Jonathan, Although I pre-date you somewhat, you have kept architectural integrity and brought many new features to the HLASM we know and love.
Sometimes it’s not until you work on another platform’s assembler that you realize how amazing HLASM truly is. Its macro facility is unrivaled by any other. You have made HLASM into a powerful tool for developers and I’m sure I speak for nearly everyone about our appreciation for the work you personally and your team have done to create the product it is today and will be in the future. Thank you! Tom Harper Phoenix Software International Sent from my iPhone > On Feb 5, 2025, at 3:31 PM, Jonathan Scott <jonathan.scott...@gmail.com> > wrote: > > Today, 5th February 2025, was my last day with IBM, where I was HLASM and > Toolkit Development and Support Team Leader. > > > > I’ve been working in Assembler for over 51 years, since January 1974 (when I > was a pre-university student with IBM). After working with Altergo Software > in London and then at the Gothenburg Universities Computing centre (GUC) in > Sweden (also known in Swedish as Göteborgs Datacentral, GD), I returned to > IBM in September 1987, where I’ve been for over 37 years, working on CICS, > MQ and (among other things) HLASM, programming in Assembler and IBM’s PL/X, > and writing tools using REXX and CMS/TSO Pipelines. I also had the > privilege of working with Dr John Ehrman in various discussions about HLASM > design and later helping him to support legacy products such as the VS > Fortran compiler, while he was putting together his Assembler text. > > > > I was appointed as HLASM team leader in June 2017, and as an advanced user > of Assembler, I was pleased to be able to implement various HLASM > enhancements, including: > > > > * Enhancements to AINSERT and lookahead to improve the usability of > AINSERT and support the use of sequence symbols in the inserted code > * Capability to generate ELF64 for Linux, optionally via GOFF (to > support long external names) > * Capability to execute the assembler natively under 64-bit Linux > * USING addressability limits which apply both to short and long > displacements > * DROP by address, which can drop a dependent USING > * Negative decimal self-defining terms > * ASCII and Unicode self-defining terms > * Flexible code page support, with control of EBCDIC to ASCII > conversion and UTF-8 constants, for example for EBCDIC accented characters > > > > I expect those who follow this list can think of some other things we have > fixed or improved over the years, often in response to excellent suggestions > on this list! > > > > I’m now looking forward to having more time to play instrumental music > (piano, violin and viola) and resume my long-interrupted study of > theoretical physics. However, I’m still interested in assembler and I > intend to continue to follow this list and respond when I can, although I no > longer have access to any IBM internal resources so I can’t test my guesses > before replying as I have done in the past. > > > > The IBM HLASM and Toolkit team is now being led by Ramesh Padmanabha (in > Canada – this is a somewhat geographically dispersed team), who also follows > this list (as do various other IBMers). They still have a long list of > requirements and suggestions, many of which have already been at least > partly prototyped, so I hope to see further useful enhancements in the > future. > > > > Jonathan Scott > > (near Hursley, UK) > > > > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This e-mail message, including any attachments, appended messages and the information contained therein, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s). If you are not an intended recipient or have otherwise received this email message in error, any use, dissemination, distribution, review, storage or copying of this e-mail message and the information contained therein is strictly prohibited. If you are not an intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of this email message and do not otherwise utilize or retain this email message or any or all of the information contained therein. Although this email message and any attachments or appended messages are believed to be free of any virus or other defect that might affect any computer system into which it is received and opened, it is the responsibility of the recipient to ensure that it is virus free and no responsibility is accepted by the sender for any loss or damage arising in any way from its opening or use.
