The SimoCARD Series Eighty Byte Card Image Files http://www.simotime.com

On the mainframe it is a common practice to read a sequential file of eighty (80) byte records to obtain information or specifications that will affect the behavior of program execution. The eighty (80) byte records are a carry-over from the days when eighty-column cards were used. Even today these files are referred to as card files. The technique for accessing these files varies and this suite of utility programs with examples will describe a few of the possible techniques.

In addition, when an application is moved between an EBCDIC-encoded Mainframe platform and a Linux, UNIX or Windows (LUW) platform with Micro Focus it may continue to run in an EBCDIC-encoded environment or be converted to run in an ASCII-encoded environment. Furthermore, the file format may continue to be eighty (80) byte, fixed record length, record sequential files (also referred to as RSEQ) or the files may be converted to ASCII/Text files (also referred to as Line Sequential or LSEQ). Adding to all this confusion the files may be stored as data files, members in a PDS or instream data in a JCL or PROC member. This introduces a new set of challenges.

It is important to understand the details of what these individual programs do and how they work as singular entities. However, It is more important to understand the impact of the various files formats and their encoding schema of choice when integrated into the full application environment.

This suite of programs and documentation describes the techniques for simplifying this process by using utility programs, callable I/O modules and a callable conversion routine. The I/O modules provide for read and write access of both record and line sequential files The conversion routine will convert 80-byte text strings between EBCDIC-encoding and ASCII-encoding. This process is greatly simplified when using Micro Focus on the LUW platforms.

The suite of programs uses Micro Focus COBOL and Windows Command files. The programs are unit tested with Micro Focus Net Express, version 5.1. The COBOL source code is included with the software package and may be compiled and executed on other versions of Micro Focus COBOL running on LUW platforms. The full program or system testing is done on a Windows/XP system using Micro Focus Studio, Enterprise Edition. Many of the programs are deployed on various LUW platforms using Micro Focus Server, Enterprise Edition.

This section describes the Windows command files that are used to set the environment and execute the utility programs.

The following command files are used to create test data files.

This section describes the callable routines that are used to process files that contain records with eighty characters of information.

This section provides technical detail about the supporting scripts and programs used or called by the primary jobs.

A command file (ezSetEnv.CMD located in the sub-directory named ProdLibA) is called from other command files to set commonly used environment variables. This provides a single point of definition. The following is a listing of the contents of the command file.

rem  * *******************************************************************
rem  * Set the commonly used environment variables. This is used to
rem  * provide a single point for managing the commonly used environment
rem  * variables.
rem  *
     set BaseLib1=c:\SimoSAM1
rem  *
rem  * The following two (2) statements are required when Hyperlinking from
rem  * an Excel Spreadsheet.
     c:
     cd %BaseLib1%\ProdLibA
rem  *
     set SYSOUT=%BaseLib1%\LOGS\SYSOUT_USER.TXT
     set SYSLOG=%BaseLib1%\LOGS\SYSLOG_USER.TXT
     set SimoNOTE=%BaseLib1%\LOGS\SIMONOTE_USER.TXT
     set DataLib1=%BaseLib1%\DataLibA
     call SimoNOTE "*"
if   "%1" == "" goto :NoHeader
     call SimoNOTE "**********************************************ezSetEnv/%1"
:NoHeader
rem  *
     set LRSTOKEN=%DataLib1%\Txt1\LRSTOKEN.TXT
     set CobCpy=%BaseLib1%\CobCpy1;c:\SimoLIBR
rem  *
rem  set MAINFRAME_FLOATING_POINT=true
rem  *
rem  * set MFTRACE_CONFIG=%BaseLib1%\LOGS\TRACE001\ctfrtsfs.cfg
rem  * set MFTRACE_LOGS=%BaseLib1%\LOGS\TRACE001
rem  *
rem  * The following SORTSPACE of 1 gigabyte is used when sorting very
rem  * large files. The value is the digit one (1) followed by nine (9)
rem  * zeroes. To allocate this amount of memory for sorting requires a
rem  * minimum of two (2) gigabytes of RAM.
rem  set SORTSPACE=1000000000
rem  *
rem  * For large file support and record locking control of File Handler
     set EXTFH=%BaseLib1%\SysLibA1\EXTFH4AE.CFG
rem  * Set environment for MFBSI (Micro Focus Batch Scheduling Interface)
     set ES_EMP_EXIT_1=mfbsiemx
     set MFBSI_DIR=%BaseLib1%\BSIA\%ezServerName%
     set MFBSIEOP_CMD=ENABLE
     set MFBSIEOP_CSV=ENABLE
     set MFBSIEOP_HTM=ENABLE
     set MFBSIEOP_XML=ENABLE
rem  *
rem  * The following is used to map the location of files that are to be
rem  * allocated using JCL with ES/MTO.
     set ES_ALLOC_OVERRIDE=%BaseLib1%\SysLibA1\CatMapA1.cfg
rem  *
rem  * Set the environment for Core Dump on System error, CBLCORE file
rem  set COBCONFIG_=%BaseLib1%\SysLibA1\Diagnose.CFG
     set COBCONFIG_=
rem  *
rem  * The following may need to be adjusted based on individual systems
rem  * and the various versions of the Operating System, Sub-Systems and
rem  * other software.
     if "%ezSetEnv%" == "Y" goto :NOPATH
     set iexplore=C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer
     set path="C:\Program Files\Micro Focus\Net Express 5.1\Base\";"C:\Program Files\Micro Focus\Net Express 5.1\Base\bin";%BaseLib1%\ProdLibA;%BaseLib1%\ProdLibA\UTIL;%PATH%;
rem  set path="C:\Program Files\Micro Focus\Server 5.0\Base\";"C:\Program Files\Micro Focus\Server 5.0\Base\bin";%PATH%;
:NOPATH
     set cobpath=%BaseLib1%\ProdLibA;%BaseLib1%\ProdLibA\UTIL;c:\SimoLIBR
     set JobStatus=0000
     set StepStatus=0000
     set ezSetEnv=Y
     call SimoNOTE "* BaseLib1 is %BaseLib1%"

