On Wed, Feb 22, 2017 at 2:32 PM, Greg Dyck <[email protected]> wrote:
> On 2/22/2017 2:19 PM, John McKown wrote: > >> But I agree that // ELSIF or // ELSEIF would be superior. DEFAULT / >> OTHERWISE is simply after the last ELSE. Perhaps instead of // IF, IBM >> should have have // CASE? >> > > Ahhh, but will your company *pay* IBM more $$ for z/OS if this > functionality were provided? > [reverting to old fart mode] Ahhh, but if IBM hadn't locked up the source (aka OCO), then the advanced users wouldn't _have_ to pay IBM for the functionality because they could add it themselves! Or at least better understand why it is not possible beyond "it costs too much" or "it is too difficult" (aka "IBM doesn't think it will pay off in terms of income.") Like most here, I remember that many of the initial enhancements to MVT & MVS were from outside of IBM. > > I wasn't on the team that implemented this support, but I know that when > new function gets implemented there must be a balance between what is > possible, what was asked for, what doing it will cost, and what else must > be done. I'm sure it is no different where you work. > Very true! The basic, and reasonable, mantra for _all_ capitalistic companies is "Don't do it if it won't result in greater profitability." Which is why _I_ am a member of the FSF and, on my personal machines, use GNU/Linux software. __MOST__ of which is open source (GPL or MIT licensed). If I really, really, want it (and have the talent), I can "fork" a software project and change it. I can even return my changes to the original developers. If they want it, then they can use it. If they don't want it, and I'm really sold on it, I simply put my version up on GitHub and publicize it. Let the users decide. Case in point: LibreOffice vs OpenOffice - though they seem to be rejoining now that OpenOffice is an Apache foundation project and not Oracle. Also the MariaDB fork of MySQL - again caused by Oracle as I understand it. > > Given the limited definition for conditional execution that was done 50 > years ago, I think this support is a big step up. > Total agreement on this point. Gil's desire is reasonable, but costly at this point. For me, the IBM implementation is definitely appreciated. I can actually figure out // IF whereas the old COND= on the EXEC would give me headaches ... literally. > > Regards, > Greg > > -- "Irrigation of the land with seawater desalinated by fusion power is ancient. It's called 'rain'." -- Michael McClary, in alt.fusion Maranatha! <>< John McKown ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
