PL/I RESOURCES PL/1 RESOURCES PL1 RESOURCES

Literature

• What is PL/I? -- basic information about this marvellous programming language. A truncated version of the same may be seen at: About PL/I -- that will interest you.
• Why not use PL/I? -- if you aren't already using PL/I.
• The Year 2000 challenge. Liant Software Corporation released a tool to assist the conversion of PL/I programs to comply with Year 2000 requirements. See Year 2000 tool .
  Micro Focus purchased the PL/I products from Liant. (see later for information about Micro Focus).
• The PL/I Newsletter, No. 11, November 2009
• The PL/I Newsletter, No. 10, June 2008
• The PL/I Newsletter, No. 9, April 2006
• The PL/I Newsletter, No. 8, January 2005
• The PL/I Newsletter, No. 7, December 2003
• The PL/I Newsletter, No. 6, December 2002
• The PL/I Newsletter, No. 5, August 2002
• The PL/I Newsletter, No. 4, November 2001
• The PL/I Newsletter, No. 3, June 2001
• The PL/I Newsletter, No. 2, September 2000
• The PL/I Newsletter, No. 1, July 2000
• The combined COBOL and PL/I Newsletter is the successor to The PL/I Connection Newsletter. Earlier editions of the COBOL & PL/I Newsletter in PDF format may be downloaded.
• The PL/I Connection Newsletter:
  • The PL/I Connection . IBM.
  • The PL/I Connection Newsletter No. 11 , December 1997.
  • The PL/I Connection Newsletter No. 10 , April 1997.
  • The PL/I Connection Newsletter No. 9 , December 1996.
  • The PL/I Connection Newsletter No. 8 , September 1996.
  • The PL/I Connection Newsletter No. 7 , June 1996.
  • The PL/I Connection Newsletter No. 6 , March 1996;
  • The PL/I Connection Newsletter No. 5 , December 1995;
  • The PL/I Connection Newsletter No. 4 , September 1995;
  • The PL/I Connection Newsletter No. 3 , June 1995;
  • The PL/I Connection Newsletter No. 2 , March 1995;
  • The PL/I Connection Newsletter No. 1 , December 1994
• Take a look at Peter Elderon's white paper on Object Oriented PL/I .
• In Praise of PL/I by Lou Marco.
• Power vs Adventure -- PL/I and C ?
• Peter Norton rediscovers PL/I.

