To successfully dialog (a conversation between TSO’s (time sharing option) ISPF (Integrated Structured Programming Facility) and the end user) IBM offers many possible solutions to accomplish this.
Today we will examining using dialog management facility via COBOL (Common Business Oriented Language). As previously stated there are many avenues to accomplish creating dialogs. The lifeblood of this exercise is to employ the COBOL call to the ISPEXEC facility. Because we need to make tools usable we concentrate our efforts on flexible solutions that are reusable.
The implementation of ISPEXEC we will use today requires the user to supply the length of the command buffer and the command buffer which contains the instruction for the dialog’s management.
I do not believe in head down coding so I attempt to automate processes to eliminate hard coding source and wordy / lengthy programs.
I decided to pass a chunk of space (500 characters) to the COBOL program and let COBOL figure out the actual length, move the data to the command buffer and then invoke the ISPEXEC call to dialog management.
Below is a COBOL sub program that does exactly that.
[codesyntax lang=”cobol”]
000100 IDENTIFICATION DIVISION. 00010000 000200 PROGRAM-ID. ABS00001. 00020000 000300 AUTHOR. ARCH BROOKS. 00030000 000400 INSTALLATION BROOKS COMPUTING SYSTEMS, LLC. 00040000 000500 DATE-WRITTEN. 09/16/2014. 00050000 000600 DATE-COMPILED. 09/16/2014. 00060000 000700 ENVIRONMENT DIVISION. 00070000 000800 CONFIGURATION SECTION. 00080000 000900 SOURCE-COMPUTER. IBM-Z-OS. 00090000 001000 OBJECT-COMPUTER. IBM-Z-OS. 00100000 001100 DATA DIVISION. 00110000 001200 WORKING-STORAGE SECTION. 00120000 001210 77 CINDEX PIC 999. 00121000 001300 01 PARM-AREA. 00130000 001400 05 PARM-SIZE PIC S9(5). 00140000 001500 05 PARMB PIC X OCCURS 1 TO 500 TIMES DEPENDING ON PARM-SIZE. 00150000 001600 LINKAGE SECTION. 00160000 001700 01 COMD PIC X(500). 00170000 001710 01 CMDBB-AREA REDEFINES COMD. 00171000 001720 05 COMBB PIC X OCCURS 500 TIMES. 00172000 001800 PROCEDURE DIVISION USING COMD. 00180000 001900 PERFORM 0010-CALC-SIZE. 00190000 002000 GOBACK. 00200000 002100 0010-CALC-SIZE. 00210000 002200 COMPUTE PARM-SIZE = LENGTH OF COMD. 00220000 002201 PERFORM 0020-MOVE-COMMAND. 00220100 002210 0020-MOVE-COMMAND. 00221000 002221 PERFORM 0030-MOVE-CMDB VARYING CINDEX FROM 1 BY 1 00222100 002222 UNTIL CINDEX > PARM-SIZE. 00222200 002223 0030-MOVE-CMDB. 00222300 002230 MOVE PARMB (CINDEX) TO COMBB (CINDEX). 00223000 002240 0040-INVOKE-ISPLINK. 00224000 002250 CALL 'ISPEXEC' USING PARM-SIZE, CMDBB-AREA. 00225001
[/codesyntax]
The object from the resulting compile process is stored on a PDS (partitioned data set) and will be used subsequently as input to a linkage editor which will make the program executable by the computer. This level of modular programming allows us to isolate automated functions and call them on demand when their utilization is required.
I am also including the compiled listing of this routine to soothe any minds that may question the viability of the offered source code.
[codesyntax lang=”cobol”]
1PP 5655-S71 IBM Enterprise COBOL for z/OS 4.1.0 Date 09/16/2014 Time 10:18:29 Page 1
0Invocation parameters:
VBREF
0Options in effect:
NOADATA
ADV
QUOTE
ARITH(COMPAT)
NOAWO
BUFSIZE(4096)
NOCICS
CODEPAGE(1140)
NOCOMPILE(S)
NOCURRENCY
DATA(31)
NODATEPROC
DBCS
NODECK
NODIAGTRUNC
NODLL
NODUMP
NODYNAM
NOEXIT
NOEXPORTALL
NOFASTSRT
FLAG(I,I)
NOFLAGSTD
INTDATE(ANSI)
LANGUAGE(EN)
NOLIB
LINECOUNT(60)
NOLIST
NOMAP
NOMDECK
NONAME
NSYMBOL(NATIONAL)
NONUMBER
NUMPROC(NOPFD)
OBJECT
NOOFFSET
NOOPTIMIZE
OUTDD(SYSOUT)
PGMNAME(COMPAT)
RENT
RMODE(AUTO)
SEQUENCE
SIZE(MAX)
SOURCE
SPACE(1)
NOSQL
SQLCCSID
NOSSRANGE
NOTERM
NOTEST
NOTHREAD
TRUNC(STD)
VBREF
NOWORD
1PP 5655-S71 IBM Enterprise COBOL for z/OS 4.1.0 Date 09/16/2014 Time 10:18:29 Page 2
0 XMLPARSE(XMLSS)
XREF(FULL)
YEARWINDOW(1900)
ZWB
1PP 5655-S71 IBM Enterprise COBOL for z/OS 4.1.0 ABS00001 Date 09/16/2014 Time 10:18:29 Page 3
