MURACH'S OS/390 AND Z/OS JCL (Murach: Training & Reference)

Clear and comprehensive with good examples and explanation.The paired pages format works well with general information about a topic on the left hand page and key points on the right.An excellent guide and reference.

Brilliant book. Used them in my IBM Mainframe days (when I was much younger) for developing JCL. It kicks ass! Paired pages are really useful. I still read it for nostalgia!

Muy buena opción para aprender el funcionamiento de JCL's de COBOL.

Excellent book very useful.

Aunque no esté de moda... si es cierto que conviene conocer esta tecnología porque

Hervorragendes Buch, an deutschsprachiger Literatur gibt es wohl nichts Vergleichbares zu diesem Thema.Der Typ kennt sich aus, Buch kann ich nur weiterempfehlen !

My job requires me to write scripts on Windows and Unix platforms. I have no problem writing Windows batch files or Unix shell scripts to copy or move files, change permissions, create and delete directories, write results to log files, etc.Recently, I was asked to write a mainframe script. I was told to write this script in Rexx. When I looked into Rexx, it was just another scripting language. It was not hard to understand how it worked. However, unlike Windows batch files or Unix shell scripts, there was more to writing a Rexx program than just knowing the Rexx language - I needed JCL to run it!! I had seen JCL before. I knew each job started with a JOB card and that it executed PROCs and PGMs. I also knew that I did not know nearly enough about JCL to write JCL to do what I wanted it to do. That's when I went to Amazon and found this book.Not only did this book confirm what little I did know and correct some misundertandings I had, it went far more deeply into JCL to describe how to use many features that I did not know existed. One of the best features of this book is that it provides some background information on how mainframes work and the naming conventions used. This information is useful when JCL coding is introduced because the reader has a better idea of what the JCL is used for and what it happening with the various statements. JCL coding is not even introduced until Chapter 4!!After the background information, this book then goes through the various aspects of JCL coding. The basics of what I needed to know to run my Rexx program were addressed as were many concepts that I can now put in my "bag of tricks" for future projects. I am sure most of our mainframe programmers do not know most of this material.This book is not limited to JCL. It also describes how to compile Cobol programs, how to copy, move, sort, delete and print datasets using common mainframe utilities. It even has a chapter on Unix System Services. Prior to reading these chapters, I had no idea how to copy a dataset to a new dataset on the mainframe using a batch program. For me, this was a trivial issue on a Windows or Unix platform. I now know how to do it on the mainframe. This book clearly explains the process. It also provides coding examples for all concepts described throughout the book.If you are new to computing, I don't think you want to start with the mainframe as the first platform you learn. However, if you have some computing background from working with Windows and Unix, then I highly recommend this book to get a solid foundation on how to run batch programs on the mainframe.In the past, I had to ask a coworker to help me when I needed to work with JCL. I purchased this book so that I could code some JCL for myself to run my Rexx program. Now, not only does my Rexx program execute flawlessly, I also have a thorough understanding of how to write mainframe batch programs for future projects. Who knows, maybe my coworkers will start coming to me with their complex JCL coding problems!!