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Suggestions for developing a small application

PostPosted: Mon Sep 03, 2012 10:29 pm
by Viswanathchandru
Dear all,

I am Planning to develop a small application which will host a very small data of around 3 to 4 MB. And its not going to be used for a long time. Yes, Iam aware about the fact that Rexx is a bad choice for application development and i'm also aware i can make this possible either through COBOL associated with DB2 or VSAM. But, I don't have DB2 installed in the system. So, I have planned to write code with rexx language since it handles a very small data (3MB). Now, I'm confused whether to use a flat file for the data storage or to use the TLIB's for storing the data similar to DB2. If TLIB is the best option please let me know any links that could educate me. The flow of the application should have to be query based with any of the 3 columns as the key/filter for the query. Apart from that general operations like Adding a record, deleting, displaying entire record/offloading it to a flat file. I would need your suggestions on this. Please let me know if i need to give more information on this.


Regards,
Viswa

Re: Suggestions for developing a small application

PostPosted: Mon Sep 03, 2012 10:36 pm
by enrico-sorichetti
Apologize if i or my thoughts are wrong!


we cannot tell anything about Your thoughts,
because Your explanation was/is pretty confusing

here are the links to the IBM bookshelves for
REXX
http://publibz.boulder.ibm.com/cgi-bin/ ... s/ikj4bkc0
ISPF
http://publibz.boulder.ibm.com/cgi-bin/ ... s/ispzpm90

old but pretty useful
http://publibz.boulder.ibm.com/cgi-bin/ ... 0613095341
and
http://publibz.boulder.ibm.com/cgi-bin/ ... 1028105440

Re: Suggestions for developing a small application

PostPosted: Mon Sep 03, 2012 10:38 pm
by NicC
What is TLIB? A quick Googl only showed up some version control software on the first page.

Re: Suggestions for developing a small application

PostPosted: Mon Sep 03, 2012 10:44 pm
by enrico-sorichetti
I guess that the TS refers to an ISPF table as in ISPTLIB

Re: Suggestions for developing a small application

PostPosted: Tue Sep 04, 2012 1:10 am
by Viswanathchandru
Hello Enrico, Thanks a lot for addressing the post and apologize for not being clear. I need to develop an application which is similar to eg: an employee database(not of a big record hardly a record of 3 MB size). I believe using COBOL is the best way but i don't have DB2 installed in my shop. So, I chose to do it with Rexx. So, for input i have two options. 1. Either to have the records in a flat file and then with program either to browse/edit/display i can do. 2. Using ISPTLIB i believe i can save data information similar to that of DB2 and then retrieve it. So, I just want to make sure whether it is possible through ISPTLIB. Thanks for the manuals I'm getting some ideas through those.


Regards,
Viswa

Re: Suggestions for developing a small application

PostPosted: Tue Sep 04, 2012 1:28 am
by enrico-sorichetti
You just reworded the initial question!

do You have a doctor' s prescription to develop such application ?

wiser to review Your grasp of the terminology,
the proper term is ISPF tables, ISPTLIB is just the DDNAME allocated to the dataset containing the tables

do You realize that ISPF tables are not the same thing as a DB2 table
and are not industrial strength for a true application?

if one of the tables used by ISPF and ISPF base software gets damaged is not a great data loss
at most You will have to set again Your <preferences> and friends

anyway the last two links contain some sample applications

Re: Suggestions for developing a small application

PostPosted: Tue Sep 04, 2012 2:27 am
by NicC
Just because you do not have access to DB2 does not mean that you cannot use DB2. Both methods that you are considering for your Rexx program are available to COBOL plus VSAM (which is not available to Rexx without 'plug-ins').

Re: Suggestions for developing a small application

PostPosted: Tue Sep 04, 2012 11:25 am
by Viswanathchandru
Hello NicC,

Thanks for your post!

I have not heard about using ISPF tables for COBOL programs :( . Could you please share some link/manuals that could help me to sort this out. Thanks!


Regards,
Viswa

Re: Suggestions for developing a small application

PostPosted: Tue Sep 04, 2012 11:55 am
by NicC
COBOL is IBM. ISPF is IBM. Where are the IBM manuals?

Re: Suggestions for developing a small application

PostPosted: Tue Sep 04, 2012 1:42 pm
by enrico-sorichetti
the manuals I posted ( the links ) contain all You might want to know about writing ISPF dialogs using ...
CLIST
REXX
PL/I
COBOL
ASSEMBLER
C

P.S.
ok that on this forum everyng goes, but don' t the moderators think that there should be a limit

this topic is just going down the sink, ok to help people, but this looks really like wasting time :evil: