Paul Gilmartin wrote:
On Thu, 5 Oct 2017 07:04:17 -0400, John Eells wrote:As the person who got the Catalog/VSAM team to create SYMBOLICRELATE some time ago, *I* certainly do not want it to go away, and I doubt very much that it will go away. ... That people found other uses for this function is a serendipitous byproduct.At some point I opened an SR on an unexpected error when I used SYMBOLICRELATE. Support replied that the problem was that I had no symbols in my alias. But though z/OS 2.1, the IDCAMS Ref. says: SYMBOLICRELATE(entryname) Allows the specification of the base data set name using system symbols. ... "Allows" is permissive, not restrictive. I insisted that there was a bug needing repair. Alas, in z/OS 2.3 IDCAMS Ref. I see: SYMBOLICRELATE(entryname) Requires the specification of the base data set name using system symbols. "Allows" became "Requires". All too characteristic of IBM to document a deficiency rather than repairing it.
As the author of the original requirement, and an approver of the original design, I can assure you that the deficiency you identified was in the documentation and not in the code. You can blame me, if you wish, for crafting a requirement that led to behavior you found astonishing and failing to identify the miswording during review; but, as far as I am concerned, the Level 2 and ID teams acted appropriately. The code was and is working as designed, and it meets the requirement it was written to satisfy.
That someone might want to use it differently than we intended did not cross our minds at the time, but sometimes our crystal ball is cloudy.
There is, as others have said here, nonzero cost (and risk) to extending functions on a whim, and it's hard to see how this extension would survive prioritization. Nonetheless, you are always welcome to open an RFE and ask.
-- John Eells IBM Poughkeepsie [email protected] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
