Lesson plan

Control Language

The Control Language (CL) is a scripting language originally created by IBM for the System/38 Control Program Facility and later used in OS/400 (now known as IBM i). It bears a resemblance to the IBM Job Control Language and consists of a set of command objects (*CMD) used to invoke traditional programs or get help on what those programs do. CL can also be used to create CL programs (congruent to shell scripts) where there are additional commands that provide program-like functionality (IF/ELSE, variable declaration, file input, etc.) Although CL is a scripting language for system administration, it is used mainly to create compiled programs. The use of interpreted CL scripts through the SBMDBJOB command is in fact extremely limited. While thousands of commands were written by IBM developers to perform system-level tasks like compiling programs, backing up data, changing system configurations, displaying system object details, or deleting them, commands are not limited to systems-level concerns and can be drafted for user applications as well.

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Article summary

The Control Language (CL) is a scripting language originally created by IBM for the System/38 Control Program Facility and later used in OS/400 (now known as IBM i). It bears a resemblance to the IBM Job Control Language and consists of a set of command objects (*CMD) used to invoke traditional programs or get help on what those programs do. CL can also be used to create CL programs (congruent to shell scripts) where there are additional commands that provide program-like functionality (IF/ELSE, variable declaration, file input, etc.) Although CL is a scripting language for system administration, it is used mainly to create compiled programs. The use of interpreted CL scripts through the SBMDBJOB command is in fact extremely limited. While thousands of commands were written by IBM developers to perform system-level tasks like compiling programs, backing up data, changing system configurations, displaying system object details, or deleting them, commands are not limited to systems-level concerns and can be drafted for user applications as well.

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Discussion questions

  1. Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
  2. Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
  3. If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?

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Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.