Jack, One problem with your advice is that many shops don't even allow application programmers to even use shell access to z/OS. I happen to have it on my employer's systems, but that's because I'm a particular kind of technophile who at one time made good friends in the (then) MVS systems team who granted me limited (20Mb old HFS home directory) access for research purposes on a particular project.
So I can’t install anything really good due to limited Unix disk space, and never anything requiring SUDO access. And where exactly does one learn "to set your terminal"? What values work with /bin/sh? I haven't found any TERM value when using Putty to z/OS that gives anything like access to a full-screen editor like vi or vim, even if they were already there somewhere. For the rest, I already have a lot of regexen experience with (g)awk, and I really don’t like the perl version, and as I said earlier, can't install python or anything else under my limited-space home directory. z/Linux is off the table too, CEC's are severely overloaded as it is, but that's a whole 'nother can of worms. I use several different Linuxen at home, but again probably because I am a particular kind of technophile. I could learn python in any of those environments or even under Windows, but I have no particular use for it. Advice is only as useful as your particular circumstances allow. Many of us exist in quite constrained boxes at work with very limited ability to even make a request to expand the scope of those boxes. Peter -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Jack J. Woehr Sent: Monday, March 30, 2020 3:34 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: strange python announcement On 3/30/20 12:59 PM, Seymour J Metz wrote: > The OMVS 3270 shell always struck me as having been written by somebody who > didn't understand either the 3270 or VTAM. > > As to vi, can I easily script it with REXX, or at least Perl? If you're going to use modern open source on USS: * Learn to use SSH with keys for login vs. password. * Learn to set your terminal. * Learn the basics of bash and shells in general. * Install and use vim, the modern replacement for vi (yes it takes its own kind of scripting) * Learn regex programs like o grep o sed * and. learn. Python. * Get yourself a Linux box (z/Linux is just fine) as a reference platform. PS I'm not catcalling from a distance, I was doing all this on z/OS in 2016. Time to catch up with IBM i. Yes, it's a lurch, but it's a lurch forward for your practice and community. It's organic, it's healthy, and it's not going away. -- This message and any attachments are intended only for the use of the addressee and may contain information that is privileged and confidential. If the reader of the message is not the intended recipient or an authorized representative of the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail and delete the message and any attachments from your system. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
