Submitted by pcs305 on Wed, 2006-10-11 12:40
For most of us in the CICS community Ian Mitchell needs no
introduction. But I will go ahead and introduce him anyway. Ian has
been working at IBM Hursley on CICS since 1987 and is currently a
Senior Architect on CICS Transaction Server for z/OS. Obviously he is
a man with his finger on CICS's pulse.
I approached Ian and asked him if he would be interested in taking
part in an interview with the CICS community and he graciously agreed.
Here is our chance to ask Ian any questions related to CICS! (You can
try asking Rugby, Cricket or Football (soccer) questions but they may
go unanswered).
Obviously all questions cannot be answered and some information cannot
be divulged. Also due to Ian's busy work schedule we will have to
limit the amount of questions and give him ample time to submit his
answers back to the community.
Seeing that this is a community interview, the community will have to
formulate the questions and decide on the 5 most popular questions to
submit. (Ian may or may not answer more questions if possible.)
Too submit a question, click on "add new comment" at the bottom of this post.
Or page down to read through posted questions and rate them by selecting a star under the heading "Rate this comment". The stars are from 0 (do not agree) to the 4th star (Completely Agree).
Couple of notes here:
1) The idea is to vote or rate the questions you like high, not to
shoot down questions you don't like, so vote only for the ones you
like and leave the others be.
2) To be able to post a question you do not have to register on the
site. (This may change in the near future because of the amount of
spam posts that keeps on popping up)
3) To rate a question/post you have to register and verify your
Userid after receiving a confirmation email. You will still be able to
comment without registering though.
4) Keep in mind that other people can see how you rate a post.
Have fun!
Thu, 2006-10-12 07:31
#1
Overhead of STGPROT=YES
Would you please comment on the relative performance "hit" of STGPROT=YES in the CICS/TS z/OS product? I'm not talking about TRANISO, merely turning on STGPROT. Thanks
Thu, 2006-10-12 07:47
#2
Is CICS a choice for SOA?
All the articles I have read from IBM about SOA never mention CICS. I am trying to be a good CICS Sysprog, but have a tough time defending CICS when all the IBM articles mention only your WebSphere product. If CICS is strategic for SOA, are there any articles I can reference?
Thu, 2006-10-12 10:36
#3
Detecting a CICS region
From what I can determine, the accepted method of detecting whether a routine is exectuing in a CICS region is:
L R15,PSATOLD-PSA(,0) MY TCB
USING TCB,R15
L R15,TCBEXT2 ITS EXTENSION
USING TCBXTNT2,R15
ICM R15,15,TCBCAUF MY SUBSYSTEM FACILITY CONTROL BLOCK
BZ NOTCICS BIF ZERO FOR NOT CICS
USING SFCB,R15 SUBSYSTEM FACILITY CONTROL BLOCK
CLC =CL4'AFCX',SFCBID CICS'S SFCB ID?
BNE NOTCICS BIF NOT CICS
ITSCICS EQU *
This code now gives a false positive if EXCI has been invoked in the region. Is there a sanctioned or, at least, documented technique for conclusively determining if a routine is executing in a CICS region that will continue to work for some time into the future?
Fri, 2006-10-13 12:22
#4
HostBridge vs CICS TS 3.1
I work in a shop that is currently trying to make a decision between bringing in a product called HostBridge or using CICS TS 3.1 to web enable our 3270 legacy applications. Is it possible that you could comment/compare/contrast HostBridge vs CICS TS 3.1. I am leaning toward recommending HostBridge but I was trying to get another opinion. My company doesn't have any time really for making changes to our mainframe applications. We use Commarea and BMS mapping. We need the ability to handle such things as being able to change passwords over on the Distributed Side driving CESN under the covers, driving an automatic signon process, driving an automatic signoff process, and leaving our AOR's alone and coming in through a WOR (Web Owning Region) to commuincate with our AOR's via MRO as we do today. We use TERMID's heavily to drive Temp Storage Queue Processing so we need to make sure that the EIBTRMID is established during signon processing and is maintained throughout a person's session coming in from the Web until signoff occurs. Thanks.