LineID PL SL ----+-*A-1-B--+----2----+----3----+----4----+----5----+----6----+----7-|--+----8 Map and Cross Reference
0 000001 000100 IDENTIFICATION DIVISION. 00010000
000002 000200 PROGRAM-ID. ABS00001. 00020000
000003 000300 AUTHOR. ARCH BROOKS. 00030000
000004 000400 INSTALLATION BROOKS COMPUTING SYSTEMS, LLC. 00040000
000005 000500 DATE-WRITTEN. 09/16/2014. 00050000
000006 000600 DATE-COMPILED. 09/16/14. 00060000
000007 000700 ENVIRONMENT DIVISION. 00070000
000008 000800 CONFIGURATION SECTION. 00080000
000009 000900 SOURCE-COMPUTER. IBM-Z-OS. 00090000
000010 001000 OBJECT-COMPUTER. IBM-Z-OS. 00100000
000011 001100 DATA DIVISION. 00110000
000012 001200 WORKING-STORAGE SECTION. 00120000
000013 001210 77 CINDEX PIC 999. 00121000
000014 001300 01 PARM-AREA. 00130000
000015 001400 05 PARM-SIZE PIC S9(5). 00140000
000016 001500 05 PARMB PIC X OCCURS 1 TO 500 TIMES DEPENDING ON PARM-SIZE. 00150000 15
000017 001600 LINKAGE SECTION. 00160000
000018 001700 01 COMD PIC X(500). 00170000
000019 001710 01 CMDBB-AREA REDEFINES COMD. 00171000 18
000020 001720 05 COMBB PIC X OCCURS 500 TIMES. 00172000
000021 001800 PROCEDURE DIVISION USING COMD. 00180000 18
000022 001900 PERFORM 0010-CALC-SIZE. 00190000 24
000023 002000 GOBACK. 00200000
000024 002100 0010-CALC-SIZE. 00210000
000025 002200 COMPUTE PARM-SIZE = LENGTH OF COMD. 00220000 15 IMP 18
000026 002201 PERFORM 0020-MOVE-COMMAND. 00220100 27
000027 002210 0020-MOVE-COMMAND. 00221000
000028 002221 PERFORM 0030-MOVE-CMDB VARYING CINDEX FROM 1 BY 1 00222100 30 13
000029 002222 UNTIL CINDEX > PARM-SIZE. 00222200 13 15
000030 002223 0030-MOVE-CMDB. 00222300
000031 002230 MOVE PARMB (CINDEX) TO COMBB (CINDEX). 00223000 16 13 20 13
000032 002240 0040-INVOKE-ISPLINK. 00224000
000033 002250 CALL 'ISPEXEC' USING PARM-SIZE, CMDBB-AREA. 00225001 EXT 15 19
1PP 5655-S71 IBM Enterprise COBOL for z/OS 4.1.0 ABS00001 Date 09/16/2014 Time 10:18:29 Page 4
0 Count Cross-reference of verbs References
1 CALL . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
1 COMPUTE. . . . . . . . . . . . 25
1 GOBACK . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
1 MOVE . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3 PERFORM. . . . . . . . . . . . 22 26 28
1PP 5655-S71 IBM Enterprise COBOL for z/OS 4.1.0 ABS00001 Date 09/16/2014 Time 10:18:29 Page 5
0An "M" preceding a data-name reference indicates that the data-name is modified by this reference.
Defined Cross-reference of data names References
13 CINDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . M28 29 31 31
19 CMDBB-AREA . . . . . . . . . . 33
20 COMBB. . . . . . . . . . . . . M31
18 COMD . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 21 25
14 PARM-AREA
15 PARM-SIZE. . . . . . . . . . . 16 M25 29 33
16 PARMB. . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
1PP 5655-S71 IBM Enterprise COBOL for z/OS 4.1.0 ABS00001 Date 09/16/2014 Time 10:18:29 Page 6
0Context usage is indicated by the letter preceding a procedure-name reference.
These letters and their meanings are:
A = ALTER (procedure-name)
D = GO TO (procedure-name) DEPENDING ON
E = End of range of (PERFORM) through (procedure-name)
G = GO TO (procedure-name)
P = PERFORM (procedure-name)
T = (ALTER) TO PROCEED TO (procedure-name)
U = USE FOR DEBUGGING (procedure-name)
Defined Cross-reference of procedures References
24 0010-CALC-SIZE . . . . . . . . P22
27 0020-MOVE-COMMAND. . . . . . . P26
30 0030-MOVE-CMDB . . . . . . . . P28
32 0040-INVOKE-ISPLINK
1PP 5655-S71 IBM Enterprise COBOL for z/OS 4.1.0 ABS00001 Date 09/16/2014 Time 10:18:29 Page 7
0 Defined Cross-reference of programs References
2 ABS00001
EXTERNAL ISPEXEC. . . . . . . . . . . . 33
-* Statistics for COBOL program ABS00001:
* Source records = 33
* Data Division statements = 7
* Procedure Division statements = 7
0End of compilation 1, program ABS00001, no statements flagged.
0Return code 0
[/codesyntax]
The provided compiler output proves there are no compile errors in the COBOL source code program.
Mr. Arch Brooks, Software Engineer, Brooks Computing Systems, LLC authored this article.