Cobol - Re: EBCDIC to ASCII OPTCD=Q? (JCL)

Author

Re: EBCDIC to ASCII OPTCD=Q? (JCL)

peteswansen@wavecable.com

2006-09-19, 3:55 am

We ran into this problem in 1989 at Tooele Army Depot. Our mainframe
was a IBM 3780 ( if memory serves me right!) and we operated between an
ASCII database on MS-DOS computers- to Sperry Univac servers and then
translated the data in EBCDIC for the mainframe run. Then we had to
transfer back to ASCII. Our Honeywell page printer was tailored to
EBCDIC formatted reports. The COBOL guys were sweating over this
one!!!!! When they wanted us to start printing the mass reports I had
to figure out how to get the Honeywell to print from a ASCII tape. I
dug into the old-crusty reference manual and found the cryptic code to
reprogram the Honeywell. I got a cash award for $200 and 1-grade
promotion for my part in this adventure. You know, I still dream of
stacks of cards, 4 part carbons, impact printers, tape drives and my
short career programming in COBOL- now I use VB, Java, and C.

2006-09-19, 7:55 am

In article <1158646261.405766.20440@m7g2000cwm.googlegroups.com>,
<peteswansen@wavecable.com> wrote:
>
> We ran into this problem in 1989 at Tooele Army Depot.

Damnation... I guess I'm not creative enough to come up with a new or
unusual difficulty.

>I
>dug into the old-crusty reference manual and found the cryptic code to
>reprogram the Honeywell.

E'en worse... the target here is a WANG VS; from what I can tell the
manuals were put in a Very Safe Place when folks did a floor-to-floor
shuffle a few years back. Fortunately there is this WorldWide Web thingie
that allows for researching such matters.

>I got a cash award for $200 and 1-grade
>promotion for my part in this adventure. You know, I still dream of
>stacks of cards, 4 part carbons, impact printers, tape drives and my
>short career programming in COBOL- now I use VB, Java, and C.

Keep a close watch on those dreams... I recall reading, somewhere, about a
fellow who was languishing in a prison until it was discovered that he
could interpret dreams; he got promoted from the jail-house to
second-in-command of a mighty empire... got a Company Chariot, too.

DD

Pete Dashwood

2006-09-19, 6:55 pm

<docdwarf@panix.com> wrote in message news:eeolim$r7l$1@reader1.panix.com...
> In article <1158646261.405766.20440@m7g2000cwm.googlegroups.com>,
> <peteswansen@wavecable.com> wrote:
>
> Damnation... I guess I'm not creative enough to come up with a new or
> unusual difficulty.
>
>
> E'en worse... the target here is a WANG VS; from what I can tell the
> manuals were put in a Very Safe Place when folks did a floor-to-floor
> shuffle a few years back. Fortunately there is this WorldWide Web thingie
> that allows for researching such matters.
>
>
> Keep a close watch on those dreams... I recall reading, somewhere, about a
> fellow who was languishing in a prison until it was discovered that he
> could interpret dreams; he got promoted from the jail-house to
> second-in-command of a mighty empire... got a Company Chariot, too.
>
> DD

To be fair, Doc, he was also a snappy dresser... :-)

Pete.

2006-09-19, 6:55 pm

In article <4nabupF9dri9U1@individual.net>,
Pete Dashwood <dashwood@enternet.co.nz> wrote:
>
><docdwarf@panix.com> wrote in message news:eeolim$r7l$1@reader1.panix.com...

[snip]
[color=darkred]
>
>To be fair, Doc, he was also a snappy dresser... :-)

Of *course* he was, Mr Dashwood... it happened in the Oldene Dayse, when a
man could be decked out in fine threads, a zoot-suit with a reet pleat,
lo, such as *ten* men could not be decked out, today!

DD

Howard Brazee

2006-09-19, 6:55 pm

That is correct. This is from the "Macro Instrucionns for Data Sets"
manual; see the last paragraph and note that LABEL=(,AL) assumes
OPTCD=Q

Q
requests conversion of the tape records between what is stored on
tape and what is supplied from/to the problem program. For input
requests, conversion is done after the data is read from tape. For
output requests, conversion is done just before the record is
written to tape.

The Q option implies that the character representation of the data
on tape differs from that seen by the problem program. Data
management converts records according to one of the following
techniques:

O CCSID Conversion

If CCSIDs are supplied from any source for ISO/ANSI V4 tapes,
records are converted between the CCSID which represents the
data on tape and the CCSID as seen by the problem program. You
can also prevent conversion by supplying a special CCSID.

