Here's a quote from a message I posted to this list in 2009: "I have a very basic one to complain about:
DFS0929I BLDL FAILED FOR MEMBER --DDMPPSZ This really means that the specified PSB DDMPPSZ is not in the specified IMS library. Why can't it just say that? As an application programmer do I really need to know that BLDL means, well, whatever it means? Of course IMS has some that are even worse. Sometimes I just get something like: USER COMPLETION CODE=xxxx without any message at all. The first time I ran in to it it took me a heck of a time to figure out I need to look in the IMS manual to find out what the error was. For all I could tell it was a user application error, but I couldn't see what. Now all of the other developers on our VSE to z/OS conversion team just ask me what the errors are, because trying to find them in the manuals is too often too painful. Hopefully I'll get them trained some day! I've got to say, coming from VSE their error messages are, in general, much better. Of course as a developer I hate dealing with creating error messages for my own apps, so I can understand why IBM has such issues... :-)" Things have not improved much, if it all, in this regard in the last ten years. 🙁 ________________________________ From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU> on behalf of Mike Schwab <mike.a.sch...@gmail.com> Sent: Tuesday, June 9, 2020 8:42 PM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU <IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU> Subject: Re: "Everyone wants to retire mainframes" Yep. We used to get a lot of errors for out of volumes in a storage groups, and the users would want us to add more volumes. For several calls I would point out that the data set had a very small primary and secondary space value. I would go through all the extents on one volume, then proceed through the rest, and run out volumes despite lots of space in the storage group. They didn't want to reallocate, so I suggested they migrate and recall the dataset. Then the existing space would be in 1 extent on 1 volume and plenty of extents and volumes to extend onto. The problem started going away after that. Would the new 1st extent on the first volume from the recall become the default 1st allocation on subsequent volumes? On Wed, Jun 10, 2020 at 12:48 AM Seymour J Metz <sme...@gmu.edu> wrote: > > My pet peeve is the default for SPACE; "Absolute track not available" is not > a user friendly error message for forgetting to specify SPACE. > > > -- > Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz > http://mason.gmu.edu/~smetz3 > > ________________________________________ > From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU] on behalf of > Bob Bridges [robhbrid...@gmail.com] > Sent: Tuesday, June 9, 2020 8:33 PM > To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU > Subject: Re: "Everyone wants to retire mainframes" > > JCL: I used to complain about JCL's arcane and in some cases backward syntax. > I mean, "COND=(0,LT,step.procstep)" - who made that up? But somehow over > the years I've made my peace with JCL. It is what it is. And I would have > done no better, back then. > > EBCDIC: A couple of years ago, when I was employed by a small mainframe > security consulting company, a client came to them asking for help with a > project to create a security product that would reside on a distributed > platform but handle security on the mainframe. They were going to develop it > for a client that was using Top Secret, but it could have been any of the > three. These folks didn't know mainframes, which is why they hired my > employers, who assigned me to the project. > > I said they "didn't know mainframes"; let's start with the fact that they > didn't know about EBCDIC. But that's no problem, right? There are lots of > things one can do to translate between EBCDIC and ASCII. In the process of > working on this project I wrote, my very own self, a socket server that would > handle both ASCII and EBCDIC clients. (I mention this because I'd never done > any such thing before, and I was inordinately pleased with the fact that I > could do anything so cool. Those of you who've done hundreds of those and > take it for granted, please don't burst my bubble.) > > Then they discovered the whole issue of 3270 emulation. And I probably > wasn't helping by trying to explain the complexities of mainframe security at > about the same time. The client went away to think about the communications > issue, and somehow they never came back; the project never went anywhere > after that. > > --- > Bob Bridges, robhbrid...@gmail.com, cell 336 382-7313 > > /* Always look a gift horse in the mouth. It may have hoof-and-mouth > disease. -Bob Bridges, 1977 */ > > -----Original Message----- > From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU] On > Behalf Of Paul Gilmartin > Sent: Tuesday, June 9, 2020 19:18 > > > Yes, but JCL. JCL is to programming as Roman numerals are to arithmetic. > > And EBCDIC. "Doesn't play well with others." > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- Mike A Schwab, Springfield IL USA Where do Forest Rangers go to get away from it all? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
