What things do I need to consider when converting JCL to PCL?

Products

• Alchemist

Issue/Introduction

JCL to PCL conversion

Environment

Release:
Component: ALCMST

Resolution

Refer to the PCL Guide for complete details on coding PCL, especially the appendix on "PCL and JCL Differences".

Here are a few things to consider in your conversion effort:

• DD statements will need to be individually reviewed, especially if symbolic substitution is involved. Correct use of the FORMAT parm is essential to obtain the desired results.
  
  
• Instream data in JCL can be coded as DD * or DD DATA (or concatenation of both) depending upon whether or not the instream data needs to be manipulated by PCL.
  
  
• ENDEXEC statements ensure that PCL is interpretted as you expect. The ENDEXEC statement terminates secondary commands from a previous EXEC command. (example?)
  
  
• Comments are not supported on PCL statements. Separate comment statements must be used.
  
  
• Most, but not all JCL statements or parameters are supported in PCL. Refer to the appendix for complete details.
  
  
• Consider whether or not the use of DDPARM is feasible. This can improve performance, but depends upon the program being invoked on the EXEC statement. A base DDPARM is provided in the PCL Guide (see EXEC statement) for IBM utilities starting with IEB/IEH. It is also included in several of the delivered PCL samples.
  
  
• Avoid using BLKSIZE=0. While use of this in JCL will indicate to SMS to allocate the most efficient block size based upon the LRECL, dynamic allocation does not always interpret this correctly. It is safest to explicitly code a value for BLKSIZE.

The above is not a complete list, but only some of the more common "gotchas". It is intended as a checklist only (tips and hints) with limited detail. Please refer to the Alchemist documentation for complete details.

This Frequently Asked Question applies to all supported releases of ESP Alchemist.