What I’m Looking Forward To In z/OS 2.1

(Originally posted 2013-09-11.)

As I mentioned in We Have Residents! we'll be working with a z/OS 2.1 system in October. In fact I've already logged on to it. I might even get to play with it before the residency starts, depending on current workload – but the priority is to hit the ground running by ensuring the environment is set up to our liking and that we have test data. (And then there are those day-to-day customers…) 🙂

Here are the things that've caught my eye that I'm particularly keen to to try out. Of course there's a lot in z/OS 2.1, so don't treat this list as the definitive list: It's just the things that leapt out at me that could change my daily life – as a programmer and regular user. And, yes, there are other things I like about 2.1 which aren't in this category.

• Regular expressions in FIND and REPLACE in the ISPF PDF Editor.

  At first I'll experiment interactively with this but I can see myself building it into REXX EXECs.

• Processing of VBS data in REXX.

  This might seem obscure but it really means SMF to me. (In the official materials I haven't seen SMF mentioned but SMF is VBS data so I'm hopeful.) Assuming my experiments are successful I'll write much more on this. This is the one most likely to be used in my code.

• Symbol processing enhancements in JCL. At this stage I don't quite know what we'll get out of this but it's the enhancement that's most likely to find its way into our Redbook: I hazard it'll be useful.

One of the nice things about spending 4 weeks in Poughkeepsie is the chance to discuss things with developers: They might ask us to try things out. And we might tell them what we think. 🙂

Of course it's not my production system. And I don't know how long I'll have access to the 2.1 system for. Still, I'll use it while I can and report any highlights (and, hopefully non-existent, lowlights).

And you probably will have your own favourite enhancements.