Anyone wanting to try out MVS 3.8j; there was two-ish main ways of getting Hercules running an emulated mainframe. Jay Moseley's step by step instructions from tape images, or one click TK4- quick start. The quick start is best for no-think intros. Jay's "manual" steps teach a lot more, but it takes some time.
There is now a new player. MVS-Sysgen. Philip Young put together a bunch of scripts to automate Jay's steps. Builds a custom Tur(n)key system. Builds Hercules with REXX support. And he's added sub-repos for installing some of the more common site addons like RPF updates and other choice bits.
In between a no-think and an all-think Turnkey. I haven't tried it beyond "trying it", as I have images I use. I'm not sure if all the things like the the ZAP to fix the ANS COBOL 72 xref map option is included in the base build.
There is activity afoot on an IMS clone for 3.8j too. Whether this makes it to public release will probably depend on how much we bug Henshinger. This will build on other work that exposed Full Screen Services using tget/tput macros.
There have been quite a few quality of life improvements added to MVS 3.8j and VM/370 R6 in Hercules space.
It is getting to a point where some decisions to replatform can almost be "leave the code alone (mostly)", port the inputs and outputs.
SIMH also allows hobby use of PDP-11 level RSX11M, including some layered products in UTS (for hobby/evaluation use in this case, and only in the SIMH emulator). SIMH also happily runs the OpenVMS hobbyist licensed products. These are hobby level though, unlike the not-under-copyright status of 3.8j and R6 of VM.
Have good, make well.
Blue
Last edit: Brian Tiffin 2021-06-02
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There is a BRexx, By Vasilis Vlachoudis, modified by others to work with C compilers ported to MVS and VM/370. Now BRexx on MVS is capable of automating MVS. This might seem kinda minor, but it has the feel of the kind of step that converts a hobby OS into a competitor for more serious development work. Development work that builds useful things. on a long tail.
I have a BRexx in GnuCOBOL trial, but it's not quite ready for prime time. BRexx is not REXX SSA, so doesn't fit the same glue as Regina or ooRexx.
I don't know if how well this link will work for people, it probably needs a login cookie, but the GitHub repo is not the MVS or VM cuts (and for now, those cuts need to come with instructions).
Hello,
Anyone wanting to try out MVS 3.8j; there was two-ish main ways of getting Hercules running an emulated mainframe. Jay Moseley's step by step instructions from tape images, or one click TK4- quick start. The quick start is best for no-think intros. Jay's "manual" steps teach a lot more, but it takes some time.
There is now a new player. MVS-Sysgen. Philip Young put together a bunch of scripts to automate Jay's steps. Builds a custom Tur(n)key system. Builds Hercules with REXX support. And he's added sub-repos for installing some of the more common site addons like RPF updates and other choice bits.
https://github.com/MVS-sysgen/sysgen
In between a no-think and an all-think Turnkey. I haven't tried it beyond "trying it", as I have images I use. I'm not sure if all the things like the the ZAP to fix the ANS COBOL 72 xref map option is included in the base build.
There is activity afoot on an IMS clone for 3.8j too. Whether this makes it to public release will probably depend on how much we bug Henshinger. This will build on other work that exposed Full Screen Services using tget/tput macros.
There have been quite a few quality of life improvements added to MVS 3.8j and VM/370 R6 in Hercules space.
It is getting to a point where some decisions to replatform can almost be "leave the code alone (mostly)", port the inputs and outputs.
SIMH also allows hobby use of PDP-11 level RSX11M, including some layered products in UTS (for hobby/evaluation use in this case, and only in the SIMH emulator). SIMH also happily runs the OpenVMS hobbyist licensed products. These are hobby level though, unlike the not-under-copyright status of 3.8j and R6 of VM.
Have good, make well.
Blue
Last edit: Brian Tiffin 2021-06-02
Another advance made in MVS 3.8j capabilities.
There is a BRexx, By Vasilis Vlachoudis, modified by others to work with C compilers ported to MVS and VM/370. Now BRexx on MVS is capable of automating MVS. This might seem kinda minor, but it has the feel of the kind of step that converts a hobby OS into a competitor for more serious development work. Development work that builds useful things. on a long tail.
I have a BRexx in GnuCOBOL trial, but it's not quite ready for prime time. BRexx is not REXX SSA, so doesn't fit the same glue as Regina or ooRexx.
https://github.com/vlachoudis/brexx
I don't know if how well this link will work for people, it probably needs a login cookie, but the GitHub repo is not the MVS or VM cuts (and for now, those cuts need to come with instructions).
https://discord.com/channels/423767742546575361/782411149496942602/849334495638585385
Keep an eye out for Hercules s/390 growing in mind share. Not sure how long it'll be, but everyone is waiting for MVS Turnkey 9, and this will likely be in VM/370 CE before too long.
Or, this is just fanboi, and the turnkey systems will remain toyols, but I don't think so.
Just in case; toyol, toy tool for the toil of it.
Cheers,
Blue