Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!sdcsvax!ucbvax!cms.umrcc.ac.UK!WWCOMPS From: WWCOMPS@cms.umrcc.ac.UK (Mike Glendinning) Newsgroups: comp.lang.asm370 Subject: Formatting VSAM minidisks under VM Message-ID: <8801131522.AA07913@jade.berkeley.edu> Date: 13 Jan 88 14:08:25 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Reply-To: IBM 370 Assembly Programming Discussion List Distribution: inet Organization: The ARPA Internet Lines: 25 The reasons I don't like using the IPLable DSF for formatting VSAM minidisks under CMS are as follows: 1) It takes a L-O-N-G time to PUNCH the DSF cards to your reader and IPL them. We use the ICKDSF EXEC given in the DSF manual. Once DSF has been IPLed, you have to wakeup the DSF program with a console interrupt - but ONLY after it has finished IPLing. DSF gives no indication that it is expecting an interrupt. It just sits there. 2) Having to IPL the DSF program means that you destroy your current CMS environment, which has to be re-created when you finish DSF. These problems are compounded, since the user I have who uses VSAM is very short of disk space. This means he has to DEFINE temporary disks for VSAM, and re-format them each session. What would be nice is a little program (like FORMAT) that runs under CMS, but which formats VSAM disks! Surely this is not too much to ask? This is, after all, the 20th Century! Imagine if your favourite program was only available as an IPLable card deck??!!