Although program management components provide many services, they are used primarily to convert object decks into executable programs, store them in program libraries, and load them into virtual storage for execution.

You can use the program management binder and loader to perform these tasks. These components can also be used in conjunction with the linkage editor. A load module produced by the linkage editor can be accepted as input by the binder, or can be loaded into storage for execution by the program management loader. The linkage editor can also process load modules produced by the binder.

Figure 1 shows how the program management components work together, and how each one is used to prepare an executable program. We have already discussed some of these components (source modules and object decks), so now we take a look at the rest of them.

Figure 1. Using program management components to create and load programs