Glossary
| Term | Description |
| ABEND | This abbreviated term is short for ABnormally END. It is used to describe the situation where a program encounters an unexpected condition or system failure that cannot be handled by the program logic. The program terminates execution with an error message. |
| ASCII | Pronounced “Ask-Kee” – American Standard Code for Information Interchange is an ANSI standard seven-bit code that was proposed in 1963 and finalized in 1968. The standard ASCII character set consists of 128 decimal numbers ranging from zero through 127 assigned to letters, numbers, punctuation marks, and the most common special characters. The Extended ASCII Character Set also consists of 128 decimal numbers and ranges from 128 through 255 representing additional special characters. The ASCII encoding scheme (or some variation) is used on most computer systems. Two of the exceptions are the IBM Mainframes and AS/400. For additional information refer to EBCDIC. For a table of ASCII and EBCDIC values refer to the following URL. http://www.simotime.com/asc2ebc1.htm. |
| BINARY | A numeric encoding scheme used on a mainframe. The mainframe is a half-word, full-word and double-word centric system. Binary fields are 2, 4 or 8 bytes. For example, the number 10 would normally be stored in memory as x’F1F0′. If the number 10 is defined as BINARY (or COMP for COMPUTATIONAL) it will be stored in memory as x’000A’ or 0000 0000 0000 1010. Refer to COMP in this glossary or http://www.simotime.com/databn01.htm for more information. |
| BSAM | Basic Sequential Access Method – The simplest data set on an IBM mainframe. A sequential file access method for reading, writing and updating sequential data sets and partitioned data set members. For additional information refer to the QSAM definition in this glossary or http://www.simotime.com/indexsam.htm |
| COBOL | COmmon Business Oriented Language. In 1959 the United States Department of Defense started an effort to develop a business language that met their requirements. Starting in 1960 the first COBOL compilers were introduced and usage increased through 1967. In 1968 the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) sets the first official COBOL standard – COBOL/68. In 1970 the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) makes ANSI’s COBOL/68 an international standard. In 1974 the COBOL/74 standard was introduced. In 1985 the COBOL/85 standard was introduced. In 1989 Intrinsic functions were added to the standard. In 2002 the COBOL/2002 standard that included object orientation was introduced. For more information of COBOL usage and programming examples refer to http://www.simotime.com/indexcbl.htm . |
| COMP | (or Computational) Computers perform arithmetic computations most efficiently using native binary numbers. Also, it is usually more efficient to store numeric values in their native binary format rather than to store them in human readable base ten format. If the number is stored in its native binary format it can be input from a file and used directly. If it is stored in a base ten format it will need to be converted to a binary format before performing arithmetic computations. It will then be necessary to convert it back to base ten for storage to a file(most COBOL compilers will generate the code to do this conversion based on the field definitions so it is not necessary for the programmer to explicitly write code to do format conversion). Refer to BINARY in this glossary or http://www.simotime.com/databn01.htm for more information. |
| COMP-3 | This is also referred to as PACKED-DECIMAL or COMPUTATIONAL-3. A numeric encoding scheme used on a mainframe where each byte contains two digits with the exception of the sign byte that contains one digit and the sign. Refer to PACKED in this glossary or http://www.simotime.com/datapk01.htm for more information. |
| EBCDIC | Pronounced “Ebb-See-Dick” – Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code. The EBCDIC character encoding set is used by IBM mainframes. Most other computer systems use a variant of ASCII, IBM mainframes and midrange systems such as the AS/400 use EBCDIC and were designed for ease of use or back level compatibility with punched cards. For additional information refer to ASCII. For a table of ASCII and EBCDIC values refer to the following URL. http://www.simotime.com/asc2ebc1.htm. |
| FTP | File Transfer Protocol – A standard Internet protocol that is the common methodology used to exchange files between computers on the Internet. For additional detail about FTP commands refer to the following URL. http://www.simotime.com/ftp4cmd1.htm |
| GDG | Generation Data Group is a group of related files that can be referenced individually or as a group. The files within a GDG are assigned names derived from the name of the GDG base. The individual files within a group have a generation number added to the end of the name to make each file name uique. For example, if the GDG base is called PROD.WORKFILE.TEMP then the first file created within the GDG will be given the name PROD.WORKFILE.TEMP.G0001V00. Subsequent files are then named by incrementing the generation number resulting in filenames ending in G0002V00 through G9999V00. Once the G9999V00 is reached the numbering will start again from G0001V00. The two zeroes on the end of the name are used to represent a volume number that is used when the file is stored on media requiring the use of multiple volumes. For more information describing GDG usage with programming examples refer to http://www.simotime.com/gdgone01.htm. |
| HLASM | High Level ASseMbler or HLASM is the assembler language that is currently available for an IBM Mainframe. For more information of High Level Assembler (HLASM) usage and programming examples refer to http://www.simotime.com/indexasm.htm . |
| IDCAMS | IDC Access Method Services. The “IDC” is the IBM product code for VSAM. This utility is used to manage VSAM data sets. The REPRO function is commonly used to copy data from or to a VSAM Data Set. |
| IEFBR14 | This is a utility program that does very little. It sets the return code to zero and returns to the caller. Its purpose is to provide a program that can be specified on the EXEC statement within a JCL member. The subsequent DD statements that are associated with the EXEC statement (i.e. job step) will then be processed. For more information refer to the following URL. http://www.simotime.com/asmtrixs.htm#VerySmallProgram |
| ISAM | Indexed Sequential Access Method – This was originally a method of creating and accessing indexed files that allowed record storage and retrieval by a key value within each record. The term has become generic and is commonly used to refer to any method of storing and retrieving keyed or indexed records. |
| ISPF | ISPF (Interactive System Productivity Facility) is the user interface and supporting programs that come with IBM’s Mainframe ZOS operating system and allows a company to configure and manage its system, add new system or application programs and test them, and access system files (data sets). ISPF includes the Dialog Manager (DM), the Program Development Facility (PDF), and the Software Configuration and Library Management (SCLM) facility. |
| JCL | Job Control Language – is a means of communicating (a scripting language) with the IBM MVS (OS/390 or z/OS) Operating System by defining and submitting a job using a set of JCL statements. For more information describing JCL usage with programming examples refer to http://www.simotime.com/indexjcl.htm. |
| JES | Job Entry System – is a subsystem of an MVS (OS/390 or z/OS) mainframe operating system that accepts jobs (units of work) into the system and processes all output data produced by the jobs. Each job is defined by a user and executed according to the rules (or configuration) established by the system administrators. This includes the priority given to the job and the allocation of resources needed to perform the job. JCL (or Job Control Language) is usually used to define and run batch jobs. For additional information refer to the JCL definition in this glossary. |
| KSDS | Keyed Sequential Data Set – This is a type of VSAM (Virtual Sequential Access Method) data set. Records are in collating sequence by a key field and alternate indexes are allowed. Note: If the key field is alpha-numeric the collating sequence will be different between the EBCDIC-encoded and ASCII-encoded environments. For additional information refer to VSAM definition in this glossary or http://www.simotime.com/indexsam.htm . |
| MFA | MainFrame Access – This technology is provided by Micro Focus and has a client and a mainframe server component. It has the capability of transferring source code, sequential files and VSAM data sets between a Mainframe (running MVS, OS/390 or ZOS) and a WinTel environment. |
| PACKED | This is also referred to as PACKED-DECIMAL or COMPUTATIONAL-3 or COMP-3. A numeric encoding scheme used on a mainframe. For example, an unsigned number of 12345 would be stored in memory on the mainframe system as x’F1F2F3F4F5′ (EBCDIC-encoded, zoned-decimal format). If the same number was defined as PACKED (or COMP-3) it would be stored in memory as x’12345F’. In this example the packing of the number reduces the size from five (5) bytes to three (3) bytes. The low-order nibble of the low-order byte is used as the sign. If an arithmetic operation is attempted on a field defined as COMP-3 and the field contains non-numeric characters then a data exception error (S0C7) will ABEND the attempt . Refer to COMP-3 in this glossary or http://www.simotime.com/datapk01.htm for more information. |
| PDS | Partitioned Data Set – A data set organization for holding records in groups called “members”. Typically used to store source members. May sometimes be referred to as a library. For additional information about managing PDS’s refer to the following URL http://www.simotime.com/utldat02.htm. |
| QSAM | Queued Sequential Access Method – A replacement or an extended version of the basic sequential access method (BSAM). With this method a queue is formed of input data blocks that are awaiting processing or of output data blocks that have been processed and are awaiting transfer to auxiliary storage or to an output device. This typically provides better performance because the application is not waiting for the physical reads or writes to and from the Input or Output devices. For additional information refer to the BSAM definition in this glossary or http://www.simotime.com/indexsam.htm |
| REXX | REstructured eXtended eXecutor ,REXX was initially created and implemented as an independent project by Mike Cowlishaw of IBM. The project started in 1979 and ran through 1982. It was origanally a scripting language for the IBM Mainframe. |
| S0C7 | An S0C7 is commonly referred to as a “Sock-Seven” error. This is a mainframe term used when a program check interrupt is caused by a non-numeric value in a numeric field that is defined as packed-decimal (i.e. “USAGE IS COMP-3″ for COBOL) or zoned-decimal (i.e. “USAGE IS DISPLAY” for COBOL). For the Micro Focus environment this would be error message 163 (non-numeric value in a numeric field) |
| SQL | Structured Query Language – A collection of commands used to create, access (i.e. update, query or delete) information within a relational data base. For an IBM mainframe this would be DB2. For Microsoft Windows this would be SQL Server or Access. Oracle is also a relational data base. For additional information about SQL refer to http://www.simotime.com/indexsql.htm |
| VSAM | Virtual Sequential Access Method – A data access method used with IBM Mainframes running MVS, OS/390, z/OS and VSE/ESA operating systems. VSAM has been in use for over 30 years. The original VSAM had a 4-gigabyte limit for the size of data sets. IBM has enhanced VSAM to support record-level sharing and file sizes larger than 4 gigabytes. The current architectural limit varies according to the size of the data control intervals (CI’s). For a 512-byte CI size, the maximum size is 2 terabytes; for a KSDS with a CI size of 32 kilobytes, the maximum size is 128 terabytes. For additional information about VSAM refer to http://www.simotime.com/indexsam.htm |
| WinTel | This term is used to refer to a system that is intel-based hardware running Microsoft Windows. |
| Zone Decimal | This is a type of numeric field that is used on an IBM Mainframe and with Micro Focus COBOL. For additional information refer to http://www.simotime.com/datazd01.htm for more inofmation. |