Interactive System Productivity Facility

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ISPF ( ISPF ) is a surface for TSO on the IBM - mainframe under the operating system z / OS and its predecessors ( OS / 390 , MVS ).

ISPF consists of a dialog manager, the Program Development Facility (PDF) and the Software Configuration and Library Manager (SCLM).

The dialog manager enables you to develop your own interactive 3270 applications. The APIs can be used in programming languages ​​such as assembler , COBOL , PL / I , C as well as in script languages ​​( CLIST , REXX ).

The Development Facility program contains utilities for data center operation and tools for program development. The central function is the comfortable editor .

SCLM is part of ISPF and thus from z / OS and is a tool for source code management, build management and release automation. It also allows selective auditing and versioning of changes to application programs and build results.

The text editor integrated in the ISPF enables PS and PO datasets with record format F, FB, V and VB to be edited. The editor is operated using control commands, line commands and function keys. It is also possible to write your own macros . At execution time, these must be in the SYSEXEC or SYSPROC library or, as load modules, in the STEPLIB or LINKLIST. Additional products also enable VSAM datasets to be edited.

Part of the ISPF is a workstation client that runs on Windows , AIX , HP-UX , OS / 2 and Solaris . With this you can either edit host files with a workstation editor or, conversely, edit ASCII files in the workstation's file system with the ISPF editor. It is also possible to run any programs or scripts on the workstation using the ISPF command WS .

SPF (Structured Programming Facility), the predecessor of the ISPF, was developed in the 1970s and was able to prevail against numerous existing competing products, of which only the RPF is still important for users of the Hercules emulator .

Various manufacturers have tried to port the ISPF editor to other platforms. There was a version for MS-DOS that could process files that were larger than the available memory. CTC sells SPF / SE for Windows, while Uneclipse offers a version for Unix with SPF / UX .

literature

  • Franz Lanz: Using ISPF professionally - the practice-oriented instruction and manual for professional ISPF users . 2005. with CD-ROM, ISBN 978-3-486-57642-9

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