EBCDIC viewer for Windows

[Linda Mooney]

Greetings!

I am looking for an EBCDIC viewer for Windows, to view flat datasets that were created on the mainframe. Edit is not necessary for what I need. Can anyone recommend one for me? Originally, I was looking for a plugin for Notepad++, but didn't find one.

Thanks,

Linda

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[R.S.]

W dniu 2014-06-22 09:49, Linda Mooney pisze:

> Greetings!
>
> I am looking for an EBCDIC viewer for Windows, to view flat datasets that were created on the mainframe. Edit is not necessary for what I need. Can anyone recommend one for me? Originally, I was looking for a plugin for Notepad++, but didn't find one.

MS Word. You can open text file and choose one of plenty EBCDIC
codepages available. Of course MS Word is not free tool.

--
Radoslaw Skorupka
Lodz, Poland






---
Treść tej wiadomości może zawierać informacje prawnie chronione Banku przeznaczone wyłącznie do użytku służbowego adresata. Odbiorcą może być jedynie jej adresat z wyłączeniem dostępu osób trzecich. Jeżeli nie jesteś adresatem niniejszej wiadomości lub pracownikiem upoważnionym do jej przekazania adresatowi, informujemy, że jej rozpowszechnianie, kopiowanie, rozprowadzanie lub inne działanie o podobnym charakterze jest prawnie zabronione i może być karalne. Jeżeli otrzymałeś tę wiadomość omyłkowo, prosimy niezwłocznie zawiadomić nadawcę wysyłając odpowiedź oraz trwale usunąć tę wiadomość włączając w to wszelkie jej kopie wydrukowane lub zapisane na dysku.

This e-mail may contain legally privileged information of the Bank and is intended solely for business use of the addressee. This e-mail may only be received by the addressee and may not be disclosed to any third parties. If you are not the intended addressee of this e-mail or the employee authorized to forward it to the addressee, be advised that any dissemination, copying, distribution or any other similar activity is legally prohibited and may be punishable. If you received this e-mail by mistake please advise the sender immediately by using the reply facility in your e-mail software and delete permanently this e-mail including any copies of it either printed or saved to hard drive.

mBank S.A. z siedzibą w Warszawie, ul. Senatorska 18, 00-950 Warszawa, www.mBank.pl, e-mail: kon...@mBank.pl
Sąd Rejonowy dla m. st. Warszawy XII Wydział Gospodarczy Krajowego Rejestru Sądowego, nr rejestru przedsiębiorców KRS 0000025237, NIP: 526-021-50-88. Według stanu na dzień 01.01.2014 r. kapitał zakładowy mBanku S.A. (w całości wpłacony) wynosi 168.696.052 złote.

[Andrew Rowley]

On 22/06/2014 17:49, Linda Mooney wrote:
> Greetings!
>
> I am looking for an EBCDIC viewer for Windows, to view flat datasets that were created on the mainframe. Edit is not necessary for what I need. Can anyone recommend one for me? Originally, I was looking for a plugin for Notepad++, but didn't find one.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Linda

I have found V File viewer very useful.

http://www.fileviewer.com/


--
and...@blackhillsoftware.com
+61 413 302 386

[Joel C. Ewing]

On 06/22/2014 07:21 AM, Andrew Rowley wrote:
> On 22/06/2014 17:49, Linda Mooney wrote:

>> Greetings!
>>
>> I am looking for an EBCDIC viewer for Windows, to view flat datasets
>> that were created on the mainframe. Edit is not necessary for what I
>> need. Can anyone recommend one for me? Originally, I was looking for
>> a plugin for Notepad++, but didn't find one.
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Linda
>

> I have found V File viewer very useful.
>
> http://www.fileviewer.com/
>
>

WnBrowse? (freeware)

--
Joel C. Ewing, Bentonville, AR jce...@acm.org

[Paul Gilmartin]

On 2014-06-22, at 01:49, Linda Mooney wrote:
>
> I am looking for an EBCDIC viewer for Windows, to view flat datasets that were created on the mainframe. Edit is not necessary for what I need. Can anyone recommend one for me? Originally, I was looking for a plugin for Notepad++, but didn't find one.
>

Apparently Cygwin provides the "iconv" command:

https://cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/2011-10/msg00102.html

... but I'd beware of the effect of IBM's incorrect mapping of
the <LF> character.