The following (SimoNOTE.CMD) is a listing of the contents of the SimoNOTE.CMD command file.

@echo OFF
rem  * *******************************************************************
rem  *                   This program is provided by:                    *
rem  *                    SimoTime Enterprises, LLC                      *
rem  *           (C) Copyright 1987-2010 All Rights Reserved             *
rem  *             Web Site URL:   http://www.simotime.com               *
rem  *                   e-mail:   helpdesk@simotime.com                 *
rem  * *******************************************************************
rem  *
rem  * Text    - Display message on screen and write to a log file.
rem  * Author  - SimoTime Enterprises
rem  *
rem  * This script may be called from other scripts and expects a
rem  * single parameter enclosed in double quotes. The double quotes
rem  * will be removed. Before writing to the log file a date and time
rem  * stamp will be inserted in front of the message text.
rem  *
rem  * Note: The tilde (~) removes leading/trailing double-quotes.
rem  *
if "%SimoNOTE%" == "" set SimoNOTE=c:\SimoLIBR\LOGS\SimoTime.LOG
echo %date% %time% %~1>> %SimoNOTE%
echo %~1

The purpose of this document is to provide information about the possible challenges of managing card image data when moving an application between a Mainframe System and a Linux, UNIX or Windows System running Micro Focus.

Permission to use, copy, modify and distribute this software for any commercial purpose requires a fee to be paid to Simotime Enterprises. Once the fee is received by SimoTime the latest version of the software will be delivered and a license will be granted for use within an enterprise, provided the SimoTime copyright notice appear on all copies of the software. The SimoTime name or Logo may not be used in any advertising or publicity pertaining to the use of the software without the written permission of SimoTime Enterprises.

Permission to use, copy, modify and distribute this software for a non-commercial purpose and without fee is hereby granted, provided the SimoTime copyright notice appear on all copies of the software. The SimoTime name or Logo may not be used in any advertising or publicity pertaining to the use of the software without the written permission of SimoTime Enterprises.

SimoTime Enterprises makes no warranty or representations about the suitability of the software for any purpose. It is provided "AS IS" without any express or implied warranty, including the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. SimoTime Enterprises shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, special or consequential damages resulting from the loss of use, data or projects, whether in an action of contract or tort, arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of this software.

You may view the complete list of SimoTime callable Modules or Driver Programs at http://www.simotime.com/simomods.htm.

This item will provide a link to  an ASCII or EBCDIC translation table. A column for decimal, hexadecimal and binary is also included.

This document provides a quick summary of the  File Status Key  for VSAM data sets and QSAM files.

To review all the information available on this site start at  The SimoTime Home Page .

Check out  The SimoTime Glossary  for a list of terms and definitions used in the documents provided by SimoTime.

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