TSO/ISPF Users' Workshop

Essential knowledge for anyone working in a z/OS computing environment. This hands-on course introduces the concepts and facilities of TSO and IBM's Interactive System Productivity Facility (ISPF). The course focuses particularly on TSO/ISPF's functions for data editing and dataset management.<br><br>Today almost all users of IBM's z/OS systems use TSO/ISPF to carry out their daily duties. Even today, a surprising number of TSO users have not had any formal training in using it, having 'picked it up' from other users, who probably learned how to use the product themselves many years ago. As a result it is highly likely that most users deploy features and use techniques that are not only just out of date but in many cases extremely inefficient. <br><br>All TSO users (new and established) will gain significantly from attending this course. It combines formal classroom teaching with a progressive series of challenging hands-on practical sessions.<br><br>This course is also available for one-company, on-site presentations and for live presentation over the Internet, via the Virtual Classroom Environment service.

Prerequisites

Attendees should be familiar with the mainframe computing environment and the concept of executing programs in such an environment.

• use basic TSO commands
• use ISPF
• browse and edit datasets
• customise ISPF edit profiles
• use advanced edit functions
• submit and manage batch jobs
• use the ISPF utilities such as allocate and copy
• use search facilities.

Introduction to TSO

What is TSO; main uses of TSO; using TSO; when the TSO screen fills; logging on to TSO; logging off.

Basic TSO Commands

SEND, LISTBC, LISTALC, HELP and PROFILE commands; command prompting; aborting a TSO command.

Introduction to ISPF

What is ISPF; the ISPF panels; the pull-down menus; the Primary Option Menu; changing ISPF settings, function settings and log/list defaults; identifying error messages, entering TSO commands from ISPF, exiting from ISPF.

Basic ISPF Utilities

Utility selection menu; library utility; dataset utility; move/copy utility; hardcopy utility; outlist utility.

ISPF Dataset List Utility

Dataset list; wildcard characters; dataset list and member list line commands; using a TSO command; SHOWCMD command; VTOC list and information; freeing unused space; repeating commands.

Browsing Datasets in ISPF

Dataset naming rules and conventions; DASD dataset organisation; Partitioned Data Sets; Partitioned Data Set Extended; specifying dataset names, PDS member list panel and shortcuts; browsing the data; scrolling; FIND command; finding picture strings; the LOCATE command; splitting the screen.

Basic Edit via ISPF

The editing process; the edit entry panel; member or dataset edit panel; scrolling during edit; edit line commands; manipulating lines; ending an edit session.

The ISPF Edit Profile

Function of the Edit profile; displaying the Edit profile; profile options; creating new members; the insert and delete keys; CHANGE command; UNDO command; when you get locked up.

Advanced Edit with ISPF

Excluding and re-displaying lines; RESET command; switching between upper and lower case; column boundaries; text entry facilities; tab settings; manipulating data; submitting a batch job; nested edit sessions; saving data; cancelling an edit session.

SuperC and Search-For

SuperC utility; SuperCE utility; Search-For utility; Search-ForE utility.