What Is Dialog Manager?, continued

The IBM mainframe operating system, z/OS, comes with a feature called TSO (Time Sharing Option) which is a command line interface to z/OS facilities

• Like the command line on UNIX
• Or the C:\> prompt in a command window in Windows

While TSO is actually very powerful, it is very clumsy to use. This is where ISPF comes in.

ISPF is a full-screen terminal front-end interface to TSO. It is relatively easy to use and many z/OS users use ISPF all the time. Lots of time, when people say they are using TSO, they really mean they are using ISPF. When users log in to TSO, and get into ISPF, they see a screen something like this:

Notice the list of options: these are the main facilities. The most important are:

• 2 Edit - this is where the programmer keys in his or her programs
• 3 Utilities - this helps users to create, delete, copy, move, print, and rename files

... continue on ===> ...

... <=== wait a second, let me go back

This page last updated: 29 July, 2014
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