O Default Character Conversion

If you are using non-ISO/ANSI V4 tapes or if CCSIDs are not
supplied by any source, data management converts the records
between ASCII code (which represents the data on tape) to
EBCDIC code (which is seen by the problem program) using
specific tables defined for this default character conversion.

Refer to z/OS DFSMS: Using Data Sets, SC26-7410, for a complete
description of CCSID conversion and default character conversion.

Refer to z/OS DFSMS: Using Magnetic Tapes for more information
about ISO/ANSI labels.

Q is supported only for a magnetic tape that does not have IBM
standard labels. If the tape has ISO/ANSI/FIPS labels
(LABEL=(,AL)), the system assumes OPTCD=Q.

--
Bruce A. Black
===============================
IIRC, even if you code LABEL=(1,NL), OPEN checks to see if a label
does in
fact exist. And, if it does, OPEN will do some verfication of the
content, which could still lead to problems. It's been a long time
since
I messed with tape labels, so I could be mistaken.

John Kington <john.kington@CONVERGYS.COM>
========================
If you say NL but the tape that is mounted has labels (standard or
ANSI)
the mount is rejected

--
Bruce A. Black
======================

2006-09-19, 6:55 pm

In article <cu70h2pcmcnk927bhj7goibd970pnubioj@4ax.com>,
Howard Brazee <howard@brazee.net> wrote:

Once again, thanks to all... but I can't even get a tape mounted, the
SMC0043 tells me that the unit cannot be allocated.

DD

[top post, nothing new below]

>That is correct. This is from the "Macro Instrucionns for Data Sets"
>manual; see the last paragraph and note that LABEL=(,AL) assumes
>OPTCD=Q
>
>Q
> requests conversion of the tape records between what is stored on
> tape and what is supplied from/to the problem program. For input
> requests, conversion is done after the data is read from tape. For
> output requests, conversion is done just before the record is
> written to tape.
>
> The Q option implies that the character representation of the data
> on tape differs from that seen by the problem program. Data
> management converts records according to one of the following
> techniques:
>
> O CCSID Conversion
>
> If CCSIDs are supplied from any source for ISO/ANSI V4 tapes,
> records are converted between the CCSID which represents the
> data on tape and the CCSID as seen by the problem program. You
> can also prevent conversion by supplying a special CCSID.
>
> O Default Character Conversion
>
> If you are using non-ISO/ANSI V4 tapes or if CCSIDs are not
> supplied by any source, data management converts the records
> between ASCII code (which represents the data on tape) to
> EBCDIC code (which is seen by the problem program) using
> specific tables defined for this default character conversion.
>
>
> Refer to z/OS DFSMS: Using Data Sets, SC26-7410, for a complete
> description of CCSID conversion and default character conversion.
>
> Refer to z/OS DFSMS: Using Magnetic Tapes for more information
> about ISO/ANSI labels.
>
> Q is supported only for a magnetic tape that does not have IBM
> standard labels. If the tape has ISO/ANSI/FIPS labels
> (LABEL=(,AL)), the system assumes OPTCD=Q.
>
>--
>Bruce A. Black
>===============================
>IIRC, even if you code LABEL=(1,NL), OPEN checks to see if a label
>does in
>fact exist. And, if it does, OPEN will do some verfication of the
>content, which could still lead to problems. It's been a long time
>since
>I messed with tape labels, so I could be mistaken.
>
>
>
>John Kington <john.kington@CONVERGYS.COM>
>========================
>If you say NL but the tape that is mounted has labels (standard or
>ANSI)
>the mount is rejected
>
>--
>Bruce A. Black
>======================

Binyamin Dissen

2006-09-21, 6:55 pm

On Tue, 19 Sep 2006 10:51:59 -0600 Howard Brazee <howard@brazee.net> wrote:

:>If you say NL but the tape that is mounted has labels (standard or
:>ANSI)
:>the mount is rejected

If you wish to mount without label check, code LABEL=(whatever,BLP) - BLP must
be authorized.

--
Binyamin Dissen <bdissen@dissensoftware.com>
http://www.dissensoftware.com

Director, Dissen Software, Bar & Grill - Israel

Should you use the mailblocks package and expect a response from me,
you should preauthorize the dissensoftware.com domain.

I very rarely bother responding to challenge/response systems,
especially those from irresponsible companies.

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