Product overview

Developer for z/OS® consists of a client, installed on the user's personal computer, and a server, installed on one or more host systems. Both client and host are installed on top of IBM® Explorer for z/OS. This documentation contains information for a z/OS host system.

The client provides developers with an Eclipse-based development environment that facilitates a uniform graphical interface to the host, and that, among other things, can offload work from the host to the client, saving resources on the host.

The host portion consists of several permanently active tasks and tasks that are started ad hoc. These tasks allow the client to work with the various components of your z/OS host system, such as MVS data sets, TSO commands, z/OS UNIX files and commands, job submit, and job output. The host components of Developer for z/OS are shared by multiple products offered by IBM.

Developer for z/OS enhances the basic access functionality provided by z/OS Explorer. Developer for z/OS can, for example, interact with subsystems and other application software on the host system, such as CICS®, and Software Configuration Managers (SCMs), if Developer for z/OS is configured to do so, and if these co-requisite products are available.

For information about Developer for z/OS itself, how it interacts with your system, and with the prerequisite and co-requisite products, see the Developer for z/OS Host Configuration Reference. The IBM Explorer for z/OS Host Configuration Reference gives similar information for z/OS Explorer, which is a requisite for Developer for z/OS.

To learn more about the functionality that is offered by Developer for z/OS, see the Developer for z/OS IBM Documentation at https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/developer-for-zos/latest, or your local IBM representative.