Introduction to Line-Sequential Files

Q. What makes Mainframe Files so important?

Walk into a Mainframe Data center, and you'll find large amounts of Data being stored in Files – on DASD or Tapes. At Insurance Companies like AIG and AXA, your Insurance Policy Data, the premiums you pay, are stored on Files on Mainframe Systems. Banks like Bank of America, American Express record Credit Card Data, the transactions you make, in Mainframe Files. Companies like Ford, Visteon keep their Stock Data, Purchase Orders and Requisitions, their Supplier Database in Mainframe Files. As a Mainframe Programmer, it helps to learn a little about Files, and get the know-how of processing files by coding a COBOL Program.

Q. What is a Line-Sequential File?

Remember those days, you loved listening to your favourite Michael Jackson numbers on the Music Cassette Tape. When you pop-in an audio cassette tape in your walkman, it plays the first song, then the second song, the third song and so on. The songs are played one-by-one. Just as the Music Cassette Tape has songs in sequence, Computer Files contain data-records in sequence. On each line, there is one record. Line-Sequential Files get their name owing to the fact, that when you read these Files, the first record is fetched, then the second record is fetched, and then the third record is fetched, and this goes on. If you want to access the 10th Record in the File, you cannot directly jump, skip to it. You must traverse the file in a Sequential manner, starting from the 1st record, then the 2nd record, the next successive record and so on, till you reach the desired(10th) record. This is called Sequential mode of Access.

Q. How do COBOL Programs refer to a Mainframe File?

On a Mainframe Computer,File(s) are identified by a name. Say for example, I have stored the data about Employees working at a company, on a Mainframe Sequential-File called SYSADM.EMPLOYEE.DATA. COBOL Programs don't refer to Files, by their actual Physical File-Name. While writing a COBOL Program, I don't have to think about the real physical File-name, "Where's the data stored? Is it in SYSADM.EMPLOYEE.DATA or some other file-name? I don't care!" Instead, in the COBOL Code, I shall refer to the File by a short symbolic COBOL name, like EMPLOYEE-FILE. The Big Idea is, you can attach or Bind, any Physical Mainframe File you like, say SYSADM.EMPLOYEE.DATA, or SYSADM.TEST.DATA or any other actual Mainframe file of your choice to the COBOL File-Name EMPLOYEE-FILE, at the time of running the Program.

Q. How to declare a Sequential-File in COBOL?

Sequential-File(s) must be first declared in a COBOL Program. The SELECT Clause in COBOL, is used to declare a File. For example, if the COBOL Program processes the data in the EMPLOYEE-FILE, you should code SELECT EMPLOYEE-FILE Statement in the COBOL Program. Where should you code the SELECT Statement? One knows that, COBOL Programs are divided into four chunks – IDENTIFICATION DIVISION, ENVIRONMENT DIVISION, DATA DIVISION and PROCEDURE DIVISION. The ENVIRONMENT DIVISION of a COBOL Program contains a Section called the INPUT-OUTPUT SECTION. You code SELECT Statements under the FILE-CONTROL Paragraph of the INPUT-OUTPUT SECTION. As an example, I will build a COBOL-Program, to process the data in the EMPLOYEE-FILE. In my COBOL Program, I wrote the SELECT Statement like this.

Q.What setup is required to attach or hook-up a Sequential-File to a COBOL Program?

I have declared an internal COBOL file called EMPLOYEE-FILE in My COBOL Program. My COBOL Program processes this EMPLOYEE-FILE. This name EMPLOYEE-FILE is internal or private to My COBOL Program, and is unknown to the outside world, externally. However, the actual Employees Data resides in the Physical Mainframe File SYSADM.EMPLOYEE.DATA, on the Computer Storage. I wish to get this SYSADM.EMPLOYEE.DATA File processed using my COBOL Program. Somehow, I have got to establish a link between the Outside-World Mainframe File SYSADM.EMPLOYEE.INPUT and the COBOL Program's internal File-Name EMPLOYEE-FILE. To run(Execute) My COBOL Program, I wrote a JOB. This job executes My COBOL Program PROG10. The DD Statements in the JCL, are used to specify Mainframe Files. I have keyed in a //DD Statement that refers to the Physical Mainframe Dataset SYSADM.EMPLOYEE.DATA.   To attach or hook-up this Physical Mainframe Dataset SYSADM.EMPLOYEE.DATA, to My COBOL Program PROG10, I shall first code a name on the DD-Statement, say EMPIN. //EMPIN is said to be an alias, a pet-name, the DD-Name for the Mainframe File SYSADM.EMPLOYEE.DATA. //EMPIN Pet-Name points-to, or refers to the actual Physical Mainframe File SYSADM.EMPLOYEE.DATA. Back there in My COBOL Program, I shall take this DD-Name EMPIN and gel it with the Internal File-name EMPLOYEE-FILE. Let's go ahead, and assign the private COBOL File-name EMPLOYEE-FILE to this DD-Name EMPIN. The EMPLOYEE-FILE internal-name is ASSIGN'ed TO EMPIN DD-Name, as follows. Thus, the name of this File internal to the COBOL Program is EMPLOYEE-FILE. In the outside world, the actual physical name of the Mainframe File is SYSADM.EMPLOYEE.DATA. The DD-Name EMPIN, acts as the Syntactic Sugar, a bridge, a glue between the two. This is illustrated in the Schematic below.

