In this case, LONG_SYMBOL_NAME was the SYMDEF name, so there was no way to refer to it with an 8-character name if the manual tells us true.
No, I remember when IBM documentation varied all over the landscape. The Utilities documentation was appalling, the MVT logic manuals excellent and others fell somewhere in between. When IBM went to HIPO things got worse and "task-oriented documentation" was a death blow for quality. -- Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz http://mason.gmu.edu/~smetz3 ________________________________________ From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU] on behalf of Paul Gilmartin [0000000433f07816-dmarc-requ...@listserv.ua.edu] Sent: Wednesday, March 25, 2020 12:44 PM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: Re: REXX MVSVAR SYMDEF behavoiur On Wed, 25 Mar 2020 16:13:22 +0000, Seymour J Metz wrote: >If MFC doesn't know then it's probably impossible to find out why. > >BTW, I submitted and RCF on the conflict between text and example. > Thanks. Of course, no such problem exists if LONG_SYMBOL_NAME has been assigned a value no longer than 8 characters, such as: LONG_SYMBOL_NAME = 'Brief' z1 = MVSVAR('SYMDEF','LONG_SYMBOL_NAME') Remember when IBM was lauded for the quality of its documentation? “There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. The first method is far more difficult.” -- C.A.R. Hoare Carries over, magnified, to the documentation. >________________________________________ >From: Paul Gilmartin >Sent: Wednesday, March 25, 2020 12:03 PM > >On Wed, 25 Mar 2020 15:43:47 +0000, Seymour J Metz wrote: > >>Why? I suspect that only Mike knows. >> >MFC? I suspect it was out of his control before that happened. > >>Worse, the same manual has an example where the name is longer than 8 >>characters. >> >Oh, don't you make me search for it. ITYM: > > https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSLTBW_2.4.0/com.ibm.zos.v2r4.ikja300/mvsvarr.htm > >That is, IEASYMxx contains the definitions: > >SYMDEF(&LONG_SYMBOL_NAME='SY1T_ON_PLEX_A44T') >SYMDEF(&EXTSYM_='<==THIS VALUE CAN BE UP TO 44 CHARS LONG===>') > >Then, the MVSVAR function can be used to retrieve the values of these symbols >as shown: > >z1 = MVSVAR('SYMDEF','LONG_SYMBOL_NAME') >z2 = MVSVAR('SYMDEF','EXTSYM_') > >For z1: ><- Returns z1: SY1T_ON_PLEX_A44T > >For z2: ><- Returns z2: <==THIS VALUE CAN BE UP TO 44 CHARS LONG===> > >-- gil ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
