Key environment concepts
One of the challenges of learning a different environment is understanding the terminology.
The following table lists several terms that have different names in the mainframe and workstation environments.
| Mainframe | Workstation | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Data set | File | A group of related data that is stored and retrieved by an assigned name. |
| Allocate | Create | Assign a resource to a specific task. |
| Extension | File type | A tag of three or four letters, which are preceded by a period, that identifies the file format or the application that is used to create the file. |
| Open | Load | |
| ABEND | Crash, failure, hang | An abnormal completion of a program. |
| Catalog | Directory, folder | A file structure where data sets and files are stored on a system. |
| Job | Process | A program that is processing. |
| Task | Thread | A single unit of work within a program. |