Program testing using SYSIN/SYSOUT in DB/DC and DCCTL environments

One way of testing a message processing program is to provide an input data stream containing messages.

Specify a line group as a READER, then assign the input SYSIN to a local card reader. Messages are passed to the application program by GU calls to the message queue. No editing or logging of position occurs while messages are being processed. The accuracy of the end-of-message or segmentation is determined by the input stream.

Similarly, for output, you can assign a line group as a printer, punch, tape, or DASD device using the UNITYPE keyword for the LINEGRP macro. You can then assign the output LTERM for the appropriate device characteristics, although the actual device does not have to be allocated.

The LINEGRP macro parameters produce a DD statement for the control region, and the appropriate buffer size is defined for the output records. For printer output, a translation to the 48-character set, lowercase to uppercase, occurs; all other codes are converted to periods.