Terminal device-dependent data

ISC, when used with IMS, is a technique that allows programs in various subsystems (IMS, CICS®, and user-written) to exchange messages with application programs in other subsystems. To minimize or eliminate the need to modify these programs, the messages that are exchanged should not contain device control characters that are unique to the originating or destination terminal.

The device control editing facilities of IMS (MFS) or CICS (BMS) should be used to remove these device control codes prior to the initiating program creating its ISC message. Likewise, the program that sends the response to a terminal should use the formatting service of its own subsystem to properly format the message before sending it. This way, all inter-program message exchanges can be independent of the originating and destination terminals. This means that each terminal's owning system should understand all formats for transactions that can be entered or received by terminals on that system.