Supporting bidirectional languages

Developer for z/OS® provides tools that help you develop applications that use bidirectional languages like Arabic and Hebrew.

The term bidirectional support applies to special software and special user interfaces added to Developer for z/OS to support bidirectional languages like Arabic and Hebrew. Developer for z/OS provides tools that you can configure and use for supporting bidirectional (bidi) languages.

IBM® Developer for z/OS does not support the following functions on Linux® and macOS: bidirectional enablement with remote debugging, workstation-based debugging, local COBOL or PL/I builds, local preprocessors for PL/I files, local syntax check of PL/I files, or show dependencies for PL/I files.

Background and concepts

• Bidirectional layout (or bidirectional format) terminology
• Bidirectional layout transformation (or bidirectional conversion)
• Smart logical ordering scheme
• Bidirectional layouts and tools
• Why special tools are required by smart logical layout

Using bidirectional support

• Configuring bidirectional support
• Editing bidirectional data
• Using bidirectional file search
• Comparing bidirectional text
• Changing the bidirectional format of a file
• Creating a bidirectional conversion table
• How bidirectional settings are inherited
• Setting bidirectional conversion support for an MVS system
• Setting bidirectional conversion support for a data set or partitioned data set member
• Setting bidirectional conversion support for an MVS system mapping
• Setting bidirectional conversion support for z/OS UNIX System Services
• Setting local build options for smart logical COBOL and PL/I files