Tue, 2006-10-17 23:29
#5
Web scripting language for CICS
Hi Ian,
Part 1 : Some news became available lately and was discussed on this website about a PHP plugin for CICS. I am ware of at least one vendor with a JavaScript engine in CICS. IBM has made an attempt to script with Rexx in CICS. What do you think the value for a web scripting engine in CICS would be. If this facility would make CICS better do you think IBM would invest in helping a real scripting engine like PHP of JavaScript become part of the base of CICS?
Part 2 : What in the world in the plan with the Rexx support in CICS?
Thu, 2006-10-19 03:45
#6
TSQueue 32KB Limit
Since CTS 3.1 the 32K limit is gone. When will Hursley do the same
for TS-Queues and of course for EXCI request via DfhCommarea?
Regards Roland
Thu, 2006-10-19 03:48
#7
64bit when and what
When will CTS use 64bit and for what. I suggest to move TSMAIN buffer above the bar. Regards Roland
Thu, 2006-10-19 04:02
#8
Detecting a CICS region
Hi Gary,
look at the CICS-L posting.
http://listserv.uga.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0202&L=cics-l&F=&S=&P=8000
Regards Roland
Thu, 2006-10-19 09:56
#9
Detecting a CICS Region
For some reason the link Roland posted is not resolving. Here it is though.
ListServ Link
Ian
Tue, 2006-10-24 08:47
#10
Completion of ThreadSafe
The way I look at it is - CICS non-thread safe code is such because the lab did not yet completed to adapt all CICS API to be thread safe.
Every release a bit of API is passing on to the safe side, looks like a limited budget issue.
Thread-Safe - its a concept (taxonomy, ontology) created by Hursley lab - lectures, red-books, etc..
But with required effort by Hursley - you can thread-safe all of your CICS API much sooner, and make a long story - dissapear. No one has to look at our beloved CICS API and be told it's not ....
BTW - I appreciate very much the TCB leverage and architecture where thread-safe is working, but lets get over with the non-safe API.
Stay safe and well, Shmuel
Tue, 2006-10-24 10:15
#11
Global tranclass?
CICS enhancements over the years have brought us shared temp storage and global enqueues - what about the possibility of a "global tranclass"? Or is there this type of function in CPSM that I'm not aware of (not currently using CPSM)? Thanks, Scott Trost
Tue, 2006-10-24 16:28
#12
SOA/CICS Articles
Here are some places to get articles:
Mainframer News at www.leafe.us or www.lbsoftware.biz.
Look at the current edition and the last few editions as far back as middle of 2005.
Tue, 2006-10-24 16:36
#13
When will CEDF support COBOL Local-Storage
Ian,
I have been working with Margret Fisher on several DOC problems, but the one technical issue that isn't documented, but is really a software problem is CICS TS V3 seeming (almost) totally unaware of Enterprise COBOL Local-Storage and RECURSIVE program attributes. Do you know when/if
1) CEDF will be able to handle COBOL Local-Storage (Is this even in the "plans - subject to change" list?
2) The current documentation doesn't tell how the CBLPSHPOP run-time options work with the "IS RECURSIVE" attribute. Do you know if this is even known - or supported?
Tue, 2006-10-31 15:39
#14
Detecting a CICS Region
If you are running on a current (1.8) z/OS system, IBM has provided an LE callable service to test whether you are running under CICS or not (and also for other iinformation)
See the CEE3INF callable service information at:
http://publibz.boulder.ibm.com/cgi-bin/bookmgr_OS390/BOOKS/ceea3170/2.2.5.9
Tue, 2008-09-16 00:36
#15
ASRA abend
How to resolve ASRA abend.
Fri, 2008-11-21 09:22
#16
Global TRANCLASS
It is an interesting query. Could you inform me about the reply?
My email is
Thanks a lot
Tue, 2011-03-01 06:28
#17
Re: Global tranclass?
It is an interesting query. Could you inform me about the reply?
My email is renzo.maltoni@csebo.it
Thanks a lot