I/O: At the bottom of each program you will see an EXECIO function. All I/O is performed through this function which first checks the environment and then executes the appropriate I/O. This enables all the programs to run on MVS, a PC (Object-REXX by IBM) or even an Amiga. If you wish to run the programs on a PC all you will need to do is change the 'TAKOUTPCIO' lines to be a full comment. 

Simplicity: The  programs have been designed to be simple rather that efficient - although you may not believe this when looking at some of the code. As these programs are only going to be run once, it was more important that they were easy to read rather than work highly efficiently.

Parsing: Only very simple parsing has been used. Unfortunately parse editors seem to vary on different platforms. For this reason, and also simplicity, SUBSTR function is used.

Comments: The programs do contain large numbers of comments to help you understand the program. Please add extra notes if you do wish to change the program and increment the version number shown at the top of the program.

Return Code: On most programs a zero return code means it worked successfully. Any other value below 8 means that a minor problem occurred but you can still continue with the conversion. An 8 means that a problem occurred which the User should be able to fix while a 16 means a program change is required.  Please read the documentation on each program for specific return code details.

CHCKFILE: You will notice that this function is called to check that a file header contains the correct information. If the User attempts to use the wrong file then this function ensures the job ends with an appropriate error message and a return code 8.