Q. What is a File Buffer?

A Factory or an Industry purchases Raw-Materials from Suppliers. When Raw-Materials are received, they are stored or kept in a Warehouse. Just as factories or industries get raw-materials from Suppliers, COBOL Programs get their Raw Materials - Bytes of Data from Files. When Bytes of Data dispatched from a File, arrive in the COBOL Program, they have got to be stored somewhere, for later processing. This storage space is called File Buffer. The picture above describes, How Buffers work. The COBOL Program READs the 1st record off the File. The Data 'QUASAR SHABBIR CHUNAWALA HOLY CR. MUMBAI 400103 91 2228941365' is read from the file, and gets stored in the Buffer INPUT-RECORD, inside the COBOL Program. The gist of the concept then is, Buffer(s) are Memory locations, where you could store data. However, as you must have read in last tutorial, before you could store data in Computer Memory Locations, you must first declare them in the DATA DIVISION – tell how many bytes of space do you need, assign a name to the memory-location. The computer then reserves this buffer space, exclusively for your use. Take a look at the pictorial representation above and notice, I have assigned a name to my Buffer – INPUT-RECORD. My INPUT-RECORD buffer is 80 Bytes large. Why? Coz, the records in my Mainframe file have a Length=80 Bytes. The buffer in the Program should be large enough to accommodate the data fetched from the Mainframe File. Look at the below snap, how I have written the COBOL Code for the INPUT-RECORD Buffer.

Q. What is FILE SECTION? What is File Descriptor FD Paragraph?

File Buffers are declared in a special FILE SECTION of the DATA DIVISION. The File Descriptor FD identifies the COBOL Internal File-name, to which this buffer belongs. For example, if I want to declare a Buffer for the COBOL File EMPLOYEE-FILE, I’d have to code -

Q. How to write a simple COBOL Program to process the Employee File?

I have written a simple COBOL-Program, to read records from the Employee Sequential-File, and display this employee data on the computer-screen. The PROCEDURE DIVISION of the Program is illustrated below. On a Mainframe Computer, before you do any input or output operations on a File, you must first open the File. This sets a marker, pointing to the first record of the Employee File. The COBOL instruction OPEN, followed by the COBOL Internal file-name EMPLOYEE-FILE, opens the Employee file and readies it for processing. This is like the "On your marks, Get-Set, Go!" count-down, just before reading the file.   The COBOL instruction READ, reads one record from the Mainframe File, and stores this data into the File-Buffer in the COBOL Program. The READ operation, always fetches the Current-Record from the File. The marker currently points to the 1st Record, so the first-record from the file 'QUASAR SHABBIR CHUNAWALA ...' is fetched and stored in the buffer INPUT-RECORD. After a successful READ, the marker moves one position forward in the Sequential-File, and points to the 2nd Record. The contents of the Buffer INPUT-RECORD are 'QUASAR SHABBIR CHUNAWALA ...'. The COBOL DISPLAY statement is used to display textual-characters on the Mainframe Computer Screen. DISPLAY INPUT-RECORD displays, the contents or value of INPUT-RECORD buffer 'QUASAR SHABBIR CHUNAWALA ...' on the screen. The marker currently points to the 2nd Record. Thus, the next COBOL READ Instruction, fetches the second-record 'DEEPIKA K SABNIS ...' from the EMPLOYEE-FILE, and stores it into the buffer INPUT-RECORD. After a successful READ, the marker is incremented and moves to the next record – the 3rd record in the File. The COBOL DISPLAY Statement, displays the contents of the Buffer INPUT-RECORD, 'DEEPIKA K SABNIS...' on the Mainframe Terminal. The marker now points to the 3rd Record. Thus, the last COBOL READ Instruction, fetches the third-record 'RAMA S JAKKANI ...' from the EMPLOYEE-FILE, and puts it into the buffer INPUT-RECORD. After a successful READ, the marker is incremented and moves beyond the last record. The COBOL DISPLAY Statement, displays the contents of the Buffer INPUT-RECORD, 'RAMA S JAKKANI...' on the Mainframe Terminal. Once the processing of the File is complete, the COBOL CLOSE instruction, closes the file. No input or output operations are allowed on the File now. I ran the COBOL Compiler Software IGYCRCTL, and the Linker Software IEWL to translate my COBOL Source Program into a Load Module. Here's the Output-Listing in the Spool, when I run the Load.

