Computer Log

Successfully fixed Assembler Disk to Print program I had typed in week or so ago. Was having problems with DCB macro. More specifically line continuation. Almost asked for help in the MVS forum. Finally solved by editing in VS Code and realize my source alignment was off by using the visual guides. It was a simple program that read a PDS member and printed it out.

I mentioned before that one cool aspect of making a YouTube video to perhaps explain something to others is that I often find myself learning more on the topic than I knew. And once again after working on a video to explain how to create a MVS stand alone executable, I found myself digging in and learning more. I often start out thinking this will be good for me to look back on. Then after a lot of work recording [OBS Studio] and editing [Kdenlive and ffmpeg] I start to think, that was a lot of work, maybe it could help others.

So yesterday I spend a lot of time working on this video explaining how to create a MVS executable, my explanation also used PDS datasets extensively, I would copy files to them, edit files in them, without giving much information about them, I already knew about them, what more needs to be said? I usually just submit JCL from Linux to create them…then just use them. Then I realize that perhaps most people would be working mostly from the 3270/ISPF side of things. PDSs can be a little obscure to people not familiar with IBM mainframes. So that caused me to dig into how to use those 3270 screens, which I wasn’t really familiar with, to create a PDS. In doing so I learned through trial and error, that using a single quote [‘] in the dataset name can make a big difference! Oddly the trailing quote doesn’t appear to be required? If I define WHB.SOURCE.LIB with a leading quote I will get that dataset name. But if I define it without the leading quote I instead get userid.WHB.SOURCE.LIB so for example HERC01.WHB.SOURCE.LIB. Sometimes they seem downright required.

So creating this 15min video turned into an all day event. I now had to record a video explaining how to use the ISPF screens to create a PDS, then edit the video to insert that section near the beginning of the video, so someone could follow along without missing a beat. One time I recorded a section only to learn that I had unplugged the mike. I also learned that if I plug the mike in while OBS Studio was running, it wouldn’t recognize it. That may not be true in the future, but it is today on my computer with my OS version, using the OBS version I am using today! Then there was a time where I explained that the program I was working on was displaying all 32767 prime numbers, what I meant to say was that the program was designed to display a maximum of all the prime numbers between 1 and 32767. So I had to go back and create a screen overlay text clarifying that point. I say had to go back, actually most people, with human brains, probably knew what I meant. However if my reading YouTube comments in the past, taught me anything is that there is often someone just wanting to set you straight on something. Someone who doesn’t actually have any videos of their own, but who want’s to correct you in a non constructive way. Keyword…non constructive! I’m sure there is already plenty to set me straight about without being obvious. It can be a vary tedious process, and a few hours into working on the video you just get tired of hearing your own voice.

I can already anticipate some areas of complaint. Often the real reason IMHO is a little introduction of how truly advanced that person is. They in turn can get thumbs up from other advanced people. I’m using Linux Mint, a Noobs Linux Distribution. I should be using Arch or Linux from Scratch. I’m using VS Code from Micro$haft. I actually don’t use that term…but they often do. Real programmers use VI or Emacs! Or better yet toggle the ASCII bits onto the hard drive using a Hex editor!

Note: When I refer to ISPF I really mean ISPF like.