Hi, Jeff. Yes, the VM GUI facility still exists.
On 11/23/2010 06:54 AM, Jeff Gribbin wrote: > Greetings folks, > Some recent discussion brought to mind the old CMS GUI Facility that shipped > with VM/ESA 2.1 - and now I'm in a position where I might for the first time > actually be able to configure a z/VM system to allow me to play with the > beast, I got to wondering if it even still exists. > [snip.....] > > So ... a few questions ... > > Anybody using it? Yes, several folks are still using it (I'm one of them, btw). The most active user that I know of is Kris Buelens in Belgium (([email protected]). He's written a number of very nice (imho) GUI interfaces for monitoring and managing collections of z/VM systems that he has made availabel off of the IBM VM Web download page. They might be a good place to start showing your young sysprogs that VM can support such a "point and click" interface. > Anybody prepared to admit they're using it? Yes, I will admit to that.....:-) > Anybody know if it's still maintained in any current form? Nope, it's not being supported by IBM any more....use it at your own risk, ymmv, may cause drowsiness if taken with alcohol, do not operate heavy machinery for 3 hours after taking (how much does a z10 weigh, anyway?), etc. etc. > This is purely a personal learning exercise triggered by the aforementioned > conversation and my recent exposure to young sysprogs (< 25 years old) who > tend to love what CP and CMS can do but fall about laughing whenever the > user interface is discussed. All comments gratefully received. > General thoughts.... 1) to get the most out of the GUI and applications built on top of it, it really needs to be run on OS/2 platform (or OS/2's follow on system, eComStation). I keep an old Dell laptop system here, running eCS, just so I can run GUI apps there. 2) the client side agent (the so-called "workstation agent" WSA) is the same agent as is used by ISPF to support it's off-loading of editing functions to a PC. I *think* that may still be under IBM support, but I'm not sure. 3) at one point in time the WSA ran on Windows (Windows 95? Windows NT?), but I don't know if it would run on a more modern Windows system. 4) If you are considering writing your own GUI applications, get Kris's GUIWIRE code from the IBM VM download page; it's a major help in developing the program logic flow (the "wiring"). Hope this helps, and Happy Thanksgiving, too. > Regards > Jeff > -- Dave Jones V/Soft Software www.vsoft-software.com Houston, TX 281.578.7544