Declaring Data in COBOL

Q. What is a Variable? What are Literals?

A Computer Program takes Data as Input, performs processing on the Input Data, and produces and Output. You would like to store the Input Data and Output Results in Computer Memory, so that you can retrieve it for later purposes. Let's take a look at how Computer Memory looks like. Just like on the street people live in houses, Computer Memory is organised as a series of Cells. These cells do not house people, instead they house Data. You can visualize a picture of computer memory like the one below:   Suppose you have stored the number 2, at some Memory Location in the Computer Storage. Next time, you want to retrieve the contents of this cell. How to go about it? In Computer Memory, how do you refer to a particular Cell or Memory Location? In the real world, houses on a street have different names. In a similar fashion, what you have to do is, you need to assign a name to the Computer Memory Location or House, say MY-NUMBER. And then, you can access the contents of this Memory Location, using the name MY-NUMBER. Next time, you simply have to say, "DISPLAY the contents of MY-NUMBER", and you'll get the Output=2. I am going to tell you a little more about the data(contents) stored inside a Computer Memory Location. If the data stored in a Computer Memory Location can change, for example if the value in MY-NUMBER can be changed(modified) to 3, such a Memory Location is called Variable. The word Variable is due to the fact, that the contents of such a Cell can vary or change. On the other hand, a Literal means constant data. Together, Variables and Literals are Computer Storage Areas, where data is kept, and identified a unique name.

Q. What are the rules for naming Variables?

Every Variable(Computer Storage Area) must have a name. It's a good idea to assign relevant and meaningful names to variables. For example, PRINCIPAL, NUMBER-OF-YEARS, RATE-OF-INTEREST are  self-explanatory names. Whitespaces are not allowed. If a Variable name has multiple words, separate them by Hyphens, like AREA-OF-CIRCLE.

Q. What is declaration of Variables? What is DATA DIVSION?

You can't directly store data in a Variable(Mainframe Computer Storage Area). First, you must declare or announce the Variable. Declaration actually causes the Mainframe Computer, to keep aside Storage Space for your Data. During declaration, you must specify exactly how many Bytes of Space you need, to store your Data – One Byte, Two Bytes, Three Bytes how much? Depending on your space requirements, the Mainframe Computer honours your request, and exclusively reserves(books) Storage Space for you. Now, you can go ahead and store some data in it. Remember that, the Mainframe Computer is like a miser. It does not give away any Bytes for free. Even if you want a single byte of Memory Space, you must first ask the Mainframe Computer for it. Telling the Mainframe Computer, how much space you need to store Data, is called Declaration. DATA DIVISION contains the declaration(list) of all the Variables(Computer Storage Areas), you want to use in the COBOL Program.

Q. How to declare Variables in the DATA DIVISION?

Declaring a Variable in COBOL is very easy. In COBOL, you code the data-name of the Variable, followed by Data-type. Suppose, I want to calculate Simple Interest on Rs. 1000, for 5 years, at 20 percent Interest. The assumption is, to store one character you need 1 Byte. To store the Input Data-Items on the Mainframe Computer, I shall need three Variables – PRINCIPAL(4 Bytes large), NUMBER-OF-YEARS(1-Byte) and RATE-OF-INTEREST(2-Bytes). How to declare these variables in COBOL? You always code the Data-Name followed by Data-Type.

