News - Press Release - November 2004

COLE SOFTWARE ANNOUNCES GENERAL AVAILABILITY OF z/XDC^® RELEASE z1.6

AFTON, Va. , November 29, 2004/ -- z/XDC z1.6^®, the newest release in the XDC line of assembler development tools is now generally available!

Cole Software LLC of Afton, VA is pleased to announce the availability of release z1.6 of z/XDC^®. Major changes in this release include:

• Full support for the High Level Assembler’s restructured ADATA (HLASM R1.5)
  
  
• Full support for z/OS R1.6’s new ALRF support (“Address Space Number [ASN] and Linkage Index [LX] Reuse Facility”).

Existing z/XDC customers who wish to upgrade to this latest release can do so by sending a request to support@colesoft.com.

Release z1.6 features the following:

• Restructured ADATA Support: ADATA is a data file produced by HLASM that contains comprehensive information from the assembly process. z/XDC can use the information contained in ADATA files to produce source level maps of programs and control blocks located in storage.
  
  IBM made major changes to the structure of ADATA records in the July 2004 release of HLASM 1.5. z/XDC now fully supports the new format of ADATA file records for release 1.5 of HLASM.
  
  z/XDC remains backwards compatible with all older ADATA formats.
  
  
• ALRF Support: IBM's implementation of ALRF support in release 1.6 of z/OS represents a significant change to the operating system’s hardware and software architectures. With ALRF, z/OS can permit the reuse of Address Space Numbers (ASNs) in circumstances where previously they could not be reused.
  
  z/XDC z1.6 fully supports the new ALRF support that is in z/OS release 1.6.
  
  Please note that the changes that IBM made in z/OS R1.6 for ALRF are not backwards compatible. Consequently, all older releases of z/XDC fail in all instances of z/OS release 1.6 regardless of whether or not ALRF hardware is present. Therefore, z/XDC customers must upgrade to z/XDC z1.6 when they migrate to z/OS release 1.6.
  
  z/XDC z1.6 remains backwards compatible with all older z/OS's.
  
  
• Commands: z/XDC z1.6 has several new, changed, and newly documented commands including:
  
  
  • An update to the DMAP command that makes use of a built in nicknames table so that maps for certain common system control blocks can be referenced either by their dsect name or by their common name.
  • A new LIST ZAP command that displays the status of ZAP-related settings.
  • A new line command, Q, that when issued from a left-side input field (_), causes a SET QUALIFIER command to be issued for the address with which that input field is associated.
    
    
• Exits: Improvements to z/XDC's interface to user written exits includes 64-bit support for the interfaces by which a User Commands Exit calls z/XDC service routines.
  
  
• XDCMAPS: Improvements to XDCMAPS include enhanced performance when loading dsect maps from the XDCMAPS module and a built in nickname table that allows users to request maps by either their dsect names or their common names.
  
  
• Help: Updates include new messaging, an implementation change to the Online Help that lifts several product installation restrictions, and content updates including the addition of several dozen previously undocumented messages.
  

A z/XDC z1.6 Release Guide is available, which provides detailed information about all the new features and changes implemented in z1.6.

This release of z/XDC z1.6 is the latest in a long line of comprehensive debugging tools developed by David Cole since 1978. Dave designs z/XDC for programmers who work in the most demanding z/OS MVS environments. z/XDC dramatically reduces the amount of time programmers spend finding and fixing logic errors in low-level object code, no matter how complex.

Cole Software is a small, solely owned, software company dedicated to the continued development of powerful diagnostic products for programs written in Assembler that run on IBM Mainframes. Our company is an IBM Developer Business Partner and our customers are among the foremost of the world's software development houses and Fortune 500 companies. Users of the z/XDC product are some of the brightest programmers in the software development industry. Their dedication and enthusiasm influence and contribute to the continued enhancement and expansion of the Cole Software product line.

For more information about Cole Software or z/XDC z1.6, contact Robert W. Shimizu at 1 (800) XDC-5150 or sales@colesoft.com.