IBM Mainframe Forum

Don't get me wrong, I wasn't 'dissing' DFSORT in any way, in fact over the last few days I've been amazed at what it DOES do. Having spent the last 30 years or so on MVS, I'm ashamed to say that the most complicated thing I'd ever done with it (apart from sorting of course) was a SUM FIELDS=NONE and the occasional bit of splitting big files into multiple smaller ones

However my latest foray has had me using OPTIONS, complex INCLUDEs, INREC with multiple IFTHENs, OUTFIL, VTOF and SYMBOLS (don't know how long ago they were added, but they certainly make things a whole lot simpler and clearer to read). All in the same step.

So I'm actually very impressed. For a feature request for version 1.n, how about the ability to pick up a length field and use it in a comparison or move (like an EX assembler instruction)?

Or Reference Modification in COBOL. . .

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