Q. What are data-types? What are the basic data-types in COBOL?

Data-type indicates whether a variable can hold Alphabetic Characters such as 'A','B','C',... etc. or numeric data such as 123, –500, 6159, ... etc. The data that you can store in a COBOL-Variable falls into one of these classes : Alpha-numeric data consists of Alphabetic character and numbers. For example,  'HELLO 123 @$','INDIA IS THE 3RD LARGEST ECONOMY' are alpha-numeric strings. In COBOL, the Symbol X implies Alpha-numeric. Numeric Data refers to numbers which are used in Arithmetic-computation. 123, 3.14159, –642.70 are examples of Numeric Data. In COBOL, the Symbol 9  implies Numeric. Alphabetic Data refers to Non-Numeric Data. 'HELLO HOW DO YOU DO', 'NOT BAD!' are examples of pure Alphabetic-Strings. In COBOL, the Symbol A implies Alphabetic.

Q. What is PICTURE Clause?

PICTURE Clause specifies the Data-Type and Size(in Bytes) of a Variable. PICTURE Clause is coded after the Data-Name. You may code PICTURE or simply PIC. PRINCIPAL Variable is defined as PIC 99999. 9 means PRINCIPAL Variable can hold Numeric Data. As it is a PIC 99999, five times, PRINCIPAL Variable occupies 5-Bytes of Storage space. Generally, you can store one character in a Byte. So, in 5-Bytes of Storage Space, you can store a number upto Five-Digits large. NUMBER-OF-YEARS Variable is defined as PIC 9. NUMBER-OF-YEARS occupies 1-Byte of Storage-Space. In 1-Byte Space, you can store a Single-Digit Number. RATE-OF-INTEREST Variable is defined as PIC 99, which suggests it is 2-Bytes big and numeric type. In 2-Bytes Space, you store a number upto . FIRST-NAME Variable is specified as PIC XXXXXX. X stands for Alpha-numeric, so FIRST-NAME can hold alpha-numeric Data. Further, as its PIC XXXXXX(Six Times), you can store a alphanumeric Textual-word upto Six Characters large in it. Size or Length of FIRST-NAME is Six. LAST-NAME Variable is specified as PIC XXXXXXXXXX. This means, you can store an alpha-numeric string  upto ten characters long in the LAST-NAME Variable. You can code PIC XXXXXXXXXX, in short as PIC X(10). Similarly, you may code PIC 99999 as PIC 9(05) in short.

Q. What are group and Elementary Data Items?

COBOL provides the facility to provide a detailed-breakup of a Variable(Computer Storage Area). You can drill down a COBOL Storage-Area into smaller parts. Say for example, there's a COBOL Variable called EMPLOYEE-NAME, that stores the Employee's full-name. It is declared as follows - But, I also know that the Employee's Full-Name consists of his First-Name, his Middle-Name and his Last-Name, all put together. Therefore, it is possible to represent EMPLOYEE-NAME as a composite item – broken down into simpler items EMPLOYEE-FNAME, EMPLOYEE-MNAME and EMPLOYEE-LNAME, which is represented in COBOL as follows - Thus, I have supplied a detailed break-up of the EMPLOYEE-NAME, 30-Characters Field which consists of EMPLOYEE-FNAME, 10 Characters Field, EMPLOYEE-MNAME, 10 Characters Field and EMPLOYEE-LNAME, 10 Characters Field. EMPLOYEE-NAME is called a Group Data-Item. The sub-ordinate data-items under it – EMPLOYEE-FNAME, EMPLOYEE-MNAME and EMPLOYEE-LNAME are called Elementary or Simple Data-Items. A visual representation of the EMPLOYEE-NAME Area and its break-up is shown below.   In a similar fashion, the Address of an Employee generally consists of a Street, a City and Pin-Code. Therefore, in the COBOL Program you may specify a detailed break-up of Address like this - The Group Data-item Address is composed of Street, a 10-Byte Alphanumeric Field, City being a 10-byte alphanumeric field again and pin-code, a 6-digit numeric field. The Address Field has a sum-total size of 10 Bytes + 10 Bytes + 6 Bytes = 26 Bytes. Pictorially it may be represented as -   Likewise, the phone-number of an Employee, would consist of Country- Code, City-Code and the Actual number. Look at, how I've coded EMPLOYEE-PHONE-NO Group-Item in COBOL. The Full-Name of the Employee, the Address of the Employee and his Phone-No. together represent an Employee's Data. COBOL allows aggregation, putting together Data-items, under a head, a higher-level data-item. So, I have clubbed EMPLOYEE-NAME, EMPLOYEE-ADDRESS and EMPLOYEE-PHONE-NO under one roof, EMPLOYEE-DATA.  Take a look at the above picture. I'll just quickly run you through the EMPLOYEE-DATA Item's structure. EMPLOYEE-DATA is used to hold or store the data of an Employee. The Group Item EMPLOYEE-DATA is broken down into EMPLOYEE-NAME, EMPLOYEE-ADDRESS and EMPLOYEE-PHONE-NO.   EMPLOYEE-NAME is a group-item in turn, consisting of EMPLOYEE-FNAME, EMPLOYEE-MNAME and EMPLOYEE-LNAME Elementary Items. EMPLOYEE-ADDRESS is a group-item internally made up of EMPLOYEE-STREET, EMPLOYEE-CITY and EMPLOYEE-PINCODE Elementary Items. The COUNTRY-CODE, CITY-CODE and LOCAL-NUMBER together constitute the Group-Item EMPLOYEE-PHONE-NO. The EMPLOYEE-DATA Item can be represented with the help of a Inverted Hierarchical Tree-Like picture shown above. This is the structure of EMPLOYEE-DATA. In this manner, COBOL allows you to specify the format or structure of the data, by creating Group and Elementary Data-Items.

