[HECnet] Humour value alternative to DCL - a port OS/390 ISPF to VMS :)

[Hans Vlems]

Ha! Every time felt like the beginning!


Van: Jordi Guillaumes i Pons
Verzonden: maandag 30 september 2013 09:15
Aan: hecnet at Update.UU.SE
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Onderwerp: Re: [HECnet] Humour value alternative to DCL - a port OS/390 ISPF to VMS :)



El 29/09/2013, a les 22:26, Hans Vlems <hvlems at zonnet.nl> va escriure:
It is good fun but those     panels kept me well away from IBM systems. AIX had something similar as an aid to system managers. I forgot its name but it was a blessing because the shell commands were beyond human comprehension...

Oh, it is not that bad. It's a little bit like the Necromongers conversion in Chronicles of Riddick: it hurts just at the beginning. :)





Van: Sampsa Laine
Verzonden: zondag 29 september 2013 20:36
Aan: hecnet at Update.UU.SE
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Onderwerp: [HECnet] Humour value alternative to DCL - a port OS/390 ISPF to VMS :)


Not sure how many of you guys know about the "simple" user interface that IBM developed for using TSO ("time sharing option", the interactive bit of MVS / OS/390 / z/OS) and it's called ISPF.

It's basically a set of screens that invoke TSO commands on behalf of the user (mostly to compile / link programs, which is insanely complex on IBM systems for some reason).

Anyway, I thought it might be amusing to write an ISPF clone and deploy it on CHIMPY - because I'm lazy I'm going to do it in Python (so it prob will never run on a VAX), but I'll let you guys know when it's finished.

Basically I think I'll just define a "Panel Language" that is used to describe the menu and what DCL command to run if that option is chosen. If I feel particularly ambitious I might include 3270-like cursor key navigation of the panels as well :)

NOTE: This is not a serious endeavour, more of a "wouldn't it be funny if this looked like a mainframe" type idea..

Jordi Guillaumes i Pons
jg at jordi.guillaumes.name
HECnet: BITXOV::JGUILLAUMES