JCL Code Explanation
- Simple: A simple summary explanation provides the business purpose and a high-level summary of code function.
- Detailed: A detailed explanation provides the business purpose, the inputs, outputs, and key data records, as well as a detailed functional summary of code function.
- JCL code explanation is not supported on-prem.
- Code explanation is currently only supported for steps that contain
EXEC PGM=<IDENTIFIER>
.
Getting started with JCL Explanation on VS Code
- Left-click on a JCL file in the explorer panel on the left of the VS Code window to open it in the editor panel.
- Select the portion of the JCL step you want to generate
an explanation for and right-click on the selection.
Alternatively, you can double-click the step headers in the outline panel to make automatic step selections in the editor panel.
- Hover over watsonx Code Assistant™ for Z to open the menu.
- Select a Simple or Detailed explanation type.
For code explanation examples, see JCL examples topic.
Using the Chat Explain feature
2.4+- Click the watsonx Code Assistant extension on the side panel to open
the
Chat Explain
feature. - Select the portion of the JCL step you want to generate an explanation for and right-click on the selection. You can also choose to double-click the step headers in the outline panel to make automatic step selections in the editor panel.
- Select the program and hit Enter.
Alternatively with the code open in the VS Code workspace, right-click and select an option to view code explanation in the chat window. Follow-on questions are not supported for this method.
Getting started with JCL Explanation on Eclipse
2.3+-
From the outline view for JCL Editor, EXEC steps are enabled for explanations. You can choose to use a context menu or a keyboard shortcut.
-
If you select part of an EXEC step in the JCL Editor, your selection is expanded to select the entire EXEC step.
-
If you fail to select part of an EXEC step you get an error dialog explaining to you that only a single EXEC steps can be selected for explanation.
The procedure for code explanation is mostly the same for both VS Code and Eclipse environments.