Episode 35 "In search of EXCELence?"

What’s New

• z/OS dependencies moved from Semeru 11 to 17 before November 2025
  
• Manual of the Moment: MVS Extended Addressability Guide for learning about address spaces, data spaces, and hiperspaces.

Mainframe - Looking at ages of fixes you haven't installed yet

• IBM has started adding a REWORK date to PTFs. The date may be a day or two before the actual availability date.

• Use case example: requirement with a policy that Security/Integrity (SECINT) PTFs that meet some criteria must be installed within xx days of availability.
• Fits nicely with the z/OS UUID support, from Episode 34.

Performance - Drawers, Of Course

• Martin explores the IBM z16 drawers, frames, and cache hierarchy.
• All of an LPAR’s logical processors and memory should be in the same drawer.
• Important because cross-drawer memory and cache accesses are expensive.

Topics - Excel Love It Or Hate It

• Martin and Marna discuss how they use Excel, and what they like and dislike about it.
• Graphing and customization difficulties were investigated.

On the blog

• Marna's blog
• Martin's blogs

So It Goes...