On 3 May 2011 01:30, Timothy Sipples <[email protected]> wrote:

> I'm wondering what IBM-MAINers like to use for editing Unicode (UTF-8,
> UTF-16, and/or UTF-32) "files" on z/OS.

Are you asking what people are currently using, or what they might like to see?

> There are of course graphical
> options (notably Rational Developer for System z) which work great, but for
> this question I'm more focused on text editors that meet the following
> attributes:
>
> 1. Accessible via TN3270E (i.e. "3270 editors") and/or Telnet (to z/OS UNIX
> System Services) -- i.e. "old school" terminal mode editors;
> 2. Support editing UTF-8, UTF-16, and/or UTF-32;
> 3. Support sequential (QSAM), VSAM, PDS/PDSE, HFS/zFS, DB2, and/or IMS data
> (i.e. "whatever you can imagine").

I've thought for some years that a Unicode 3270 would ideally be based
on UTF-EBCDIC ( http://unicode.org/reports/tr16 ). This would provide
the most compatibility with those single-byte characters most commonly
used, but with the ability to edit multi-byte as needed. Of course it
rquires a (fairly small) change to the 3270 data stream architecture
as implemented on both the terminal/emulator and application ends.

Sadly, UTF-EBCDIC, although invented by IBM 10+ years ago, has never
taken off. And this time one can't even blame the Windows or UNIX
mainframe-haters. So many z/OS APIs could have been changed one by one
to support UTF-EBCDIC... Too late.

Tony H.

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