MVS TOOLS AND TRICKS OF THE TRADE April 1998 Sam Golob MVS Systems Programmer P.O. Box 906 Tallman, New York 10982 Sam Golob is a Senior Systems Programmer. Sam can be reached at sbgolob@cbttape.org. OTHER PEOPLE'S PROBLEMS Did you ever wonder how it's possible to keep up with the MVS field, especially now that it's OS/390 too? This problem is indeed compounded if you happen to be a systems programmer in a backleveled shop--say a place that runs MVS/XA 2.2.3, or MVS/370, or some system like that. Do places like that still exist today? You bet they do, although Y2K may do something to eliminate them soon. Even if you work at a very modern shop, on a very modern system, the field is moving fast, making it a requirement for all of us to learn things continually. Nobody knows everything, and everybody is limited by finite intelligence (even if they have a lot of it) and finite time. Nobody can get more done than they actually can. It follows, first, that people have to work together with each other, and second, that a smart person should realize that it's good to take advantage of other people's experience, because you don't have enough time to re-invent all the wheels in the world. (It's also counter-productive.) When sharing experiences with people, it's a good idea to have a balance between helping others and getting helped by them. Everyone has a pleasant experience when the sharing goes two ways. Getting back to the problem of keeping up with MVS, I've discovered some helpful advice--find out about other people's problems! I know a fellow who worked for many years at a shop which had back-leveled system software. Besides budgetary constraints and having to fend off numerous attempts to outsource the computer operation, this place had to run a computer that wasn't ESA-capable. The systems programmers were faced with not being able to acquire experience with modern equipment. How can one lessen the isolation that this causes? This fellow did it by not being isolated. Those were the days before the Internet; he used to call other systems programmers in other shops constantly. He used to try and attend SHARE and other user group meetings. He constantly asked his friends about the problems they were having, and he shared his problems with them--often they were able to help him out of some sticky jams--those were the days of the "untrained IBM-SEs", and before IBMlink. It helped that this fellow was an extrovert, and he didn't have any trouble talking to people. Nowadays, there's hope for everyone. With the advent of a more electronic age, everyone can participate in this process. PROBLEM EXCHANGING FOR INTROVERTS TOO I'm quite new to the Internet. My previous shops didn't give us Internet access, but nowadays you can also buy your own access for not too much money, or for none at all. The Internet has Newsgroup lists, where you exchange your problems by writing, or just listening, and you don't have to talk to anybody directly. One of the principal lists is called IBM-MAIN, out of the University of Alabama. IBM-MAIN is an ideal vehicle for exchanging problems among MVS systems programmers, but it has to be managed, in order to be fully useful. There are many other lists too, which run the same way. They're a lot of fun, once you get into it. IBM-MAIN is the largest list I know of. It is a closed list, meaning that you have to subscribe in order to send email messages to it. Anyone who sends a message to the list, gets the message circulated to all the subscribers. Once you subscribe to the IBM-MAIN list, your email could be bombarded with about 40 to 60 messages a day. How do you handle that? There's an option on LISTSERV, which is the software that manages most of these lists, called DIGEST. Instead of getting individual messages, you get a DIGEST of all that day's messages, every midnight. This DIGEST is only one file, and it doesn't overwhelm your Internet email. I save the digest as a file every day, and browse it at my leisure with SPF/PC. With DIGEST, I can't answer all the messages from the list on a real-time basis, but I save my sanity. I answer the messages a day later. IBM-MAIN is serviced by software called a LISTSERV server, and many other newsgroup lists use this same software too. Once you learn to use the LISTSERV software, you can comfortably manage many newsgroup lists, and correspond with the people who send email through them. The various newsgroup lists keep tabs on other lists, using the LISTSERV software capabilites. For example, once you subscribe to IBM-MAIN, you can ask its list server to send you a list of other newsgroup lists, and you can even ask it to attempt to subscribe to those lists for you. We have to get started by subscribing to IBM-MAIN, for example. From your email address, you send a message to LISTSERV@BAMA.UA.EDU, with message text: subscribe ibm-main (optionally followed by your actual name). The message will be handled by computer. "Subscribe" is a keyword that the LISTSERV software reads. The computer will send you back a message with a code. You merely have to reply to the computer's message, with a message that says one word: ok. Or you can say ok, followed by the code number they send you. The list server will then send you a message that you are subscribed to the list, and your email id will start getting bombarded with the email messages that everyone sends in. Once you are subscribed, you can send mail into the IBM-MAIN list yourself (and everyone will get a copy). The email address you use is IBM-MAIN@BAMA.UA.EDU. This is different from the LISTSERV address. When you want to broadcast