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SPF/pc, Gone???

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Brian Kenny

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May 8, 2009, 8:08:32 AM5/8/09
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Recently I attempted to check in with Command Technology, authors of the
SPF/pc product, only to find the web site had expired and the phone numbers
in use by other companies/individual.
It has been some years since I last purchased the product (rexx support), but
I continued to check in yearly to see if new feature would entice me away
from the old version. I did this as recently as late last year, and at that time
saw no signs that they were about to pull the product.
A search of the internet failed to turn up any recent web addresses, new
owners or even recent conversations about the product.
- Does anyone have any contact information?
- Have any currently registered owners of SPF/SE heard anything from the
company?
So here I am, an MVS guy without SPF for my PC. Next thing you know it�ll be
an end to ISAM, CVOLS and reel tapes. Where will it all end?

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Michael Knigge

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May 8, 2009, 9:52:47 AM5/8/09
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> - Does anyone have any contact information?

No, really bay news!


> - Have any currently registered owners of SPF/SE heard anything from the
> company?

The last time I've been in contact with Tim Tetiva was 08/26/2008.

Bye,
Michael

Rick Fochtman

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May 8, 2009, 12:16:31 PM5/8/09
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--------------------------------<snip>----------------------------

Recently I attempted to check in with Command Technology, authors of the
SPF/pc product, only to find the web site had expired and the phone
numbers in use by other companies/individual. It has been some years
since I last purchased the product (rexx support), but I continued to
check in yearly to see if new feature would entice me away from the old
version. I did this as recently as late last year, and at that time saw
no signs that they were about to pull the product.

A search of the internet failed to turn up any recent web addresses, new
owners or even recent conversations about the product.

- Does anyone have any contact information?
- Have any currently registered owners of SPF/SE heard anything from the
company?

So here I am, an MVS guy without SPF for my PC. Next thing you know
it�ll be an end to ISAM, CVOLS and reel tapes. Where will it all end?

-----------------------------------<unsnip>-----------------------------
SPF/PC hasn't been updated since before Y2K. Their replacement product
is/was SPF/SE (SPF Source Edit), which does not have REXX support.

Dig out your old SPF/PC floppies and re-install it; that's as good as
it's going to get.

--
Rick
--
Remember that if you�re not the lead dog, the view never changes.

Don Bolton

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May 8, 2009, 12:51:48 PM5/8/09
to
Brian,

We also use SPF so I sent them an email and got this response.

Hello Don,
Oops. We just discovered what you had already known. Due to administrative
error, our URL had been allowed to expire. Our web site will be back on the
air in an hour or two.

Sorry about the inconvenience.

Tim Tetiva
CTC Sales

www.commandtechnology.com


Don Bolton
Director Technical Services
www.OpentechSystems.com

-----Original Message-----
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-...@bama.ua.edu] On Behalf
Of Brian Kenny
Sent: Friday, May 08, 2009 7:07 AM
To: IBM-...@bama.ua.edu
Subject: SPF/pc, Gone???

Recently I attempted to check in with Command Technology, authors of the
SPF/pc product, only to find the web site had expired and the phone numbers
in use by other companies/individual.
It has been some years since I last purchased the product (rexx support),
but
I continued to check in yearly to see if new feature would entice me away
from the old version. I did this as recently as late last year, and at that
time
saw no signs that they were about to pull the product.
A search of the internet failed to turn up any recent web addresses, new
owners or even recent conversations about the product.
- Does anyone have any contact information?
- Have any currently registered owners of SPF/SE heard anything from the
company?

So here I am, an MVS guy without SPF for my PC. Next thing you know it'll be

Brian Kenny

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May 8, 2009, 4:08:59 PM5/8/09
to
Don,
I just tried the CTC web site and it is indeed back in action.
Thank you for your post.

Michael Knigge

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May 8, 2009, 6:55:41 PM5/8/09
to
> I continued to check in yearly to see if new feature would entice me away
> from the old version. I did this as recently as late last year, and at that time
> saw no signs that they were about to pull the product.

I've been in deep contact with Tim Tetia since Nov 2006. He did a lot of
enhancements for us (and bug fixes for some bugs I've found).

One of the greatest enhancements is the ability to edit files with a RDW
(Record Descriptor Word, the 4 byte length field of every RECFM=V
dataset). This feature is so flexible that we can also edit files
downloaded from a BS2000 Mainframe (with a 2 Byte length field) and also
binary AFP-Files (2 byte length field following a X'5A').


