My ventures into Assembler Language seem to be ever more rare.  Thank
goodness I have some of my own code to maintain!

During a recent "visit", I posted about my difficulties in finding
RDJFCB documentation.  Naturally, I got a helpful reply, but I started
thinking how helpful it would be if we could get all the pieces of
documentation that Assembler programmers need into one place.

There is the HLASM bookshelf.  In the OS/390 (or z/OS when I catch up a
bit more) MVS bookshelf, there are the books describing Principles of
Operation, Assembler Services and Data Areas.  In DFSMS, there are
Program Management, Using Data Sets, Using Magnetic Tapes, Macro
Instructions for Data Sets, and the "hidden gem" DFSMSdfp Advanced
Services, and probably more for Systems Programmers (catalog management,
etc.)

Could we make a list of all these books / manuals, the probably
audience, etc.?  Then, we could forward it to IBM and ask them to create
and maintain one or more bookshelves that cover the Assembler
programmer's needs.  If IBM elected not to do this, we could maintain
the list here.

     I think it is necessary for IBM to accept the requirement.
Not all assembler programmers are part of this group.  IBM should
take the responsibility to maintain such a bookshelf so that no
one has to recrate the work of finding all of the pertinent
manuals.
--
Arthur T.  - If address is munged, reply to:  ar23hur "at" speakeasy "dot" net

:>>>Could we make a list of all these books / manuals, the probably
:>>>audience, etc.?  Then, we could forward it to IBM and ask them to create
:>>>and maintain one or more bookshelves that cover the Assembler
:>>>programmer's needs.  

:>>Not necessary.  You can build your own bookshelves.  

:>     I think it is necessary for IBM to accept the requirement.
:>Not all assembler programmers are part of this group.  IBM should
:>take the responsibility to maintain such a bookshelf so that no
:>one has to recrate the work of finding all of the pertinent
:>manuals.

While you might find that requirement, I am sure that many others would like
other arrangements.

IBM has supplied the ability to make those bookshelves yourself.

Personally, I would not like entire unrelated bookshelves replaced because one
particular component was updated.

--

http://www.dissensoftware.com

Director, Dissen Software, Bar & Grill - Israel

Volker,
Was ist "Windows"?  Ich bin ein OS/2-user (oder eComStation)!

More to the point, do you see the widely dispersed books as a problem?  It seems like a
problem to me, since I am only working on Assembler programs occasionally these days.  I
asked John Ehrman (IBM's High Level Assembler guru) about this, and he agreed that it would
be nice to put everything together, but said that within IBM, there are "ownership"
problems.

You are right, I could probably made my own bookshelf, even on the mainframe, but I would
have the constant problem of keeping it up to date.

Thanks for responding!
Colin

Binyamin,
I'm not sure I understand your position.  If IBM provided a bookshelf for
Assembler documents, and kept it updated with releases of the operating system, do
you feel that would be good or bad?
Colin

:>I'm not sure I understand your position.  If IBM provided a bookshelf for
:>Assembler documents, and kept it updated with releases of the operating system, do
:>you feel that would be good or bad?

I really don't see the point.

One could make the argument that all utilities, be they DFSMS, RACF, DB2, IMS,
etc. be in the same bookshelf as well.

I just don't see the point of such a bookshelf.

:>> :>>>Could we make a list of all these books / manuals, the probably
:>> :>>>audience, etc.?  Then, we could forward it to IBM and ask them to create
:>> :>>>and maintain one or more bookshelves that cover the Assembler
:>> :>>>programmer's needs.

:>> :>>Not necessary.  You can build your own bookshelves.

:>> :>     I think it is necessary for IBM to accept the requirement.
:>> :>Not all assembler programmers are part of this group.  IBM should
:>> :>take the responsibility to maintain such a bookshelf so that no
:>> :>one has to recrate the work of finding all of the pertinent
:>> :>manuals.

:>> While you might find that requirement, I am sure that many others would like
:>> other arrangements.

:>> IBM has supplied the ability to make those bookshelves yourself.

:>> Personally, I would not like entire unrelated bookshelves replaced because one
:>> particular component was updated.

--

http://www.dissensoftware.com

Director, Dissen Software, Bar & Grill - Israel

agreed that it would
mainframe, but I would

Other than IBM ownership, it could otherwise be hard to do.  Many unrelated
things can be done in assembly, though they don't necessarily belong
together.   For example, most high level languages can call assembly
programs, so one could argue that the manuals for those languages should go
into such a bookshelf.

But a bookshelf of references commonly used by assembly programmers would
seem good.   There are some older IBM manuals that attempt to collect some
unrelated topics of use to assembler programmers in one manual.

In the S/360 days there was one called "System programmers guide" (search
the web for C28-6550), which includes catalog maintenance, writing SVC
routines, writing accounting routines, non-standard label processing, EXCP
programming, XDAP programming, password protection of data sets, all in one
manual.   These are pretty much unrelated, other than that assembler
programmers might do them all.

So, where is EXCP programming in the current manuals?

-- glen

Again, the search facility finds this kind of info pretty easily:

http://publibz.boulder.ibm.com/cgi-bin/bookmgr_OS390/BOOKS/dgt2s311/4...

DFSMSdfp Advanced Services was the first hit when I entered "EXCP".

The advantage to having everything in one book or perhaps one bookshelf is
that you could browse through info that you may know nothing about. If you
know what you're looking for (or at least know enough to type in a 'find'
string), then the current doc is just fine.

I remember the system programming guide, and it was just that kind of book.
Small enough to not be intimidating, yet enough good info that it was useful.
There has been so much added over the years though that putting out that
same book might be too much. Although it's funny that stuff still slips in
that I miss. I'm just now looking at 'pause' and 'release' and 'transfer'
(IEAVPSE, IEAVRLS and IEAVXFR) because I glossed over them when they first
appeared in the asm services manuals.

--
Don Poitras - Sas