The Straight Story about SPMs
by Rob Dunn, ISM TPF Development

TPF APAR PJ22032 introduced the TPF Database Facility (TPFDF) structured programming macros (SPMs) into the TPF 4.1 base product. Now, there are two sets of SPMs available to all TPF customers, even those who do not use the TPFDF product.

One set, known as the TPF SPMs, is only provided with the TPF product. The second set, known as the TPFDF SPMs, is provided with the TPF and TPFDF products. This article only discusses TPFDF SPMs.

TPFDF SPMs were integrated into the TPF product to assist porting customer code into the TPF product. On occasion, the ported code contained TPFDF SPMs, which then had to be converted into TPF SPMs. Because the TPFDF product runs on systems other than TPF, we found that it was necessary to maintain two versions of the TPFDF SPMs (one version is shipped with the TPF product; the other is shipped with the TPFDF product).

Although the two versions of the TPFDF SPMs are functionally and logically equivalent, there are some subtle differences between these versions.

• The sequence numbers for the source files are different because the prologs and APAR histories are different.
• Obsolete SPMs have been removed from the TPF version of the TPFDF SPMs.
• Maintenance or enhancements will be applied simultaneously through separate TPF and TPFDF APARs. However, the TPF and TPFDF program update tape (PUT) general availability (GA) date for these APARs will not be the same.

With APAR PJ22032 applied, all TPF customers can use the TPFDF SPMs regardless of whether the TPFDF product is installed.

If you are a TPFDF customer, there has been some confusion as to which version of TPFDF SPMs you should use. TPFDF applications can be assembled against the TPF or TPFDF SPM libraries. However, the following are some guidelines to follow:

• If you already are a TPFDF customer, nothing has to change; you can continue to use the TPFDF SPMs. You can disregard the TPFDF SPMs that are provided with the TPF product.
• If you are a new TPFDF customer, it does not matter which version you use, but you probably should use one or the other, not both. In addition, customers with a TPFDF license will receive TPFDF SPM publications with both the TPF and TPFDF PUT tapes.

For more information about the SPMs, refer to TPF APAR PJ22032, which is available on TPF PUT 5 and also in the TPFDF and TPF Structured Programming Macros publication. If PUT 5 is not available at your site, call your IBM TPF support representative or visit our Web page at: http.//www. s390. ibm.com/products/tpf to obtain a copy of TPF APAR PJ22032.