Furthermore Tim has realized a command history function for us and the
new command "FONTSET" which can be used to change the editor font at
runtime.

And last but not least, he added support for newer Micro Focus COBOL
Compilers (Net Express / Server Express) so one can use "MERGEMSG" to
merge error-messages into the edit session.

Oh yes, and he implemented the new option "SCREEN" for the "PRINT"
command that causes SPF/SE to print a "hardcopy" (prints exactly what is
shown in the editor).

SPF/SE is much more powerful as one might think if looking at the web
site....


Bye,
Michael


--
Yours sincerely

Michael Knigge
Development


S.E.T. Software GmbH
Lister Stra�e 15
30163 Hannover
GERMANY

Tel. +49 511/3 97 80-23
Fax +49 511/3 97 80-65
michael...@set-software.de

Handelsregister: HRB52778 Amtsgericht Hannover
Gesch�ftsf�hrer: Till Dammermann, Klaus St�hr

CM Poncelet

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May 9, 2009, 1:54:11 AM5/9/09
to
Brian,

The CTC website is http://www.commandtechnology.com. However their
SPF/SE does not support REXX, or even numeric keyboard remapping.

I mentioned that mainframe 3270 emulators (e.g. TN3270 Plus and QWS3270)
do support keyboard remapping, but they replied they would not support
this (i.e. unlike SPF/PC):

Hello Chris,

SPF/SE 6.0 Standard Edition is closest to the obsolete SPF/PC 4.x.

All keyboard remapping supported by SPF/SE is found under OPTIONS, item
KEYS:

Standard Edition:

PF1-->12
SHIFT+PF1-->12
CTRL-PF1-->12
ALT-PF1-->12
CTRL+A-->Z (some exceptions)
ALT+A-->Z, 0-->9, some punctuation characters
3270-ENTER

Graphic Edition:

PF1-->12
SHIFT+PF1-->12
CTRL-PF1-->12
ALT-PF1-->12
CTRL+A-->Z (some exceptions)
3270-ENTER

We have no plan to offer any further mapping support.

Tim Tetiva
CTC Support

You can download a trial version of SPF/SE from their website if you
want to check it out.

Cheers,

Chris Poncelet,
CA

Ronald Wouterson

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Mar 19, 2021, 7:57:37 PM3/19/21
to
Op vrijdag 8 mei 2009 om 14:08:32 UTC+2 schreef Brian Kenny:
Hi everybody, it seems that the site of command technology corporation is down. Also no response on emails for support. I am very familiar with editing on the mainframe, however, the SPFSE program on the PC is also a great work-horse if you know how to work with it. If anybody has direct contact with Tim R. Tetiva ask him if he can make his last version of the program available. What happened???? I hope he is still healthy. I would like to give a presentation on how to do power-edits with SPFSE. Case: you have say 2000 variable names which have to be checked in say about 10 lines of code in which a part of their names are needed, so you have to create 20000 lines of code. You have a kind of model for that 10 lines of code. Now you have say maximum 15 minutes to realize those lines. In fact it should not matter if you have 2000 or also 10000 variable names, it does not matter. I like to show how to do it. My power-edit students did their exam. In the beginning working on this subject they were afraid but they all passed the exam in a similar case. Perhaps you people have a suggestion how to create the presentation for this. Making a video would be nice. Also it can be done on the PC but also on the mainframe. SPFSE is the mainframe-look-alike editor with extra's on the PC which I use most of the time. Thanks for any response. Regards, Ronald

Jason Dodd

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Nov 2, 2022, 9:51:23 AM11/2/22
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Unfortunately the creator of SPF/PC has passed away. SPF is now available on github. https://github.com/michaelknigge/spf-editor

Jason Dodd

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Nov 2, 2022, 9:53:22 AM11/2/22
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On Wednesday, November 2, 2022 at 9:51:23 AM UTC-4, Jason Dodd wrote:
> Unfortunately the creator of SPF/PC has passed away. SPF is now available on github. https://github.com/michaelknigge/spf-editor
While we're here, I figure I'd mention another SPF like editor. It doesn't not have rexx but the settings can be changed so that the editor experience is very similar to the ispf editor. https://github.com/sakachin2/XE
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