As many of you know, for many years, ColeSoft has been working hard on bringing our XDC product into the C C++ *AND* Metal C worlds! Well, at long last it looks like were finally there!

I’ve just published update Z21-1506C that fixes a problem in the vector support introduced in Z21-1505F. We were using an incorrect flag bit in one of our vector support checks. Oops! That causes a S0C7-FE abend to pop up when starting a debugging session for a SRB.

I’ve just finished publishing update Z21-1505F. It implements vector register support in z/XDC. Vector registers are now saved and restored by z/XDC for both task mode and SRB mode execution.

We’ve just now pushed out an update (Z21-1505E) that adds support for a //xxxNOALC DD DUMMY jcl statement. When this ddname is present in the TIOT, z/XDC will abort any command or internal service that attempts to use Dynamic Allocation (SVC 99).

We want to thank Bob Edmond of BMC Software for requesting this feature.

A couple years ago, we discovered that we had posted some bad maintenance and we had no way of knowing how many times it was downloaded and who had done the downloading. To help deal with this, we built an interface that requests some basic user information, just a name and email, before the maintenance file can be downloaded. This process gives us a list of users that we can contact in case of an error in the maintenance or an older maintenance has been superseded.

For a couple of months, we have been developing, testing and now finally documenting a new feature for CDF: The ability to connect a user to a debugging session running on a different processor in a Sysplex.

ColeSoft is excited to introduce our new website! The site has been completely redesigned and rewritten from the bottom up to provide easier access to more information. Our new product pages include more detailed product information than ever, and we hope you'll find the product support and other resources helpful and easy to find.

The latest update to z/XDC, Release z2.1, is here! You can check out our z/XDC z2.1 Announcement Video here, and visit the Release z2.1 Page for the highlights.

by Bob Shimizu

Do you think that mainframe computers aren't cool? Check this out: A lot of the world (and especially the younger folks) think that mainframes no longer exist. They're totally sync'd into technology with PCs, gaming devices, and iEverything. But the fabric of western civilization is held together by mainframe computers. They didn't die and go away. Instead, they retreated into mega datacenters and became MORE POWERFUL.

Deep in bomb-proof basements, huge machines handle millions of transactions a second. They're bigger, faster, more secure and do more than you may be aware of. Do you really think your Visa card is handled by a network of PCs? Nope! Behind all the web-based apps and front-end processing – at the deepest layer – it's all handled by mainframes.

by David Cole

Comforting? Not at all.

Satisfying? To a point.

I have worked with machines it seems all my life. I like the machines, and what they have become in my lifetime. I have excelled in my craft. I have built abstract creations of such hidden beauty, works of art as creative as any you might see. An art, though, that no one will see. An art that can be seen only by the mind's eye. Impossible for most. Too difficult for those few who can. People with years of experience might have the vocabulary and language necessary to understand, necessary to comprehend. But probably not the patience or the interest. They have their own castles to build.