ISPF has had hot keys for many years – I have only just got round to using them.

At the top of ISPF screens there is usually an action bar. For example

   Menu  Utilities  Compilers  Options  Status  Help                       
 ────────────────────────────────────────────────────
                   ISPF Primary Option Menu                           
 Option ===>                                                                   

Where the actions are Menu, Utilities etc. The underlined letter is the hot key for the action.

To select Utilities, type U on the command line and press the “Actions” PF key. This will do the same as tabbing to the Utilities action bar item, and pressing enter. For me PF10 is set to Actions.

You can display your PF Key settings using the keys or pfshow command.

For people who like to use short cuts, have your command line at the top, and use the “home” key. This will get you to the command line. So you can do: home, U, PF10 and quickly get to the Utilities action bar item.

Who develops standard?

When the GUI standards came out I wondered why the standard was to put the command line at the bottom, as there was no “go to command line” key, you had to do “Home”, then shift, tab (to do back tab). This was too many keystrokes for me.

You can set up hot lists of data sets names to make it easier to use data sets and files in Unix Services. For example if your hot list of data sets is SYS1.PROCLIB, ADCD.Z245.PROCLIB, COLIN.PROCLIB, COLIN.C.SOURCE, you can get a list of these in ISPF 3.4 format, so you can quickly move between them, rather than have to keep using ISPF 3.4 and typing in the names of the data sets.

ISPF provides a list called REFLIST with the last 30 datasets or Unix files you referenced, so when you come back from holiday and cannot remember what you were working on, then the REFLIST will show you. Recalling Those Darn Dataset Names is an interesting article.

You can have a hot list of Unix Services files.

You can use the REFLISTD command, or go into ISPF 3.4, up to the action bar, and use the pull down to select REFLIST.
By default, this gives you the a list of the last 30 data sets you used.

Example output

File View Options Help .
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── .
ISRPDSNL Personal Data Set List DSLIST processed .
Command ===> 
Enter a list action to perform or select a data set entry to retrieve. .
Action: S=Save A=Save As D=Delete this list E=Extended Edit L=DSLIST U=UDLIST .
.
Action   Name    Description                  Created Referenced .
L        REFLIST Last 30 referenced data sets         22/04/26 11:45 .

Select Data Set, DSLIST Level or z/OS UNIX file Volume WS 
. 'COLIN.CBT503.FILE967' 
. 'USER.Z24C.CLIST' 
. 'COLIN.SRCHML.LIST' 
. 'COLIN.ZLOGON.CLIST' 
. /u/tmp/zpymqi/code/pymqi/MQMAP.h 
. 'COLIN.CUCI.EXEC' 

The data at the bottom of the display is what is in this list. You cannot do anything with these entries. You can have datasets as well as Unix files in the list

The action only applies to the List entry itself.

If you put an L in front of the REFLIST, you get into standard ISPF 3.4 data set list – with all of the data sets from the list. You can use all of the commands you know and love from this list. You can use option U to list all of the Unix files in the list.

You can also save this list, for example use “A” to create your own list (eg COLIN).

If you want to use this list you can use the command REFACTD COLIN, or go to ISPF 3.4, action bar, REFLIST

1. Current Personal Data Set List (COLIN)
2. List of Personal Data Set Lists

Option 2 gives

ISRPLTAB EFLIST             Personal Data Set Lists                List 1 of 2
Command ===>                                                  Scroll ===> PAGE
                                                                               
Action: O=Open  A=Save As  D=Delete  E=Edit  L=DSLIST  U=UDLIST               
                                                                               
Name      Description                  Created  Referenced
_ COLIN   colin's list                 22/04/26 22/04/26 11:55
_ REFLIST Last 30 referenced data sets          22/04/26 11:57
End

This allows you to pick a list, and specify if you want a data set list, or a Unix file list.

This is really handy – but not very well documented. It feels like it has not been written for the end users but from the IBM developers view point.

