On Mon, 6 Dec 2021 14:40:15 -0400, Peter Relson wrote: >Colin wrote [In a convoluted thread such as this it's helpful to cite Date: as well as author.] ><snip> >So according to the doc you cannot pass parameters to the program. ></snip> > >A reminder: it is helpful (sometimes necessary) to point out where within >the vast sea of documentation you found something. > Or where he failed to find it. The documentation of BPXBATCH is scattered. A reader finding one of several individually incomplete descriptions may be misled to believe that's all there is.
>There are at least two places where the doc does not say that and does >describe the optional arg's. > >https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/zos/2.5.0?topic=utility-passing-parameter-data-bpxbatch >https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/zos/2.5.0?topic=utility-invoking-bpxbatch-in-batch-job#btch > >The inconsistency is, of course, unfortunate and should be corrected. > Which inconsistency? There may be more than one. I'll submit the RCF. Without attribution unless you prefer otherwise. The tech writers have lost their way. A Reference manual should specify syntax: how to code a command legally; and semantics: what that command does as coded. A Use's Gide should be task oriented: what command described in the Ref. to use to achieve a goal, with examples as needed. But the better specification of BPXBATCH appears in the Guide and is incomplete in the Ref. >While JCL substitution is quirky, ... > An understatement. It's a bad design. The JCL Ref. has 18 pages of rules for symbols and substitution with special cases targeting compatibility. Earlier in this thread you considered syntactic simplification with compatibility option(s). No! You can't remedy complexity by adding complexity. There are metaphors relating to such contradictions, many so sarcastic as to be NSFW. Adding options vitiates portability. It makes it impossible for contractors, ISVs, and IBM itself to create code likely to work at every customer site. If such an option were to be added I'd prefer that it be under programmer's control, on the JOB statement like DSENQSHR, not a PARMLIB option like REFRPROT . If REFRPROT had been a JOB option I'd have used it pervasively. -- gil ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
