit of knowledge an insurmountable obstacle.

For z/OS, Rexx might be a better fit than sh.

What JCL facilities are absent from most other languages?:

o Atomic and persistent ENQ SYSDSN to avoid deadlocks.

o Passed data sets/referbacks.

o DISP=RETAIN.

o Other (specify)?

-- gil

----------------------------------------------------------------------
For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions,
send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN

Reply via email to