Q. What are Level-Numbers in COBOL?

In the Indian Military Forces, General delegates his authority through Major General, who heads Lieutenant General, Brigadier, Colonel, and so on. There are different ranks in the Military. In a similar fashion, when you describe a Data-structure or format in COBOL, every item holds a rank in the structure. For example, with reference to the example of the EMPLOYEE-DATA Item, take a look at the structure. This tree-structure has several Levels. Each level can be numbered 01, 02, 03 and so on.   At the top of the Hierarchy, is EMPLOYEE-DATA. As this is the root-level, or top-most level, this Level is called 01-Level. EMPLOYEE-DATA is said to be a 01—Level Data-Item. EMPLOYEE-NAME, EMPLOYEE-ADDRESS and EMPLOYEE-PHONE-NO are sub-ordinates of EMPLOYEE-DATA. So, they are said to be at Level 02. Similarly, EMPLOYEE-FNAME, EMPLOYEE-MNAME, EMPLOYEE-LNAME, EMPLOYEE-STREET, EMPLOYEE-CITY and so on... are at Level 03. In COBOL, you indicate where a Data-Item stands in the Hierarchy(Structure-Tree) by coding the Level-Number. You write the Level-Number, followed by the data-item name. For example, you should code 01 EMPLOYEE-DATA, 02 EMPLOYEE-NAME and 03 EMPLOYEE-MNAME. I have written the COBOL Code, for the above EMPLOYEE-DATA Tree Structure as follows - 01-Level Data-Items like EMPLOYEE-DATA, should always be coded in Area-A(Positions 8-11). On the other hand, lower-level data items like EMPLOYEE-NAME or EMPLOYEE-MNAME should be coded in Area-B(Positions 12-72). In the above example, EMPLOYEE-FNAME PIC X(10), EMPLOYEE-MNAME PIC X(10), and EMPLOYEE-LNAME PIC X(10) Fields together make up EMPLOYEE-NAME Field. The fact that EMPLOYEE-NAME Field is 30-Bytes large is understood here, you don't need to code or specify a new PICTURE Clause for it. The same goes for EMPLOYEE-ADDRESS Field which is 26-Bytes wide, or EMPLOYEE-PHONE-NO Field which is 14-Bytes in length. Summed up, EMPLOYEE-DATA Field turns out to be 30 Bytes + 26 Bytes + 14 Bytes = 70 Bytes.

How do I learn Mainframe Programming?

Q. What are the qualities a sound Mainframe Programmer should have?

In the IT Industry, engineers who build  software programs that run on Mainframe Computers and process huge volumes of Data, are called Mainframe-Programmer(s).  Any software-job(be it Mainframes, People-soft, Oracle, Java, or Data-staging) require good logical-skills. You must possess the ability to think with clarity, and solve problems. Polishing your logical-skills, and  sharpening your mind, goes a long way in becoming a Mainframes Professional. A typical Production-Support job requires you to be on your toes, all the time. When there's a Job Abend(a software-program that runs on Mainframes Fails), you should get into practice of resolving it, as early as possible. It's challenging, because the time-window is very less. One should also try to find the root cause of the Problem, so as to avoid it in the Future. In my project, we've gone a step further to maintain an Abend-Tracker Spreadsheet, so as to log any Program-Failures, how they were resolved, what preventive-steps were taken to avoid it in the future. Quick-analysis of issues, is the key-quality of any Production-Support Analyst. Familiarity with tools is also a must. Most shops use tools such as Expeditor for Debugging, File-Aid for working with Data in Files, IBM Software such as SORT, ICETOOL, IEBGENER, IEBCOPY, Scheduling-tools like CA-7 or OPC etc. Your Mainframe Induction-Training should therefore cover these topics.

