PL/I for Experienced Programmers

Objectives
On successful completion of this course, attendees will be able to:

• code typical commercial PL/I programs using efficient and structured code
• write efficient and structured code
• compile, test and debug PL/I programs
• access and use the online PL/I manuals effectively.

Who Should Attend
Experienced programmers who will be developing and maintaining programs in a PL/I environment.
Prerequisites
All attendees should be experienced applications programmers with an understanding of the mainframe computing environment. This can be obtained by attending the RSM course 'The IBM Mainframe Computing Environment'. The ability to edit programs and submit jobs is also assumed.
Duration
5 days

Course Code
PLXP
Contents
PL/I concepts
Format,; PL/1 character set; Keywords,; coding standards.


Declarations
Files; Character; Bit; Decimal; Binary. Picture; Initialization.


Files
Sequential input and output; fixed length records; move mode and locate mode; stream output for errors and debugging; print files; ENVIRONMENT option.


Assignments
Data conversion and precision; expression evaluation, operators.


Structures and arrays
Expressions; assignments; LIKE; BY NAME; initialization.


Program logic
IF THEN ELSE; SELECT; DO loops.


Program structure
Procedures; internal and external; function procedures; arguments and parameters


Condition handling
General concepts; enabling and disabling ERROR and ENDFILE etc..


Storage
Automatic; static, based; aligned and unaligned; internal and external pointers and addresses.


Built-in functions
SUBSTR; ADDR; VERIFY; DATETIME; TRANSLATE; others.


Compiler options
GONUMBER; LIST; OPTIMIZE; AGGREGATE; ATTR & XREF; others.


Efficiency and debugging
STATIC; REORDER; others.


Standards
Standards, whether general or in house, are emphasised


Testing and debugging
Compile; link edit; JCL; program execution; test data creation; error messages.