| The Issue |
Are you starting a major project that requires changes to a large application on the mainframe? Is the source code stored in a PDS on the mainframe? Are all the source members for the application stored in the same PDS? Does this include COBOL,
Assembler, Copy Files, JCL, PROCEDURES and some job control decks?
Are you looking for a quick way to analyze the members in the PDS to determine the member types and produce a summary report?
Yes, there is a relatively quick way to
identify what is stored in a PDS or other mainframe source code facilities. This capability is often referred to as member typing.
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| Requirements |
What is member typing and why is it important? Member typing is the process of storing a source member and then being able to determine its content without having to examine the member.
This is typically accomplished in the following ways.
1. How member is stored. Many of the source control management systems provide a capability of defining the type of member when it is being stored.
2. Where member is stored. Member types are stored into specifics directories or libraries base on the type of member.
3. Name of a member. Naming conventions are used to identify a member type. For example, on the PC the file extension is typically used for this purpose.
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| Source Member Typing |
Source member typing is often overlooked or receives a low priority in many programming shops. The importance of member typing is not often recognized until a change to an application is required.
Attempting to estimate the skills
required to implement a change and define the scope-of-effort required is very time consuming when the type and quantity of members that makeup an application are not known and/or are difficult to determine.
Some programming shops have attempted
to keep track of members by type but even these shops run an average error rate of fifteen percent. Other shops or programming groups do not even attempt to track member types and many shops have a variety of application source code that has not been
touched in years. Knowledge about these applications is minimal or non-existent.
The programming analysis tools and services required to do member typing of mainframe source code are available today. These tools would require downloading the
source members to a PC.
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