On Fri, 10 Dec 2010 15:07:54 -0500, Tony Harminc <[email protected]> wrote:
>Well, actually, no - the books often enough do no such thing. The Data >Areas books often (but not always) have a section in front of a data >area that says "Programming Interface Information", but as often as >not it's empty. For example, here's the entire such information for >the very first data area in the book, the Abdump Exit Parameter List >(ABEP): > > >2.0 ABEP Programming Interface Information >------------------ Programming Interface Information ------------------- > > ABEP > > |--------------- End of Programming Interface Information ---------------| > > >So how do I interpret that? "There is no programming interface >whatsoever that involves this data area?" Or perhaps "Sorry - we >neglected to copy the PI data onto this page from the macro"? > You interpret it just as the information at the front of the book tells you to, Tony. For that book it's one page earlier than the example you showed, at http://publibz.boulder.ibm.com/cgi-bin/bookmgr_OS390/BOOKS/mvs12da1/FRONT_1?SHELF=EZ2ZBK0K&DT=20100920145502 for z/OS R12, in the section titled "Programming Interface Information". <quote> Unless otherwise specified, for data areas classified as programming interfaces, the MACRO ID and DSECT NAME(S) in the header are part of the programming interface. ALL other header information is included for diagnostic purposes ONLY. Since a data area name that is designated as part of the programming interface is one of the following: * MACRO ID * DSECT NAME * commonly-used name before including the data area name in a program, refer to the data area header for the applicable MACRO ID. If only certain fields in a data area are intended or not intended for use as a programming interface, the specific field name(s) are differentiated within the data area. </quote> Interpretation: For ABEP, everything is part of the programming interface. -- Walt Farrell IBM STSM, z/OS Security Design