Q. How do I learn Mainframe Programming?

There are no pre-requisites to learn Mainframe-Programming, apart from having basic computer-literacy. You can learn Mainframes from scratch, no matter how old you are, or what basic education you have taken. Firstly, start off by reading some good books. My personal favourites happen to be Practical MVS JCL written James Janossy, Advanced COBOL by Philippakis and Kazmier, Murach's CICS for COBOL Programmers. To aid your learning, there are many Internet Websites on the World Wide Web, which you can visit. Here is a compilation, of some of these websites that you can refer to. Website Description Link ibmmainframes.com A Public Discussion Forum, about different Mainframe Technologies. It has a large following, and you can seek help from experts. http://ibmmainframes.com mainframegurukul.com Authored by Ramesh Krishna Reddy, it provides simple introduction about JCL, COBOL and DB2. http://www.mainframegurukul.com/srcsinc/ Schlabb's World An excellent resource for zOS Application Programmers, which has several tips-and-tricks, tools. https://sites.google.com/site/schlabb/home University of Limerick, CS Homepage Department of Computer Science, University of Limerick, has a comprehensive collection of COBOL Tutorials and COBOL Programs, which you can practice. http://www.csis.ul.ie/cobol/ Get into the habit of referring the IBM-Manuals – the bible of IBM Mainframes. Its extremely important, that you read and constantly refer to the IBM-Manuals at the IBM Website. IBM publishes manuals(guides), which supply detailed information about every topic. Say, for example, you do not know, how to write the SORT FIELDS Control-Card. I would first search the IBM DFSORT Manual, on how to code the SORT FIELDS Control Instruction.

Q. Can I practise Mainframe Programming at my home?

To practise coding COBOL-Programs, and running them by writing a Job(JCL), requires access to a Mainframe-Computer. Just like, you pay for the Cellular-Phone Air-time that your use, you also need to pay for Mainframe Computer Time(Hours) that you use. Mainframe Computer Time doesn’t come free. There are many organisations and  institutes that rent-out Mainframe TSO User-id's for fixed time-period. In other words, you generally need to pay for Mainframe-Computer Access. Dezhi Mainframes are the  Mainframe-Systems, raised by a group of entrepreneurs which include – System Programmers, Unix Administrators as well as senior experts in this field. This is a not-for-profit Company, that provides free Mainframe-Access to anybody, who has a decent Internet-Connection. I am very much in favour, of providing free Mainframes Access for a non-commercial motive. This is a fantastic platform, for somebody who wants to learn Mainframe Programming, at home, and share their knowledge. All you need to do is go to the Dezhi Mainframes Internet-Website, at http://zos.efglobe.com/cgi-bin/mainframe/mainuser and register yourself for a new TSO User-ID and Password. You'd get an e-mail confirmation in your mailbox. Get a 3270 Terminal-Emulator Software, and connect it to the IP Address zos.efglobe.com. You should be all set. I regularly access Dezhi Mainframes to play around. Here is a picture, of how I connect to Dezhi-Mainframes from my Laptop at home. Now-a-days, installing a separate 3270 Terminal-Emulator is not required. In fact, today it is possible to access Mainframes using a  Web-Browser Application like Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox. To get started, you can go to Open BPM Project(on Hosted Hercules) at http://mvs.open-bpm.org/web3270.fcgi and check out how it looks like when you connect to a Mainframe. Here are the screenshots of my web-browser Mozilla Firefox connected to Dezhi Mainframes. TSO Logon Screen ISPF Main Menu Browsing my Datasets

Q. Which institutes provide Mainframe Training in India?

In the Indian-context, there are many institutes that impart Mainframe-Training. I suggest you to pay a visit to some of the coaching centers, see their facilities for yourself, and then weigh your options. The quality of faculty-members in the institute is what matters the most. Candidates should enquire about the faculty members, and ensure that they are competent enough, and are also keeping with the current industry-trends. Usually, working-professionals turn out to be the best bet. Other important factors to bear in mind are, Infrastructure Facilities, the duration of the course, the popularity or buzz, a dedicated placement cell(do they have a good network). Many institutes arrange Interview-Calls for Candidates, whereas others do not. Here is a list of Mainframe Coaching-Institutes operating in India.