What is the exact difference between TSO & ISPF

rajasekhar reddy · New User Joined: 17 Jan 2006 Posts: 10

HI ,
i have one doubt regarding TSO & ISPF .
can i know what is the exact difference between these two.
let me have a clear idea.

Thanks in Advance.
Rajasekhar.

amitava · Active User Joined: 30 Oct 2005 Posts: 192 Location: India

Hi rajasekhar,
TSO & ISPF are two different environments. Actually while working with REXX you can invoke the REXX commands as well as commands from different environments also. There are basically 2 main environments -
1. TSO
2. ISPF
1. In TSO environment, all the TSO-based command can be used like :- ALLOC, FREE, DEL and so on. This is the basic environment.

2. Suppose you are using a macro to read a DS then you have to use the cursor to move forward or backward to the lines, this can be enabled through the ISPF environment and also with ISREDIT. Now suppose you want to use a panel, table or skel in your REXX routine, now in your REXX routine you have to LIBDEF these(I mean the libraries are specified by LIBDEF command). For that you have to invoke the ISPF environment.

Besides, you also have different environments for invoking some special services. Eg:- If you want to use DB2 in your REXX, then you have to invoke the DSNREXX environment.

superk · Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2006 12:58 pm Post subject: Re: TSO & ISPF

TSO is the end-user oriented line mode interface to MVS.

TSO is a command line interface. It is not the full screen interface; that is ISPF. It is not a programming language.

When you use TSO, you issue commands like ALLOC, CALL and FREE to run programs. TSO also is the basis for running ISPF, the full-screen end-user oriented interface to MVS.

In practice, very few people do any work at the TSO READY prompt. Most people simply type ISPF to get into ISPF, and then LOGOFF to leave TSO.

ISPF is the full-screen (not line mode) interface to MVS that is used mostly by programmers and system administrators. ISPF is also used for applications for which a transaction server like CICS is not appropriate. ISPF is usually run interactively from a terminal, but can also be run in batch.

ISPF has several main functions:

Full screen editing and browsing of data sets
Data set management utilities
File Tailoring functions (using templates to create files using variable substitution)
Search and Compare functions
Source Code Configuration and Library Management
A rich set of APIs for dialog (program) management

ofer71 · Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2006 1:18 pm Post subject:

I've always looked at the relationships in that way: It's like the good days when you used WIN95 (=ISPF) running on DOS (=TSO), ecxept the fact that TSO is not an OS.

O.

rajasekhar reddy · New User Joined: 17 Jan 2006 Posts: 10

thanks to all.