My very first computer program was about 30 feet of paper tape for the IBM 610 at Notre Dame in Sep 1959 when I was a Sophomore in EE. It calculated the value of a 4x4 determinant.
The first output on the Selectric was four characters WOW! I sat in the computer room when not in class for three days until the only other user came in, and he helped me to understand the difference between program and data, and showed me that the first character on my paper tape told the reader to look for a control character, and in the fifth from end character it found a control character that told the reader to print out the tape characters as instructions, and thereby printed the last four instructions in my program: Carriage Return, Line Feed, Carriage Return, Print Accumulator, WOW! (The second CR was to get the Selectric all the way back to the left before it printed the result.) Barry Herbert W "Barry" Merrill, PHD President-Programmer Merrill Consultants MXG Software 10717 Cromwell Drive Dallas, TX 75229 www.mxg.com 214 351 1966 ad...@mxg.com for business questions supp...@mxg.com for technical questions ba...@mxg.com -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU> On Behalf Of Seymour J Metz Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2021 8:42 PM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: Re: Variable length records for SYSIN data sets We burned the paper tape and scattered the ashes. Please don't bring it back. -- Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz http://mason.gmu.edu/~smetz3 ________________________________________ From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU> on behalf of Paul Gilmartin <0000000433f07816-dmarc-requ...@listserv.ua.edu> Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2021 9:17 PM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: Re: Variable length records for SYSIN data sets On Fri, 29 Oct 2021 12:03:14 +1100, Robin Vowels wrote: >We used to use RECFM=V in the 1960s with SYSIN for PL/I source programs >on paper tape. > What have we abandoned in the 20th Century?! Where can he order one? RPQ? >On 2021-10-29 11:56, Paul Gilmartin wrote: >> On Thu, 28 Oct 2021 22:49:49 +0000, Seymour J Metz wrote: >> >>> What happens with >>> >>> //INFILE DD DISP=SHR,DSN=MY.VB.FILE >>> // DD *,DCB=(RECFM=V,LRECL=204) >>> >>> and have you reported it as a bug, citing the text that you quoted? >>> >> I haven't RTFM today, but I believe it has long been a documented >> restriction. >> I've readily used: >> o An Edit macro which does EXECIO to a DDNAME allocated with RECFM=VB >> o FTP with "QUOTE SITE FILE=JES"; "QUOTE SITE JESRECFM=V" >> o IEBGENER witn //SYSUT2 DD SYSOUT=(B,INITRDR) o Etc. >> >> Not a bug; WAD. Merits an RFE. >> >>> ________________________________________ >>> From:Frank Swarbrick >>> Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2021 5:11 PM >>> >>> I have a goal to concatenate a data set of variable length records >>> (RECFM=VB,LRECL=204) with an instream data set of fixed length >>> characters. My though was to add RECFM=V to my instream DD, i.e.: >>> //INFILE DD DISP=SHR,DSN=MY.VB.FILE >>> // DD *,RECFM=V,LRECL=204 >>> >>> The RECFM is rejected as being conflicting with a SYSIN dataset: >>> IEFC009I KEYWORD RECFM IS MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE WITH KEYWORD SYSIN ON >>> THE DD STATEMENT >>> >>> And yet the following section of the manual, "SYSIN data set" has >>> discussion of SYSIN data sets where "the record format is variable": >>> https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/zos/2.5.0?topic=ssds-sysin-data-set >>> >>> But how do I actually make the SYSIN dataset variable length? >>> >>> I do realize there are probably other options to accomplish my task, >>> but this is bugging me. >>> >> RFE. -- gil ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
