xSAM? I don't know of any language on z/OS* other than HLASM that supports BPAM.

At this point, if I invest the time to master** a new language, I'd be looking 
at Java, Ruby or Rust rather than Python.

*  Assembler E, F, XF, H and H V2 don't count; they're not supported. It might, 
however
   be fun to see if thy will still run.

** I mean a lot more than just Hello world


--
Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz
http://mason.gmu.edu/~smetz3

________________________________________
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU] on behalf of 
Charles Mills [charl...@mcn.org]
Sent: Sunday, March 29, 2020 2:43 PM
To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU
Subject: Re: strange python announcement

So

> There's no advantage to REXX anymore, as fine a language as it is.

is not entirely true, right? Three advantages of Rexx would be native support 
of EBCDIC, native support of xSAM, and straightforward invocation from TSO? 
Right?

Again, not trying to pick a fight, just trying to understand.

Here's my motivation: I am trying to avoid dinosaurization. I am trying to 
answer the questions "am I being an old fuddy-duddy for sticking with Rexx over 
Python? Should I make an effort to embrace Python for the tasks where I now 
tend to turn to Rexx?"

And it sounds like the answer is No. Whatever dinosaurism I exhibit is in 
sticking with TSO and ISPF, not in sticking with Rexx. (For what it's worth, 
when I speak with customer personnel, 100% of them, to a man or woman, seems to 
assume the computer world revolves around TSO for sysprogs and batch for 
production -- so it makes sense for me to be most conversant with those 
environments.)

It also sounds like learning Python would not be a bad thing, but that it would 
probably make more sense to become familiar first on an interactive ASCII 
platform, and then perhaps bring the skills I learn there to Z -- rather than 
starting out by trying to solve Z problems in an unfamiliar environment with an 
unfamiliar language. Would others agree?

Charles


-----Original Message-----
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU] On Behalf 
Of David Crayford
Sent: Saturday, March 28, 2020 11:23 PM
To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU
Subject: Re: strange python announcement

On 2020-03-29 7:42 AM, Charles Mills wrote:
> I'm looking at Python on the Rocket site.
>
> Practically speaking, is Python usable from TSO or only from the UNIX command 
> prompt? That is

USS only as it's enhanced ASCII (file tagging). You could call it from
TSO using bpxwunix or something similar.

>> There's no advantage to REXX anymore, as fine a language as it is.
> In Rexx under TSO, I can allocate couple of datasets and then run a "legacy 
> MVS" (you know what I mean) program. Is that practical in Python?

There is no legacy MVS data set support in Rockets Python port. There
have been several internal discussions about it and it's on the radar. I
don't work
on ported tools so I don't know any more.

> Not picking fights here -- inquiring minds just want to know.

Truth is a lot of the guys using Python on z/OS don't know REXX and
hardly ever login to TSO. They use a command shell, store their source
code in the z/OS UNIX file system
and use Git as the SCM. If they want to run a TSO command they can use
the z/OS UNIX "tsocmd" command with scripting features very similar to
outtrap in TSO REXX.

Maybe the target audience for Python on z/OS just isn't the old guys who
have used REXX for 30+ years.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
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

Reply via email to