• ASCII declarations for the ASCII control codes 0-31 and 127.
• CENTER with 2 or 3 arguments . actually one of a family of functions for centering text, including CENTER, CENTERLEFT, & CENTERRIGHT. There's also LEFT, & RIGHT, which places a given string at the left-hand or the right-hand end of a string, respectively.
• COLLATE , which returns a character string of length 256, with all the characters in collating sequence order, from 0 to 255.
• COPY - a variation of the standard function REPEAT, which returns n copies of a string catenated.
• DATE. See below for the Year 2000 date functions.
• EDIT for editing a value according to a given picture specification. The picture specification may be created dynamically. This function will allow you to define your own currency symbol. If your system already supports the new Euro currency symbol, you can go ahead and use this function to display/print it. If your system does not support it, the function will also allow you to specify an approximation to the new Euro currency symbol. This latter can only be done in conjunction with serial printers.
• EPSILON , which returns the smallest value which, when added to 1.0, gives a result that is different from 1.
• GAMMA and LOGGAMMA for the Gamma function & the logarithm of the Gamma function respectively.
• HEX returns the hexadecimal form of storage as a string.
• HUGE returns the largest value.
• INDEX with 3 arguments , which starts the search from a specified position in the string.
• INDEXR with 2 and 3 arguments , for a reverse search. The search can start from the end of the string, or from any specified position.
• INDEXR with WIDECHAR support, for a reverse search. The search may start from the end of the string, or from any specified position.
• MAXLEN , which returns the maximum length of a varying-length string.
• RANDOM with no arguments or 1 argument , which generates random numbers.
• REM , a companion to the MOD function, for computing remainders.
• REPEAT , for those systems that don't have the standard REPEAT function.
• REVERSE , which returns a string that is the argument in which the characters (or bits) are in reverse order.
• SCALE
• SEARCH with 2 or 3 arguments , searches a string from left to right. The search stops when any character from a set matches one in the string being searched.
• SEARCHR with 2 or 3 arguments . Same as SEARCH, but the string is searched from right to left.
• SOME and EVERY .
• SUBTRACT
• SUCC
• TALLY (revised 12/10/2001), counts the number of occurrences of one string in another.
• TINY returns the smallest positive value.
• TRIM, with 1, 2, or 3 arguments , returns the argument string with blanks (or other specified characters) trimmed from each end.
• VALID , which validates a decimal variable against a picture format.
• VERIFY with 3 arguments is like the standard function VERIFY with 2 arguments, but the search can start from any position.
• VERIFYR with 2 or 3 arguments , for a reverse search. With 3 arguments, the search can start from any position.
• GETARG is a utility function that returns the n-th command-line argument. The first function reference MUST be to NARGS, which returns the number of arguments. Arguments are assumed to be separated by blanks. Arguments containing blanks may be delimited by apostrophes or quotation marks.
• BTEST, IBSET, IBCLR, and IBITS are four procedures that implement the equivalent of the Fortran intrinsic functions BTEST, IBSET, IBCLR, and IBITS.
  The first three functions manipulate individual bits in a binary integer, and are typically used in conjunction with IAND, INOT, IOR, etc.
  IBITS may be used to extract a group of bits from a binary integer.
• BTEST, IBSET, IBCLR, and IBITS are four macro procedures that implement the equivalent of the Fortran intrinsic functions BTEST, IBSET, IBCLR, and IBITS. They are therefore more efficient than the procedures described in the previous paragraphs.
• Two versions of the integer circular shift functions mimic those of the Fortran intrinsic function ISHFTC. This is for DR PL/I while this is for full PL/I.
  
• PACK and UNPACK are generic procedures for packing certain numeric and CHARACTER data into a vector.
  When the argument is a character string, the string is compressed "in place". This may be used to eliminate one or more characters from a character string.
  When the main argument is a numeric array, certain elements may be selected and stored in a vector, according to a mask. UNPACK reverses the effect of a PACK operation for numeric data.
  
• CSHIFT and EOSHIFT These procedures perform a shift on numeric data that is stored in a vector or matrix.
  CSHIFT. In the case of a vector, the elements can be rotated left or right depending on the value of a variable Shift. Values rotated out one end of the vector re-appear at the other end.
  In the case of a matrix, rows can be shifted "up" or "down" depending on the value of the variable Shift. Rows shifted out one end re-appear at the other end.
  EOSHIFT performs a similar operation, except that elements or rows shifted out one end are lost, and the values or rows vacated at the opposite end are set to zero.
  
• DOT_PRODUCT computes the dot product of the vector arguments (which can be real or complex).
• UNSTRING implements COBOL's UNSTRING statement.
• INSPECT implements a subset of COBOL's INSPECT statement.
• UNHEX converts a hexadecimal string to CHARACTER form (that is, each pair of hex characters is translated to a character).
• Numerical algorithms including least squares, integration, differentiation, transpose a matrix in place, gamma functions, Bessel functions, eigenvalues and eigenvectors, random numbers, and the like.
• The XPL compiler - a subset dialect of PL/I - is found at XPL.

• For that Year 2000 conversion, if you are using one of the older PL/I compilers, you might like to make use of some new date routines that handle Year 2000. In addition to DATETIME, which returns the date with a 4-digit year in a variety of formats, there are DAYS, SECSTODATE, DAYSTODATE, SECS, DAYSTOSECS, WEEKDAY, REPATTERN, Y4DATE, Y4JULIAN, Y4YEAR and so on, all in the file of Year 2000 Date routines . For a summary of what the PL/I's new Year 2000 functions do, look in Year 2000 IBM workstation functions .
  There's also a Year 2000 conversion tool, in beta test. For information, see REDWOOD. You might also like to pay a visit to their home page at Kiyo Design, Inc.
  Micro-Processor Services, Inc also offers a PL/I Millennium 2000 Detector.
• PL/I Analyzer is a reverse engineeering and re-engineering tool, available from Phoenix Software Technologies, 6701 Democracy Blvd, Suite 300, Bethesda MD 20817, U.S.A. Tel (301) 571-2431 email: info@phoenixst.com

  Version 2.0 (new) has Year 2000 diagnostic capability.