I found an interesting ISPF extension which I wanted to try out. But I could not find any documentation on how to install it. As usual I found out even more interesting stuff trying to document it.

Logging on to TSO.

When you logon to TSO you specify a procedure such as ISPFPROC. This procedure is in the SYS1.PROCLIB concatenation.  A user can have a default procedure specified in the RACF TSO segment. A user is given access to the RACF CLASS TSOPROC. (So you use a command like RDEFINE TSOPROC NEWPROC UACC(READ) )

This procedure allocates the datasets used by TSO and ISPF, for example ISPPLIB, ISPMLIB, ISPLLIB,ISPEXEC, SYSEXEC, SYSOUT.

If you are authorised you can create your own TSO procedure, and add your application’s data sets to the JCL. Most systems do not allow this.

When this JCL is executed you can pass parameters to it, for example

//ISPFPROC EXEC PGM=IKJEFT01,REGION=0M,DYNAMNBR=200,
//             PARM=’%ISPFCL’                       

will cause the ISPFCL exec or clist to be executed.   This is usually in the SYS1.CLIST concatenation. You can specify PARM=’EXEC ”SYS1.CLIST(SPFALLOC)”’ and specify a data set.

You can use this

1. To write a message to users
2. Allocate additional data sets,
3. Check the existence of a profile, and execute it.

User specific processing

With the clist specified in the PARM statement you can have code like

/* rexx */
address TSO
userid = userid()
zl =”‘”userid”.ZLOGON.CLIST'” /* so we get ‘colin.zlogon.clist’ */
if SYSDSN(zl) = “OK” then exec zlogon /* the userid.. and .clist default’ */

For my userid this would check to see if COLIN.ZLOGON.CLIST exists, and if so, it executes it.

userid.ZLOGON.CLIST

Within this data sets you can have user specific processing, for example

/* Rexx */
say "in colin.zlogon.clist"
address ispexec
"LIBDEF ISPLLIB DATASET ID('COLIN.ISPF.ISPLLIB') STACK"
"LIBDEF ISPMLIB DATASET ID('COLIN.CUCI.ISPMLIB') STACK"
"LIBDEF ISPPLIB DATASET ID('COLIN.CUCI.ISPPLIB') STACK"
"LIBDEF ISPTLIB DATASET ID('COLIN.CUCI.ISPTLIB') STACK"
address tso "ALTLIB ACTIVATE APPLICATION(CLIST)
DATASET('COLIN.CUCI.EXEC') "

This will add the datasets to the specified library, for example adds the panel library COLIN.CUCI.ISPPLIB to ISPPLIB.

You can use “LIBDEF ISPPLIB” to “pop” the definitions back to what they were before the call.

Running your own application

If you have your own panel or application you want to use, you could use the following to set up the libraries and display Mypanel

address ispexec
"LIBDEF ISPLLIB DATASET ID('COLIN.ISPF.ISPLLIB') STACK"
"LIBDEF ISPMLIB DATASET ID('COLIN.CUCI.ISPMLIB') STACK"
"LIBDEF ISPPLIB DATASET ID('COLIN.CUCI.ISPPLIB') STACK"
"LIBDEF ISPTLIB DATASET ID('COLIN.CUCI.ISPTLIB') STACK"
address tso "ALTLIB ACTIVATE APPLICATION(CLIST)
DATASET('COLIN.CUCI.EXEC') "
"SELECT PANEL(Mypanel ) NEWAPPL(MYA) PASSLIB"
/* afterwards reset things back */
address tso "ALTLIB DEACTIVATE APPLICATION(CLIST)"
"LIBDEF ISPLLIB"
"LIBDEF ISPPLIB"
"LIBDEF ISPMLIB"
"LIBDEF ISPTLIB"

What has been libdef-ed?

You can use the TSO command ISPLIBD to display the data sets that have been libdef-ed for the logical screen. Note each logical screen can have its own libdef statements – depending on the set up. See here for a description.