conrad@popvax.harvard.edu (Conrad C. Nobili) (05/09/91)
Hello out there. Is there anyone else out there using the various stuff from Brown to communicate with and transfer files with an IBM mainframe? I have in the past posted info about this stuff and noticed that other people were also doing this. We have been using tn3270 (for network connections) and Term (for dialup con- nections) to communicate to our IBM mainframe from our Macs. As at least some of you know there is also some software you can get for VM (on the mainframe) that implements a user-friendly and efficiently file transfer protocol which works with EITHER type of connection. This is WMAC and RMAC. (All of this is available via anonymous ftp from brownvm.brown.edu for the curious.) Our immediate problem is that we are soon to be upgrading our VM operating system and preliminary testing shows that WMAC and/or RMAC break. (I didn't do the testing, but the problem looks to be pretty clear -- both should not work.) We now have VM/SP HPO 5.0 and are going to VM/XA SP 2.1 real soon now. Under the new version we get complaints about SET ACNT ON or SET ACNT OFF commands. Apparently this stuff is not available under VM/XA. So, it looks like a pretty simple thing to fix, BUT our system people would (rightly and reasonably I suppose) NOT be joyous about fixing it ourselves. I think everyone would be happiest if there were another version out there which runs "out of the box" (except there is no box with free stuff!) on VM/XA.... So, has anyone else out there encountered this problem? What have you done to get around it? I imagine most people have simply fixed the four offending lines of code in the source of each of the programs. (That is what we have the WMAC ASSEMBLE and RMAC ASSEMBLE files for after all....) But I guess I (and the system people responsible for VM) would like to have some feedback from any others out there who have done this. Maintainability of free stuff is always a problem. I have sent e-mail to Peter DiCamillo but haven't gotten anything back yet. Does anyone know if cmsmaint@brownvm.brown.edu is the best way to find him? So, if people could send me e-mail or post here their experiences or fixes or whatever I would greatly appreciate it. I will summarize anything useful that does not get posted here. If I at least have some other experiences described I can then make a case for keeping RMAC and WMAC and patching it if that is the way to go.... As usual, you should download the READMEs etc. from brownvm to get the REAL info on this stuff. I say it is all free, but you should read the stuff for yourself carefully. I don't want Brown's legal department complaining (or NCSA's if it has one...). You all should know what I mean -- "basically free". Well, thanks in advance... +---- C o n r a d C . N o b i l i ----+ | | | Harvard University | Internet: conrad@harvarda.harvard.edu | | Office for Info. Tech. | conrad@popvax.harvard.edu | | Information Services | BITNET: CONRAD AT HARVARDA | | Technical & User Services | CONRAD AT HARVSPHB | | 1730 Cambridge Street | voice: (617) 495-8554 | +---- Cambridge, MA 02138 | fax: (617) 495-0715 ----+