CICS® does not provide special commands for printing, but there are options on BMS and terminal control commands that apply only to printers, and for some printers you use transient data or SPOOL commands.
There are two issues associated with printing that do not usually occur in other types of end-user communication:
- There are additional formatting considerations, especially for 3270 printers
- The task that needs to print may not have direct access to the printer.
In addition, there are two distinct categories of printer, which have different application programming interfaces:
- CICS printers
- Printers defined as terminals to CICS and managed directly by CICS. They are usually low-speed devices located near the end users, suitable for printing on demand of relatively short documents. The 3289 and 3262 are usually attached as CICS printers.
- Non-CICS printers
- Printers managed by the operating system or another application. These printers are usually high-speed devices located at the central processing site, appropriate for volume printing that does not have to be available immediately. They may also be advanced function or other printers that require special connections, management, or sharing.
Last updated: Thursday, 27 June 2019