KICKS

A transaction processing system for CMS & TSO

What's New? - 2010    

End of December 2010

• Posted KICKS 1.1.2

  What’s New?

  • GETMAIN/FREEMAIN api's for CICS compatible storage allocation
  • ENQ/DEQ api's for CICS compatible resource serialization.
  • minor enhancements to COBOL preprocessor.
    
    
• Moved web pages to KICKSFORTSO.COM domain.

End of November 2010

• KooKbooK recipes for GCCMVS usage & alternate screen size.
• Demonstrate DB2 access (in Z/OS) using the Murach DB2INQ1 transaction; wrote up as KooKbooK recipe.
• Numerous GCCMVS preprocessor fixes.

End of October 2010

• Posted KICKS 1.1.1

  What’s New?

  • Support for modern LE COBOL compilers on Z/OS.
    • Two new 'CB2' datasets - similar to the corresponding 'COB' datasets. These contain the sample and supplied programs in COBOL2 form. The CB2 'Murach' programs in particular are completely different from the COB versions: they are essentially straight out of the book.
    • Only usable on 'modern' systems obviously. Tested on Z/OS 1.6 (Cobol 3.3.1)
    • The Z/OS install procedure has also been substantially improved.
  • Command Level GCCMVS support.
    • The map generator proc KIKMG now generates GCC symbolic maps (by default into GCCCOPY as well as COBOL symbolic maps.
    • A GCCMVS proc (KIKGCCPP) is provided to preprocess GCCMVS programs (like KIKCOBPP does for COBOL programs).
    • GCCMVS programs may LINK or XCTL to other GCCMVS programs or to COBOL programs (including LE COBOL). And visa-versa.
    • KICKS does not include GCCMVS. It's a standard component of MVS380 but must be separately downloaded and installed on other systems.
  • A new SIT parameter, MAXDELAY (default 180 seconds) added to allow overriding the previously hardwired 3 minute maximum delay.
  • Changed install (TK3 & Z/OS) so that it is now by default all into one (userid) HLQ.

End of September 2010

• worked on LE, GCCMVS for 1.1.1
• minor 1.1.0 bug fixes being rolled up into 1.1.1. doc fixes/improvements being made to web as they happen...

End of August 2010

• Posted KICKS 1.1.0

  What’s New?

  • The User's Guide is migrated to the web.
  • KEDF, a debugging facility similar to CEDF in real CICS.
  • Sequential terminal - KICKS can now run in batch as well as TSO. In batch, 3270 input comes from the ‘card reader’, and 3270 output goes to the ‘line printer’ – so this feature is also called a CRLP terminal.
  • Many of the 'supplied' transactions (KSGM, KSSF, KSMT, KEDF, etc) now use larger screens when available (3270 mod 3, mod 4's). Alternate screen size support is not new, but its use by the supplied transactions is.
  • Printing and job submission is supported with the SPOOLOPEN, SPOOLWRITE, and SPOOLCLOSE protocol.
  • Extrapartition Transient Data (TD) input and output queues are supported, and a new table, the DCT, is provided to define those queues. 
  • Screen handling has been improved in several subtle but important ways. First, screens are rendered with 3270 sfe orders instead of with sa orders. This means KICKS maps almost always display exactly like they display in CICS. Second, KICKS now supports the “dataonly” option for SEND MAP, so complex applications that partially update and reread screens now look and work exactly like they do in CICS. Finally, SEND CONTROL has been implemented making porting existing programs between CICS and KICKS a little bit easier.
  • WRITE OPERATOR (including REPLY option) has been implemented.
  • The Cobol language preprocessor has a SYSLIB facility, providing a Cobol ‘COPY’ syntax more like modern Cobol compilers. The old ANSI COPY syntax is still available as well.
    
    
• Got KEDF Source Trace working (not for 1.1.0)

End of July 2010

• Almost done with V1R1M0 - need to learn not to promise stuff for summer-time delivery...
• Finished writing up "scripting lots of terminals" (aka 251 project) as KooKbooK recipes.

End of June 2010

• Finished KEDF
• Continued write up "scripting lots of terminals" (aka 251 project) as KooKbooK recipes.

End of May 2010

• First running  (but not very well yet) GCCMVS apps.
• Began write up of "scripting lots of terminals" (aka 251 project) as KooKbooK recipes.

End of April 2010

• Completed most of the api decodes for KEDF.
• Completed most of the api encodes for the GCCMVS preprocessor.
• Implemented a SYSLIB facility for the COBOL preprocessor, mostly to "fix" the MVT compiler's obnoxious COPY syntax...
• Upgraded development environment using the MVS380 tk3qstart. Minimal problems...
• Restarted effort to "fix" the hercules issues associated with scripting lots of terminals. Got over 250 terminals running a KICKS workload with sub-second response. Issues remain: (1) have to use linux to do it, blows up at about 65 with windows; and (2) still possible to crash hercules with misbehaving scripts (windows or linux - hercules should be tougher than that). Problem: have not been able to build windows version of hercules for testing...

End of March 2010

• Implemented SPOOLOPEN (etc) api allowing easy printing and job submission.
• Implemented extrapartition (type=indirect & type=extra) queues, new table (DCT) for them. Handy for logs, and another way to handle printing and job submission.
• Implemented CRLP ("card reader/line printer") terminal, so that KICKS can be run as a batch job as well as in TSO.
• Started work on GCCMVS preprocessor, will allow development of KICKS apps in C as well as COBOL.

End of January 2010

• Posted KICKS 1.0.0

  What’s New?

  • All distribution data sets now include VRM so a new release can be installed without concern about overlaying a prior installation.
  • The distribution methodology has changed from a hercules 3380 disk volume preloaded with KICKS and sample users files to an IEBCOPY format compressed AWS tape image.
  • An MVS based BMS map generator is included; the old PC based perl script is no longer distributed.
  • The COBOL preprocessor now provides limited VALUE X’nn’ support, for up to 4 byte PIC X items.
  • Most of the hard coded internal constants are now user definable in the System Initialization Table (SIT) and many of these can be overridden in the KICKS startup clist and can be changed on-the-fly using the new KSMT ‘master terminal’ transaction.
  • The transaction id for the ‘PLTPI’ startup transaction (run by KICKS before the first user transaction) and the ‘PLTSD’ shutdown transaction (run by KICKS after the last user transaction) can now be specified in the SIT. Default for PLTPI is KSGM, default for PLTSD is KXXX, both as in V0R9M0.
  • COBOL source (and BMS map source) is supplied for the startup transaction (KSGM), the shutdown transaction (KSSF), and the new master terminal transaction (KSMT).
  • The transaction dump now formats the Execution Interface Block (EIB) and has improved trace table formatting.
  • Transaction dumps can now be individual ‘spin off’ sysouts, available as soon as the dumps are complete instead of having to wait for you to shutdown KICKS. The output class is specified in the SIT DMPCLAS argument (default = sysout class A). You may alternately choose to leave them all in one output file if you choose.
  • The auxiliary trace output file is now, by default, opened but not active, so the auxiliary trace file is much less likely to fill up and crash KICKS. You can turn it on and off using the master terminal transaction (KSMT). Auxiliary trace can be made active on startup by modifying the TRCFLAGS argument of the SIT or a SIT override with the KICKS startup clist.
  • PDF’s for all KooKbooK recipes to date are included in the distribution zip and incorporated by reference in this User’s Guide.

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