mail, you must use the IBM-MAIN address. When you want to talk to the computer itself, you use the LISTSERV address. The IBM-MAIN list has lots of messages per day, usually. Most other lists have less activity. To stem the big tide of email messages, you can talk to the list server to customize your subscription. A big list of commands to use, can be obtained by getting a LISTSERV reference card. Simply email the LISTSERV address of the list, with the message: LISTSERV REFCARD and the computer will email a reference card of commands, back to you. The next thing I do, to customize my session, is to send the list server a list of SET commands, to customize my session. The ones I used for the ibm-main list are: set ibm-main repro (to get a copy of my own messages) set ibm-main ack (to get an acknowledgement that my own message was sent out) set ibm-main digest (to condense all the incoming messages for each day, into one email, instead of many emails) With the LISTSERV reference card, and a little practice, you can get your subscription parameters the way you want them. A good piece of advice is to save the email containing the reference card, as a file. Then you can print it out, and constantly refer back to it. NETIQUETTE AND BENEFITS Once you have the privilege of being subscribed to a list, don't abuse it. It's better to keep your messages useful to the public, and not to waste their time. Everyone else has to manage all the messages that come in. Ask yourself the question: "Am I contributing to the general store of knowledge, or to the general garbage can?" I think that if you look at the other people's messages for a while before you yourself send any, you'll get the general idea how it goes. Try not to attach any big files to your messages--I made that mistake once, and only once. These files burden the list server (which has to duplicate the file possibly 1100 times) and also fill the subscribers' mailboxes unnecessarily. Don't use the list to advertise your own commercial services or software, except to mention that it may solve a certain subscriber's problem. Solving people's problems is permitted; commercial advertising for its own sake, isn't. Now that we've talked about the preparations, let's start talking about the results. Once you've started looking at the other people's messages, you'll start learning. A good rule of thumb for me has always been to look carefully at the things I know about, and to also read the things I don't know about. Reading the things I don't know about is needed for expanding my horizons. If someone writes about a piece of equipment or software that my shop doesn't have, or that I don't have previous experience with, here's a way to get some cheap experience. Then, if I see that equipment or software somewhere else, or my shop acquires it later, I already know something about it. Some information about this stuff is already in my general store of knowledge. What if I myself have a problem? I can send an email to the public, and see if someone will send me a solution. It's an effective way to go oftentimes. Of course, the process depends on the willingness of the participants to take the time and help other people. But that's the joy of it--the give and take! I get a tremendous amount of satisfaction if I help someone else out of a jam. And I in turn, have been similarly helped numerous times by others. There's a big pool of knowledge out there! Occasionally, the news group has helped me find out about a user group I'd lost track of. I'm on the East Coast, and I wanted to know what how the Los Angeles MVS Users Group was doing? After one or two request emails to the news group, I got several replies with phone numbers and addresses of relevant people. Anything related to improving our ability to do our jobs, is fair game for discussion. The talk can get quite peripheral, but most often, it's very specific and to the point. Once in a while, we can also poke fun at a certain vendor's annoying practices. Besides the laugh we get from the "inside jokes", we can glean practical advice about how to circumvent that vendor's efforts, whatever they might be. GETTING ADDICTED Once you've gotten yourself accustomed to listening to other people's problems, the benefits will start accruing. You'll be better informed about the MVS (OS/390) field in general. After all, you've been listening to the news! When your own shop gets new equipment, you'll have a "leg up" on how it works, and you can ask the group any questions you have about it; they'll tell you their war stories. You'll be aware of what your peers are interested in, and concerned about. You won't remain isolated in your own shop any more. Of course, your shop will benefit when you're better able to do your job. But you will benefit too. I have my 50-50, 100-100 rule. It goes like this: "When you do a task well, you split it 50-50 with your employer--both of you get benefit. They get the job done, and you get the experience. But it's really not a split, it's 100 percent for both. They get 100 percent of the job, and you get 100 percent of the experience. That's something that nobody can take away from you!" I like this rule, and I live by it. Talking on the news groups gets to be so much fun after a while, that I find I have to limit myself to a certain amount of time each day. Like any addiction, even a "good addiction" needs a limit. You too, can experience this fun, if you aren't doing it already. However, after you're addicted, you'll know that life with others is better than life by yourself. And it's practical also. Good luck. See you next month.