  Phoenix has also released PLI-2000, a tool for locating Year 2000 problems.

  Phoenix Software technologies provides tools and services for Software Maintenance, legacy Software reengineering and the Year 2000 (Y2K, Millennium) Problem including PL/I and Natural/Adabas.

• Micro Focus offers tools to accompany PL/I for OS/2. For more infomation, contact them at Suite 400, 2465 East Bayshore Road, Palo Alto, CA 94303, U.S.A. MicroFocus For a direct line, there's more if you read How can I reduce Development Costs .
• PLIFORM is a PL/I source code formatter, available from Magicon, Inc. You'll find them at: 909 University Ave, Suite 22, Los Gatos, CA 95030-2345, U.S.A.
• Peter Osterman's PL/I source code reformatter.
  The PL/I source code reformatter for Windows (formpli3.exe, ~800k self extracting file) created by Peter Ostermann of Germany and made available by the IBM Team PL/I members, can help make jumbled code more readable by putting statements on separate lines and pointing out the nesting levels by indention.
  The reformatter is a standalone product, is easy to use, and does the job in a few seconds. It requires just one megabyte of disk space, so give it a try.
  Send suggestions or comments to: Peter.Ostermann@nwn.de .
  More information and download on Peter's personal web page.
• REXX PARSE MACRO.-- This PL/I package from Eberhard Sturm implements the REXX parse macro on the mainframe and the workstation.
• C to PL/I CONVERTER.--In preparation is a C to PL/I converter. Covering a subset of C only. This is only an advice. For some details, see C to PL/I project. If you are interested in influencing what facilities are implemented, please contact the author. Best would be to submit a segment of your typical C code that could be used as a trial run.
• FORTRAN to PL/I CONVERTER.--A FORTRAN to PL/I converter is available. It translates FORTRAN IV to PL/I. Download the source.
• Some PL/I codes are available for downloading at: Stratus . Also, some Multics-related codes are available at Stratus , which includes an implementation of D. Knuth's MIX emulator.
• PENTOMINOES.--Why not give pentominoes by Manny Juan a try?
• CHESS.--Like to play chess? It's Dean Menezes' chess program that I converted to PL/I.
• CHESS.--Try J. R. Manning's chess program: White to move and mate in n moves.
• MORE.--Look in the PL/I Software Repository . Contributions are always welcome. Send them to me at the email address at the bottom of this document.

Editors:

LPEX is also available as part of IBM's Windows and AIX VisualAge PL/I compiler package.

See below under "help" for notes for setting up LPEX.

Books on PL/I

• R.A. Barnes, PL/I for Programmers, North-Holland, 1979.
• J.K. Hughes, PL/I Structured Programming, 3rd Ed., Wiley, 1986.
• G.F. Groner, PL/I Programming in Technological Applications, Books on Demand, Ann Arbor, MI, 1971.
• M.E. Anderson, PL/I for Programmers, Prentice-Hall, 1973.
• D.R. Stoutemyer, PL/I Programming for Engineering & Science, Prentice-Hall, 1971.
• R. Reddy & C. Ziegler, PL/I: Structured Programming and Problem Solving, West, 1986, ISBN 0-314-93915-6. Check out the Table of Contents .
• E. Sturm, The New PL/I ... for PC, Workstation and Mainframe Vieweg-Teubner, Wiesbaden, Germany, 2009. ISBN: 978-3-8348-0726-7.
• E. Sturm, Das neue PL/I (fur PC, Workstations und Mainframe) (in German language), 7th Ed., Vieweg-Verlag (2008) ISBN: 3-528-44792-3 See the Contents .
• R. A. Vowels, Introduction to PL/I, Algorithms, and Structured Programming , 3rd Ed., ISBN 0-9596384-9-0.
  Comes with a disc containing all the programs, procedures, and functions from the book. Look at a list of the main algorithms.
  The disc includes the source for almost all of the 97 new built-in procedures of PL/I on the workstation. The disc, first published in October 1996, also contains some additional and improved algorithms. The latest version of the disc is packed when the book is shipped.

