ISPF Edit Profiles

ISPF Edit Profiles

ISPF profiles allow you to customize your ISPF environment. For example, you can define the number of function (F-keys or PF-keys) keys supported by your terminal and change their default values. You also can tell ISPF characteristics about your terminal, such as the number of lines and columns on your screen. The ISPF editor also lets you define edit profiles ,which are saved in the ISPF profile.
In TSO, profiles are saved in a data set with a name of your choice.
If you don't create a permanent ISPF profile, ISPF uses a temporary profile during your ISPF session. Any customizations you make will go away when you exit ISPF. For more information about creating a permanent ISPF profile, see the chapter "ISPF Profiles."

A Word About Edit Profiles

The ISPF editor also lets you define edit profiles  which are saved in the ISPF profile. Edit profiles define your editing environment and let you customize it for different types of files. By default, the editor associates profile characteristics with your data set, depending on a number of data set characteristics. These may be OK for you... or they may not. The section near the end of this document titled "Edit Profiles" briefly discusses how you can alter your current edit profile. For detailed information about creating and modifying edit profiles, see IBM manual ISPF/PDF Edit and Edit Macros.

ISPF Profiles

A temporary ISPF profile data set is created automatically for you when you log on to TSO. It is assigned to the ddname ISPPROF. Since the data set is temporary, ISPF profile values are not saved between TSO sessions.

Creating a Permanent ISPF Profile Data Set

You can save your profile values between sessions by allocating a permanent ISPF profile data set. Enter the following command:
%ISPPROF prof.data.set.name
You must specify a valid data set name (for example, UF.userid.ISPFPROF). If the data set doesn't exist, it will be created and then allocated to the ddname ISPFPROF.
If the data set already exists, the command allocates it to ddname ISPPROF.
You must allocate this data set for each TSO session in which you want to use ISPF.

Allocating an ISPF Profile Data Set Automatically

This section assumes you already have a TSO start-up CLIST. If you don't, or don't know whether you do, see below.
Add these commands to your start-up CLIST member (e.g., $$$BEGIN):

FREE DDN(ISPPROF)
ALLOC DD(ISPPROF) DS('prof.data.set.name') SHR REUSE

The FREE command frees the temporary ISPPROF data set before you allocate your permanent data set.
If you do not know whether you have a profile data set, use the TSO LISTALC command to list your data sets and their associated ddnames as follows:
LISTALC STATUS
Look for ddname ISPPROF. If the data set name associated with it is one of your own data sets (your userid, a departmental high-level index, or other familiar index will be part of the name), then you already have a user profile data set.

Edit Profiles

Edit profiles let you customize your editing environment to suit your needs. The editor uses a set of default profile commands if you do not create your own. Edit profiles are stored in your ISPF profile.
Some data set characteristics implicitly specify an edit profile. These include the name you use as the last qualifier in the data set name (e.g., .CLIST, .TEXT, or .CNTL); the record length; or record format. Also, the editor makes some assumptions about the data set based on the first few lines of data, such as how to set the case, whether to use internal sequence numbers, and others. Any of the default settings can be overridden by issuing a command on the command line.
To see the profile settings currently in effect, enter the PROFILE command on the command line. The editor will display several lines containing settings that affect your entire data set. To get rid of these lines, enter RESET on the command line.

Retaining Profile Settings

The next section describes some useful edit profile commands and how to change them.
In order to keep any profile changes that you make, they must be saved in a permanent profile data set. See the section "ISPF Profiles" for information about creating an ISPF profile.

Changing Edit Profile Settings

To change any profile setting, enter the associated command on the command line. The command takes effect immediately and is saved in the profile when you enter the SAVE command.

AUTOSAVE

This controls whether the data set is automatically saved when you enter the END command or press <F3>. AUTOSAVE ON turns autosave mode on; AUTOSAVE OFF turns it off.

BOUNDS

Sets the left and right boundaries. The boundaries control which columns are affected by other commands. This lets you protect parts of your data set from being altered such as with the CHANGE command. To set bounds, enter the following on the command line: BOUNDS left-col right-col If you enter BOUNDS with no columns specified, it resets the bounds to the default bounds for that data set. The boundaries also determine where text will be flowed when you end power typing.

CAPS

Controls whether data are automatically converted to uppercase. CAPS ON converts all characters to uppercase; CAPS OFF leaves characters in mixed case. If the data set to be edited contains lowercase characters, ISPF sets the profile to CAPS OFF. Similarly, if the data set contains all uppercase characters, ISPF sets the mode to CAPS ON.

NULLS

Determines whether trailing spaces at the end of a line are treated as blanks or nulls. NULLS ON STD specifies that trailing spaces be treated as one blank, followed by nulls. This is very useful if you plan to use the <Insert> key function, since blanks prevent you from inserting characters. An empty line is written as all blanks. NULLS OFF specifies that trailing spaces be written as blanks.

NUMBER

Controls whether sequence numbering occurs in the data line. NUMBER ON verifies that all lines have valid numbers in ascending order and renumbers lines that are out of sequence. NUMBER OFF turns number mode off. Note that if your data set contains sequence numbers and you turn numbering off, you must delete the sequence numbers if you no longer want them. Sequence numbers are stored at the far right of your line, so, depending on your line length, they may not be visible on your screen. You can use the RIGHT and LEFT primary commands to shift your screen to the right or left to see characters that are off the screen. For example, RIGHT 20 shifts the screen right by 20 columns. Similarly, LEFT 20 would shift it back again. Sequence numbers in the data line are not the same as the line numbers that show in the line command field on the left side of your screen. Line numbers are not part of your data set, whereas sequence numbers are.

PROFILE

Lets you display your current profile, define a new profile, or switch to a different profile.You can define several different profiles for different types of data sets and tell ISPF which one you want it to use. To just view your current profile, enter PROFILE on the command line. For more information on how to define a new profile or switch profiles, see the description of the PROFILE command in IBM's manual ISPF/PDF Edit and Edit Macros.

STATS

Creates and maintains statistics for a member of a PDS. STATS ON requests that statistics be created. The statistics include the date of last modification, userid that modified the member, creation date, and others. ISPF will issue a warning message if it detects that the stats mode and the member are not consistent. Enter RESET to get rid of the message. You will see the message if statistics exist, but stats mode is OFF; or, if stats mode is ON and no statistics exist. Statistics are useful when multiple users can update the same data set; when a data set has many members; or when you want to keep track of when a member changes.