I appreciate your comments, John. Thanks for taking the time to comment and post.
-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L <midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of John Yeung
Sent: Friday, November 8, 2024 1:10 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: create an archive of a source member each time changed
On Thu, Nov 7, 2024 at 3:51 PM Paul Therrien via MIDRANGE-L <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I have a source file called '@ARCHIVE'.
When I want to save a current copy of a source member, I call a simple CL program that copies the source member to an @ARCHIVE member. The member name of the archived source is '@YYMMDDnnn' (where nnn is a programmatically generated sequential number), and the source type is the original source member. In this way I can use PDM or RSE and see all copies of 'PGMA' by selecting Source Type 'PGMA'. I see all archived copies in date sequence. I have tied this CL program to a PDM option, and an RSE User command.
It is not source control, it is simply archiving on demand.
While Jack does have a good point (about sustainability and moving forward), I still want to express recognition for a nice bit of cleverness. It's an instance of making use of what's available to you to address some need or pain point. Even if this thing gets superseded or abandoned at some point; until that time comes, it might be providing a noticeable net improvement in productivity.
While I think this scheme is clever and useful, it wouldn't fly (at least as described above) at all shops because the original library, file, or source type might need to be preserved somehow, to disambiguate distinct same-named members. (At our shop, even the LPAR is worth keeping track of.) Maybe this situation doesn't come up for Paul, or he already has a way to address it that he didn't bother to mention; but off the top of my head, I might try to refine this by inserting a comment at the top of the archived member with whatever metadata is necessary.
I actually built something like this for myself, because while management recognizes the usefulness and importance of proper change management, it's been taking time to get it approved and funded; and even after that happens, there will be some time for installation, configuration, acclimation, etc. In the meantime, it's painful when we don't have a reasonably easy way to check several past versions of a particular source member. (My little shoe-string archive system lives on my PC, and could be fleshed out, polished, and live on the IFS if need be; but it looks like "proper" change management has advanced from pipedream to actively in the process of becoming reality for us, so there's little reason to develop it further.)
John Y.
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