Like to try out PL/I?

Why not try out the demo copy,
There's also the original Digital Research PL/I for DOS. It's the G-level subset of PL/I, of course, because it had to fit in 64K originally (I think). The compiler is free for non-commercial use. The URL contains the compiler, linker, samples, and replacement runtime.
Download the PL/I Programmers Manual, PL/I Reference Manual .
This URL gives all Digital research files on site, alphabetical. Other old sites may give some information: Digital Research PL/I for DOS. Digital Research PL/I for DOS. It's a subset of PL/I, of course, because it had to fit in 64K originally (I think).
If that site is down, you can link to a mirror site
See also DR DOS information.
Find the PCDOS section, and then check out DOWNLOADS.
Be sure to download the utilities (including the linker) as well as the compiler and sample codes.

You'll also need the compiler options (flags) to use it.

It you want Digital Research's CP/M-86 PL/I compiler, go to the same site as mentioned above, and go to the PCDOS section, check out DOWNLOADS, and the CP/M-86 section.

If you haven't a copy of Digital Research's PL/I Reference Manual, check out the appendixes in Joan Hughes's book PL/I Structured Programming for a summary of its features.

IBM Reference Manuals in PDF format may be downloaded by visiting the online library.

Patches

PL/I Jobs

View recent job advertisements.

PL/I Courses

• SHORT COURSES:
  • See forthcoming courses.
  • The Trainer's Friend.
  • http://www.training-classes.com/course_hierarchy/Computer/Programming_Languages/PL_1/
  • http://www.datatrain.net/library.aspx?id=2639
  • The Minerva Training Consultants offer PL/I Application Programming and PL/I Workshop.
  • Caliber Data Training offers PL/I course.
  • Altergo Education.
  • Aspect in Australia offers Basic PL/I Programming (M061), and PL/I Review of Syntax and Facilities (M062).
  • Introduction to PL/I Programming Workshop.
  • Apex Computer, Inc. offers PL/I course.
  • DATATRAIN offers a comprehensive PL/I Programming course.
  • PL/I Programming 30 to 40 hours' duration, in Australia.
  • AJCS offers a 5-day PL/I programming course (PL01). AJCS at Morristown, New Jersey.

    The above course list was updated on 2nd November 2009. If it doesn't contain a course that suits, or you want one in another locality, we suggest that you do a search on ALTAVISTA of GOOGLE for "PL/I course"; also try "PL/I Programming".

• TERM COURSES:
  • Dakota State University: CSC 105 Honors CSC 112 PL/I Applications Programming.
  • University of North Carolina at Charlotte -- Computer Science Department offers CSC2113 Procedure-oriented Programming in PL/I.
  • University of Michigan - Dearborn -- Computer & Information Science Department offers 103 PL/I Programming (science and business applications).
  • Dallas County Community College District -- offers COSC 1333 Introduction to PL/I Programming (mathematics & business applications).
  • Illinois State University -- the Applied Computer Science Departement offers ACS 274: PL/I as a Second Language.
  • California State University at Stanislaus offers two subjects: CS1700 PL/I Programming for Scientfic Application, and CS1310 PL/I Laboratory.
  • State University of New York at Farmingdale offers BCS 166 Programming in PL/I and BCS 256 Programming languages.
  • Indiana State University offers #254 PL/I Programming.
  • State University of New York at Potsdam offers CS285 PL/I Programming language (one credit).
  • South Carolina offers course 360 Numerical Calculus. It assumes a knowledge of PL/I programming.

Other PL/I sites:

• Yahoo: PL/I
• IBM PL/I home page.
• Peter Flass's PL/I home page.
• under construction.

Help

Tutorial

Updated: 16th April 2006, 29 March 2007, 7 June 2008, 2 January 2009. 30 October 2009, 10 July 2010.