Split screen
The ISPF feature that runs several screens in one session, so you can, for example, edit JCL in one and watch the job in another.
Also written SPLIT, SWAP, PF2, PF9, logical screen, SWAP LIST
ISPF lets you have several screens open in one session, called logical screens. The most common use is to edit JCL in one screen and look at the job's output in SDSF in another, switching between them without leaving either.
PF2, the SPLIT command, opens a new screen. On a standard setup the display divides at the cursor line, with one screen above and one below. PF9, the SWAP command, moves you between them. SWAP LIST shows every screen you have open, and lets you jump straight to one. The START command opens a new screen running a particular function.
Many people prefer to have each screen take the whole display and simply swap between them, which ISPF settings allow.
Each logical screen keeps its own place, so you can stop halfway through an edit, look something up, and return to exactly where you were. Remember to end the screens you no longer need, because an edit left open in a forgotten screen keeps the dataset reserved, and other people or jobs may have to wait for it.
Where can I learn this hands-on?
Right here, at ZedBank. You take a junior job at a simulated bank and learn each part of the work by doing it, with Zed beside you. There's nothing to install.
Start at ZedBankRelated
- ISPFThe full-screen, menu-driven workbench most people use to do their day-to-day work on z/OS.
- PF keysThe function keys F1 to F24, which carry the main actions on a mainframe screen: help, exit, save, page up and down.
- ISPF panelA single screen within ISPF, whether a menu, a list or a form, identified by a number you can jump straight to.
- ISPF editorThe full-screen text editor used to write and change JCL, COBOL, REXX and anything else held in a dataset.
- SDSFThe tool for looking at what jobs are running, what has finished, and what output they produced.