PL/1 Programming

The course not only covers the syntax of all the main PL/1 statements, but also gives attendees a great start for using PL/1 confidently, correctly and efficiently.

Frequent exercises are used to consolidate all the major topics covered. The final exercise builds up to a small but complete and well structured program.

This course is for experienced programmers who will be coding or maintaining PL/1 applications.

New programmers who require an introduction to PL/1 concepts and rules will also benefit.

The course is designed for the IBM Enterprise PL/1 compiler.

Delegates should have been introduced to basic data processing concepts and IBM zSeries Orientation before attending this class.

Programming, program design, program edit and job submission knowledge are also necessary.

Upon successful completion of this course delegates will be able to:

• Demonstrate a thorough grounding in the fundamentals of PL/1 programming.
• Write a typical PL/1 program using well-structured and efficient code.
• Compile, test and debug their programs.

PL/1 concepts
Format.
PL/1 character set.
Keywords.
Coding standards.

Declarations
Files.
Character.
Decimal.
Binary.
Picture.

Files
Sequential input and output.
Fixed length records.
Move mode and locate mode.
Stream output for errors and debugging.
Print files.

Assignments
Data conversion and precision.
Expression evaluation.
Operators.

Structures and Arrays
Expressions.
Assignments.

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.
ENDFILE.

Storage
Automatic.
Static.
Based.
Aligned and unaligned.
Internal and external.
Pointers and addresses.

Built-in Functions
SUBSTR.
ADDR.
VERIFY.
DATETIME.
and others...

Compiler Options
GOSTMT.
LIST.
OPTIMIZE.
AGGREGATE.
ATTR & XREF.
and others...

Efficiency
STATIC.
REORDER.
TOTAL.
and others...

Standards
Standards, whether general or in house, are emphasised.

Testing and Debugging
Compile.
Link edit.
Program execution.
Test data creation.
JCL.
Error messages.

Workshops
The workshops in this course are conducted in a hands on environment.
The delegates will code, Execute and Debug a series of programs serving as excellent examples for future programming in PL/1.