Mainframe, MVS and zOS Discussion

Don't use NEXT SENTENCE (ever, unless you compiler is so old as to not allow it). Use CONTINUE. NEXT SENTENCE will work as expected if an IF (or wherever else used) is terminated by a full-stop/period. It will not, otherwise, work as the reader of the code expects. NEXT SENTENCE is effectively GO TO...

Don't sort the data twice when you don't even need to do it once. Now, you may have to do one SORT, if your keys are not contiguous, but you want them so. And then you do have to do two SORT, as outlined above. However, you also may want to deduplicate contiguous keys whilst leaving the same key val...

Look especially at the OUTFIL reporting features, SECTIONS with COUNT (and NODETAIL,REMOVECC).

Surely the two main characters in the file must have used recursion? They started out as best buddies, and ended up with schizophrenic hatred towards each other. Sounds like recursion... (at least the effects of trying to use it above all else).

The person presenting/conducting even a technical interview may be a Human Resources/Personnel person, and not know any of the technicalities. Someone writes the questions and answers for them. You can often get a good idea when you ask for clarification, and none is given. Like in your case. For a ...

I've never hard of IEFBR14 being called "the dummy utility". I'd have done exactly the same as Ankit. Although perhaps I'd have said a little more at the end. Everybody and their dog has used IEFBR14, and any site that thinks they've got a cool cutesy name for it, and that someone who is p...

Well, they were never really needed, in the sense that you could arrange to do the same thing another way. Unless you wanted to get really tortuous. ENTRY-points would allow different "functions" to be processed by the same program with a logical division of the code, but exactly the same ...

enrico's idea is a flyer for this, but bear in mind that it is not a panacea for all "we should have thought of that when we designed the file" situations.

So, why is the count needed? Why can't it be put on when the file is created?

Yes, it can be done, a little faster than Robert is alluding :-) What do you want to put in those two bytes? Do you want separate counts, or a count of records changed? Actually, separate counts are easy (divide total number of records by seven for the first and 10 for the second). There's even a fo...

Not my area, so can't be sure, but look at this one: https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSLTBW_2.1.0/com.ibm.zos.v2r1.halz002/smtp_cfg_exit_facility.htm Before dismissing it (incoming mail) look at the last paragraph. Seems to imply the the route JES-to-SMTP counts as "incoming". ...

If you know you have addresses you don't want to send email to, just don't send it. I've never heard of the blocking of sending email. Just don't do it.

And to not get an abend, you have coded the FILE STATUS clause - and simply not checked it.

Which is the worst thing you can do. Because then any IO problems are ignored, because by using FILE STATUS you are telling the run-time that you want to check things, and then you don't bother.

If not using SSRANGE already, you can recompile all the programs with SSRANGE. You don't need to change any code.

Why two steps? You can do multiple commands in one IDCAMS step.

There was a recent Request For Enhancement (RFE) submitted to IBM to allow this. It was declined, although the decline messages refers to //SYSOUT DD ... not to //dddd DD SYSOUT=*.

You've already asked this elsewhere and been offered the resources of the DFSORT team. Why do you think you'd get a better answer here?

OFFSET and LIST are two different types of output listing for the part which relates to generated code. The LIST output includes an offset for each generated instruction. The OFFSET output only shows the offset of the first instruction generated for the line of COBOL in question. The LIST output is ...

DFSORT is here: http://www.ibm.com/storage/dfsort

For SyncSORT, try http://www.syncsort.com

The biggest factor is the data and how it is used. Next is what you are tuning for? Performance (response time) or resources (like space). If you don't know the data, and you don't know what you are tuning for, then the exercise is largely pointless. The chances of getting it correct would be almost...

The OFFSET compiler option will give the displacement of the first instruction generated by the compiler for the line of code. The LIST compiler option lists all the generated instructions. An offset from an abend can be found exactly in the LIST output, except for the important case Robert mentione...