Author Archives: Martin Packer

(Originally posted 2011-09-25.) I can’t believe it’s been almost a week since I wrote Batch Capacity Planning, Part 1 – CPU . Where did the time go? 🙂 Re-reading it I’m struck by the overwhelming theme of Batch’s unpredictability and lumpiness. This is true of memory, as well, but to a much lesser degree. Why toContinue reading “Batch Capacity Planning, Part 2 – Memory”

(Originally posted 2011-09-19.) It’s been a week since the following was posted in IBM-MAIN: Batch Capacity Planning – BWATOOL? So far there’s been no reply. Though a little disappointed, I’m not surprised. "Disappointed" as I was looking for a good debate (even though it wasn’t me who asked the question). "Not surprised" as I thinkContinue reading “Batch Capacity Planning, Part 1 – CPU”

(Originally posted 2011-09-14.) It’s been an awfully long time since I wrote When Good Work Doesn’t Go To zIIP / zAAP Heaven. And too long since I posted anything at all. 😦 In fact I had a bunch of posts in my brain until this morning when a customer asked me a question which turnedContinue reading “zAAP and zIIP Revisited (At Last)”

(Originally posted 2011-08-23.) Over the weekend I decided to try my hand at writing a JSON parser in REXX. I developed the technique outlined in this post to enable me to do that. I think it’s new. Certainly I’ve not seen it before. (I don’t want at this point to get into a discussion aboutContinue reading “Setting Arbitrary Variables In A REXX Procedure That Persist After It Completes”

(Originally posted 2011-08-12.) In WLM Velocity – "Rhetorical Devices Are Us" I mentioned a graph I wasn’t going to publish – essentially to protect a customer. In this post I’m again going to describe a graph I have (at least in my head) without publishing it. (And for essentially the same reasons.) I hope youContinue reading “Another Graph I’m NOT Going To Share With You – Batch Window Reduction Expectations”

(Originally posted 2011-08-11.) Usually when I go away on holiday I bring something back with me. Often in the form of fresh ideas. This year it’s been such a hectic one that all I did was to flake out. So no new ideas this time. Perhaps that’s a good thing, perhaps not. 🙂 But IContinue reading “Back From Vacation And Raring To Go – To Poughkeepsie”

(Originally posted 2011-07-19.) Here’s another neat piece of algebra: A technique for summing series. You know what b – a + c – b + d – c is. Right? Suppose I were to write the same sum as: (b – a) + (c – b) + (d – c) The answer is still dContinue reading “Another Neat Piece Of Algebra – Series Summation”

(Originally posted 2011-07-19.) It may surprise you to know I hate asking questions to which I already know the answers. And I hate even more "leaving understanding on the table". Let me put it more positively: I love it when I can glean new insights into existing data. This post is about precisely that: AnContinue reading “An Experiment With Job Naming Conventions”

(Originally posted 2011-07-17.) Frank Yaeger of DFSORT Development suggested I pass this tip along to y’all. It’s his solution to a problem set by Brian Peterson of UnitedHealth Group… In z/OS Release 12 two new messages were introduced: IEF032I and IEF033I replace IEF374I and IEF376I. The older messages were single-line step- and job-end messages. TheContinue reading “Multiline Message Sifting With DFSORT”

(Originally posted 2011-07-09.) If you’re sat next to me on a plane you’ll probably notice at take off and landing I do algebra puzzles. You may not have heard of the term "algebra puzzles" before and perhaps think the juxtaposition of the two words to be odd, but I think it apt… (You may alsoContinue reading “Hello, I’m Martin And I’m An Algebraic :-)”