Congratulations on your choice of Mainframe Express, the most productive tool for moving your mainframe development to the PC.
Mainframe Express provides all the tools you need to use your PC to develop, maintain and test applications for deployment on the mainframe. This graphical, intuitive and fully integrated PC-based environment dramatically increases your productivity through leading edge tools for editing, compiling and visually debugging mainframe applications. Mainframe Express also provides powerful tools such as project-management capabilities and IBM mainframe emulation.
Apart from this Getting Started book, all the documentation is online only. You get to it from the Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000 or Windows NT Start menu, or from Mainframe Express's Help menu. This Getting Started book is both online and in printed book form.
You can send us comments about the help quickly and easily from within the online documentation. See the appendix Send Us Comments.
Let's start with a brief description of the major parts of Mainframe Express. The chapters Start Here for the Tutorials onward are a set of tutorials that take you through all the major parts:
The main window, with pulldown menus, in which you edit, compile and debug your code, and via which you access most of the Mainframe Express tools. It is often referred to as the IDE. Toolbars, popup menus, and various subwindows all help to make the IDE very fast to use.
A file detailing all the files in your application, and how they should be compiled. A project is very easy to create, and makes compiling (including all necessary preprocessing and other conversions such as CLISTs) extremely quick and easy. You should create a project for every application, even the simplest.
An interactive environment emulating TSO, enabling you to run from a TSO command prompt and to include CLIST files and REXX execs in a Mainframe Express project. You can create your CLISTs and REXX execs, edit and compile your application, and then debug it in a TSO environment on your PC.
A batch environment emulating JCL, enabling you to include a JCL jobstream in a Mainframe Express project. You can build your JCL and compile your application, edit it, and debug it in a JCL environment on your PC.
A feature that enables you to organize your development versions of your source files, keeping them separate from the versions already in use ("production" versions), and switching easily between using development versions and production versions in your builds.
TouchPoint enables you to simplify and automate the testing process by making it easy to create and run both conformance and regression tests on your COBOL code.
A tool to transfer files between your PC and the mainframe. You need the separate Micro Focus product Mainframe Access (MFA) running on the mainframe.
A pair of features that enable you to refer to files on the mainframe from your PC, just as if they were on your PC or on your PC network. You need the separate Micro Focus product Mainframe Access (MFA) running on the mainframe.
A set of tools that enable you to convert, browse, edit and create data files used by an application. You can examine data files to see how an application has updated them, or create and edit a file to provide test data for an application. Files can be in any COBOL format and you can view them at both the record and field levels.
Mainframe Express stores all data in EBCDIC, rather than the ASCII character set native to PCs. It converts automatically between EBCDIC and ASCII for input/output, so that you see the correct characters on the screen or printout. In general, you can assume that in comparisons data will behave as on the mainframe. Mainframe Express also provides facilities for you to convert explicitly between EBCDIC and ASCII, if you should need to. Program source files are stored in the ANSI character set.
From Mainframe Express you can access the functions of any installed source control manager (SCM) that conforms to the Microsoft Common Source Code Control Interface (SCC). Some SCC-conforming SCMs are MERANT PVCS Version Manager, Microsoft Visual SourceSafe and IBM VisualAge TeamConnection. MERANT's configuration management tool, PVCS Dimensions, also includes SCM-type functions and conforms to SCC.
The following optional extensions enable you to develop, maintain and test particular types of application:
CICS Option enables you to include a CICS application in a Mainframe Express project. You can compile your CICS application, edit it, and debug it in a CICS environment, which can be either completely local or can span other machines in your network, including other PCs and mainframes.
IMS Option enables you to include an IMS application in a Mainframe Express project. You can compile your IMS application, edit it, and debug it in an IMS environment on your PC.
SQL Option enables you to include a DB2 application in a Mainframe Express project. You can also maintain a DB2 database using an interactive tool, the SQL Wizard. You can compile your DB2 application, edit it, and debug it in a DB2 environment on your PC.
Host Compatibility Option (HCO) is an alternative to SQL Option. It too enables you to include a DB2 application in a Mainframe Express project and maintain it. You need to have IBM's DB2 database system installed on your PC.
Assembler Option enables you to include IBM/390 Assembler modules in your application. You can assemble, edit, link and debug your Assembler programs.
WinRunner 2000, a session recording tool from Mercury Interactive Corporation, is an automated testing tool for mainframe applications. It is recognized as the market leader for automated integration and system testing on the workstation (GUI applications) and mainframe (via 3270 emulation).
Some non-Micro Focus software, supplied under license on the Mainframe Express CD-ROM or an accompanying CD-ROM, is not installed when you install Mainframe Express - you install it separately.
Microsoft Internet Explorer is a popular Web browser. You need a Web browser to read the Mainframe Express online books. It must support frames. If you already have such a Web browser installed, you can continue to use that.
Adobe Acrobat Reader enables you to read and print online books in the format supported by Adobe Acrobat. The Mainframe Express online books are provided in this format as well as in the form of Web pages - see the chapter Finding Information for details. See the insert in the CD case for instructions on how to install Acrobat Reader.
Comments on the books? Click Send Us Comments.
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