KICKS

A transaction processing system for TSO

End of December 2009

Implemented KSMT (master terminal) transaction
Implemented major improvements to transaction dump including trace table "translation"
Implemented parallel xmit and iebcopy distribution/update packaging
Tested KICKS in z/OS.
Revamped these web pages, including live kicks sessions.

End of November 2009

Posted V0R9M2 (bug fixes, trial of IEBCOPY distro for V1R0M0) to Yahoo forum,
Continued weekly KooKbooK recipes with articles on LINK/XCTL, AICA abends, and BLL cells.
Implemented "SIT" overrides.

End of October 2009

Posted preview of MVS version of mapgen to Yahoo forum..
Continued testing examples against real CICS.
Initiated weekly KICKS KooKbooK recipes, posted articles on bms mappnig and cobol programming.
Implemented "spin off" of transaction dump sysouts.
Decided to postpone development environment upgrade.

End of September 2009

Not much feedback on V0R9M0 so assuming it's relatively good.
Almost finished MVS version of mapgen, expect to post in a few days.
Began work comparing KICKS examples to same pgms in real CICS. So far still getting them compiled, need to finish that, setup testing scripts and compare results.

End of August 2009

End of July 2009

End of June 2009

Testing is going well. In addition to the file control issues I expected to find I'm also finding bugs elsewhere in the code. For example I recently had to spend a couple days tracking down what turned out to be a bug in RECEIVE MAP, where the field length was being returned in the following field's length. I thought that code was "good" 6 months ago. Oh Well...

End of May 2009

Vsam file support (including file sharing) is finally "working" but my testing to this point has been superficial, and this is complex enough it will definitely need some real testing. So "working" doesn't mean "done".
Got involved in an interesting thread on the tur(n)key forum and demonstrated the possibility of connecting thousands of tn3270 sessions to hercules.

End of April 2009

Still plugging away on vsam file support. Obviously I really underestimated this task...
Obtained cobol manuals via interlibrary loan. Bound, can't scan. And less useful than I hoped.
With CBT posting of SPLA stuff (http://www.cbttape.org/spla.htm) the CICS share tape appeared.

End of March 2009

Added page describing how to set up the Tur(n)key for lots of 3270's.
Finished converting the Cobol pre-processor from Perl to C.
Wrote several Perl scripts to partially automate conversion of programs written in Cobol2 (aka Cobol 85) to run with the Tur(n)key ANSI Cobol. Lots of issues - "while", "inspect", implied length, "set", hex values, ... This will never be a complete conversion (with my tools anyway) but at least it relieves much of the manual effort involved.
Fixed a bunch of pre-processor issues surfaced by another "example" application system one of you sent me.
Dealt with a variety of issues related to HANDLE CONDITION - mostly trying to align KICKS abend, RESP, and RESP2 returns with what real CICS returns. Also added IGNORE CONDITION and NOHANDLE.
Installed and worked with OpenCobol a bit (on the PC) to help convert some application data. Pretty nice. May tack porting it to GCCMVS on the end of my KICKS project (assuming I ever get to the end of it) - would certainly help with running more modern COBOL programs on the Tur(n)key.
Color KSGM screen.

End of February 2009

Added support for HANDLE AID and HANDLE CONDITION.
Wrote several Perl scripts to automate conversion of programs written for the VS Cobol compiler ( programs with COPY and Librarian includes ) to the Tur(n)key ANSI Cobol. Somewhat problematic due to the way ANSI Cobol does COPY's.
Started converting Cobol pre-processor from Perl to C so it can deploy on MVS as well as on the PC.
Posted progress and messaged the general tur(n)key forum.

End of January 2009