The Cool Things Page

Welcome to the Trainer's Friend page of Cool Things You Can Do in z/OS.
- The table below describes a list of some of the cool things you can do in z/OS that you may not be aware of. (Of course, one person's "cool!" is another's "so what?" But, this is our list and we're stickin' to it.)
- Next to each cool thing is the context you can do it in.
- Next to the context is a link to the description of the course where we teach how to do that cool thing in that context.
- In some instances there may be more than one course. Also, if you follow a link be sure to check for pre-requisite courses.

For detailed outline information, follow the "course outline" link on the course description page.

Note that most of these techniques are virtually free: the components are automatically included (or may be ordered for no charge) with z/OS!
(And even for charged-for products, you may already have them installed.)

Cool Things	Context	Relevant Course(s)
Host a website on z/OS (using free HTTP 5.3 server or ported Apache server)	z/OS UNIX	Introduction to z/OS UNIX Shell Script Programming in z/OS UNIX You and z/OS and the World Wide Web
Create web pages that use all of HTML, XHTML, CSS, DOM, JavaScript, images, applets, objects, and cookies	z/OS UNIX	You and z/OS and the World Wide Web
Design and code CGI programs (run from a z/OS hosted website, supporting GET and POST, accessing VSAM or DB2 data, and submitting jobs)	z/OS UNIX	Introduction to CGIs on z/OS Writing z/OS CGIs in COBOL Writing z/OS CGIs in Assembler
Run a UNIX shell environment under z/OS (omvs under TSO or ISPF, or telnet)	z/OS UNIX	Introduction to z/OS UNIX
Send emails or texts to mobile phones (IEBGENER, SMTP, and the internal reader)	Batch jobs	Introduction to z/OS
Work with data encoded in ASCII (edit, browse)	ISPF	TSO/ISPF in z/OS ISPF Update
Work with data encoded in ASCII (shell commands, omvs, oput, oget parms)	z/OS UNIX	Introduction to z/OS UNIX
Work with data encoded in ASCII (read, write, compare, pack numeric, convert)	Assembler	z/OS Assembler Programming Part 4: z/Architecture and z/OS
Work with data encoded in ASCII (read, write, compare, convert)	COBOL	Enterprise COBOL Unicode and XML Support
Work with data encoded in Unicode (UTF-8, UTF-16, UTF-32; read, write, compare, convert, pack numeric)	Assembler	z/OS Assembler Programming Part 4: z/Architecture and z/OS
Work with data encoded in Unicode (UTF-8, UTF-16, UTF-32; read, write, compare, convert)	COBOL	Enterprise COBOL Unicode and XML Support
Generate reports with headers, trailers, formatted fields from flat files (SORT, HEADER, TRAILER)	Batch jobs	Advanced Topics in JCL Using DFSORT and ICETOOL
Generate messages that can be dynamically put into alternate natural languages (LE Message Tag Language)	Language Environment	Using LE Services in z/OS
Write programs that call LE services (including dynamic storage, error handling, and more)	Language Environment COBOL Assembler PL/I C	Using LE Services in z/OS Enterprise COBOL Update
Write applications that integrate programs written in multiple languages (any mix of Assembler, COBOL, PL/I, and C)	Language Environment COBOL Assembler PL/I C	Cross Program Communication in z/OS
Debug applications that integrate programs written in multiple languages (any mix of Assembler, COBOL, PL/I, and C)	COBOL Assembler PL/I C	z/OS Debug Tool for Multi-Language Applications
Interactively debug applications written in COBOL	COBOL	z/OS Debug Tool for Enterprise COBOL
Interactively debug applications written in PL/I	PL/I	z/OS Debug Tool for Enterprise PL/I
Interactively debug applications written in C/C++	C/C++	z/OS Debug Tool for XL C/C++
Write DLL programs and applications that invoke DLLs (any mix of Assembler, COBOL, PL/I, and C)	Language Environment COBOL Assembler PL/I C	Creating and Using DLLs in z/OS
Generate HTML or XML files from flat files (SORT, OUTFIL)	Batch jobs	Using DFSORT and ICETOOL
Generate HTML or XML files from z/OS UNIX files (sed)	z/OS UNIX	Shell Script Programming in z/OS UNIX
Parse XML files (XML PARSE with or without validation using schemas)	COBOL	Enterprise COBOL Unicode and XML Support
Generate XML files from flat files (XML GENERATE with or without attributes)	COBOL	Enterprise COBOL Unicode and XML Support
Write COBOL programs that directly invoke C functions (printf, scanf, fopen, fread, fwrite, fclose in examples and labs)	COBOL z/OS UNIX TSO	Developing Applications for z/OS UNIX
Write PL/I programs that directly invoke C functions (printf, scanf, fopen, fread, fwrite, fclose in examples and labs)	PL/I z/OS UNIX TSO	Developing Applications for z/OS UNIX
Write Assembler programs that directly invoke C functions (printf, scanf, fopen, fread, fwrite, fclose in examples and labs)	Assembler z/OS UNIX TSO	Developing Applications for z/OS UNIX
Issue TSO commands from programs written in COBOL, Assembler, PL/I, or C (IKJEFTSR, TSOLNK)	Batch jobs Assembler COBOL PL/I C	Introduction to TSO and REXX APIs
Access and change REXX variables from programs written in COBOL, Assembler, PL/I, or C (IKJCT441, IRXEXCOM)	Batch jobs REXX Assembler COBOL PL/I C	Introduction to TSO and REXX APIs
Create your own ISPF dialogs (ISPEXEC, REXX, CLIST)	Dialog Manager REXX CLIST	Developing Dialog Manager Applications in z/OS
Send a message to another TSO user (send)	TSO	TSO REXX Programming in z/OS TSO CLIST Programming in z/OS
Make a copy of a sequential file with no pre-allocation and no JCL (SMCOPY)	TSO	TSO REXX Programming in z/OS TSO CLIST Programming in z/OS
Easily compute elapsed time between events (time())	REXX	TSO REXX Programming in z/OS
Find and change strings that match patterns or exclude lines that contain strings that match a pattern (pictures)	ISPF	TSO/ISPF in z/OS ISPF and JCL in z/OS ISPF Update
Work with up to 32 split screens, and name those screens (start, split new, scrname)	ISPF	TSO/ISPF in z/OS ISPF and JCL in z/OS ISPF Update
Create a point-and-shoot list of current screens (swapbar)	ISPF	TSO/ISPF in z/OS ISPF and JCL in z/OS ISPF Update
Display selected lines in hex, others in character, under edit or view (HX)	ISPF	TSO/ISPF in z/OS ISPF and JCL in z/OS ISPF Update
Work with lists of files and directories in the Hierarchical File System (3.17)	ISPF	ISPF Update
Access files in the Hierarchical File System (PATH=, etc.)	Batch jobs	Advanced Topics in JCL Using DFSORT and ICETOOL Introduction to z/OS UNIX
Access files in the Hierarchical File System (shell commands)	z/OS UNIX	Introduction to z/OS UNIX
Access files in the Hierarchical File System (line sequential or QSAM)	COBOL	Enterprise COBOL Update
Set up and use an appointment calendar on the ISPF Primary Option Menu	ISPF	Advanced Topics in ISPF

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Note that most of these techniques are virtually free: the components are automatically included (or may be ordered for no charge) with z/OS! (And even for charged-for products, you may already have them installed.)

Note that most of these techniques are virtually free: the components are automatically included (or may be ordered for no charge) with z/OS!
(And even for charged-for products, you may already have them installed.)