Press Release
 
 

Mr. Chuck Arney Telephone: 214-296-6166
Arney Computer Systems Fax: 214-296-5468
P.O. Box 382511 Internet: arney@metronet.com
Duncanville, TX 75138

*** New Product Announcement ***

Dallas, Texas, April 21, 1995 -- Arney Computer Systems is pleased to announce the availability of its latest software product for the IBM mainframe VSE/ESA operating system. Auto-MPF/VSE runs with version 2.1 of VSE/ESA which becomes available from IBM today.

Auto-MPF/VSE is an automatic message processing facility (MPF) which helps data centers manage the operation of VSE/ESA system and user consoles. Major enhancements have been made by VSE/ESA version 2 in the appearance and operation of system consoles. The consoles now support color, PF key use, message explanation and many other enhancements. These enhancements are also extended to user consoles which operate under the Interactive Interface, and the hardware console. Communications between user written programs and the VSE console have been enhanced through the use of the WTO, WTOR and DOM macros.

These enhancements make the VSE console facility the most flexible and robust console in the industry. However, there is still room for improvement in the management of these consoles and the messages which appear on them.

Auto-MPF/VSE allows installations to dynamically alter the appearance of selected console messages by setting the color, highlighting and intensity attributes. A message may be displayed on a color console in blue, red, pink, turquoise, yellow, green or white. The message may be highlighted using blinking text, underlined text or reverse video text. Non-color console users may use high intensity to highlight messages.

Auto-MPF/VSE may be used to reduce console message traffic by suppressing the display of messages which are unnecessary. Suppressed messages are still written to the hardcopy file and may be viewed using the console redisplay mode.

Auto-MPF/VSE may be instructed to automatically provide responses to console replies. The autoreply feature can be used in cases where the same console response is always entered for a message. The operator's time is freed for more important tasks.

The text of messages may be dynamically replaced by Auto-MPF/VSE. Cryptic messages may be replaced with operator friendly messages. Also, Auto-MPF/VSE may be used to add additional lines of text to an existing message. VSE/ESA allows a message to contain up to 12 lines of text, but most messages consist of a single line. Additional lines may be dynamically added to a message to provide additional operator instruction or additional details about an error.

Auto-MPF/VSE supports the routing of messages to specific user consoles. VSE/ESA provides support for user consoles which only receive messages about jobs controlled by the console owner. Auto-MPF/VSE extends the user console facility by re-routing selected messages to specific user consoles. For example, tape mount messages may be routed to a tape operator console and print messages may be routed to a print operator console. These consoles would not receive normal job messages which are displayed on the master consoles. They only receive messages that pertain to their area of responsibility. Messages routed to user consoles may also be displayed on the master consoles, or they may be suppressed from the master consoles.

Auto-MPF/VSE collects standard system statistics about message traffic and the actions that were taken on the messages. These statistics, which include total number of messages, number of messages per hour, per minute and per second, are printed by a batch reporting utility. A facility is provided which allow installations to define their own statistics. User defined statistics are accumulated by Auto-MPF/VSE as the system runs, and are reported along with the standard system statistics. The user statistic definition includes the report heading for the statistic.

Auto-MPF/VSE requires VSE/ESA version 2.1. It uses only documented and supported VSE system interfaces. It contains no code hooks or system phase renames. It operates as an extension of the operating system and therefore, does not require a partition. Auto-MPF/VSE places most of its code, tables and buffers into system storage above 16 megabytes. It uses only 3K of storage below the 16 megabyte line.