-- gil

[Roger Bolan]

There is a plugin called TextFX for Notepad++ that you could use in this
way: Select all the text and and use the TextFX menu to choose TextFX
Convert and convert EBCDIC to ASCII. That's not quite just viewing
exactly what the EBCDIC is, but it will allow you to read text. Be careful
about not saving the ASCII text unless that is what you want to do.


On Sun, Jun 22, 2014 at 1:49 AM, Linda Mooney <Linda....@comcast.net>
wrote:

[Roger Bolan]

Apparently TextFX is not active in Notepad++ by default, you have to
activate it. See
http://superuser.com/questions/519366/where-is-the-textfx-option.

[Charles Mills]

I'll be darned. I never knew that, and I am something of a power user of Word (as well as EBCDIC, of course).

Charles

-----Original Message-----
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-...@LISTSERV.UA.EDU] On Behalf Of R.S.
Sent: Sunday, June 22, 2014 4:52 AM
To: IBM-...@LISTSERV.UA.EDU
Subject: Re: EBCDIC viewer for Windows

W dniu 2014-06-22 09:49, Linda Mooney pisze:
> Greetings!
>
> I am looking for an EBCDIC viewer for Windows, to view flat datasets that were created on the mainframe. Edit is not necessary for what I need. Can anyone recommend one for me? Originally, I was looking for a plugin for Notepad++, but didn't find one.

MS Word. You can open text file and choose one of plenty EBCDIC codepages available. Of course MS Word is not free tool.

[Bill Godfrey]

On Sun, 22 Jun 2014 07:49:40 +0000, Linda Mooney <Linda....@COMCAST.NET> wrote:

>Greetings!
>
>I am looking for an EBCDIC viewer for Windows, to view flat datasets that were created on the mainframe. Edit is not necessary for what I need. Can anyone recommend one for me? Originally, I was looking for a plugin for Notepad++, but didn't find one.
>

If the file you want to view has fixed-length records, here is something that is free. The programs dd.exe, cut.exe, and tr.exe from the UnxUtils zip file can be used to convert an EBCDIC file of fixed-length records to ASCII text files. They work on 32-bit and 64-bit systems.

The programs are in a zip file at this site:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/unxutils/

You don't need all the files from the zip file, only those 3.

Extract them and set your "Command Prompt" PATH to include the directory where they are located.

Say you have an EBCDIC file named "ebcdic.bin" that someone may have created by downloading a RECFM=FB LRECL=80 data set from a mainframe with IND$FILE in binary mode, or FTP in binary mode.

To convert that to an ASCII text file named "ascii.txt" run this:

dd if=ebcdic.bin conv=ascii,unblock cbs=80 | cut -c1- >ascii.txt

The "dd" command is going to write ASCII text with only CR as the line separator, but CRLF is usually needed instead. The "cut" command in UnxUtils has the useful property of converting CR end-of-line characters to CRLF, in addition to its normal function of selecting specified columns from each line. Changing the CR to CRLF is not something that "cut" does on unix systems, but the version in UnxUtils happens to do that, which makes it a handy tool for that kind of conversion.

To change the way certain EBCDIC characters are translated, the "tr" command can be used, specifying octal values. In this example, the characters for cent, exclamation point, vertical bar, split vertical bar, left and right square brackets, and not-sign are translated from what "dd" made them to what a code page 1047-to-ISO8859-1 translation would have made them.

The following 3 lines should be entered as one line:

dd if=ebcdic.bin conv=ascii,unblock cbs=80 |
tr \133\041\135\174\325\345\330 \242\174\041\246\133\135\254 |
cut -c1- >ascii.txt

(There is a space between \330 and \242. There is no space before unblock.)

To briefly explain the "tr" command above:

"dd" translated EBCDIC cent to hex 5b (octal 133) but this "tr" will change octal 133 to hex a2 (octal 242), the cent sign in ISO8859-1.

"dd" translated EBCDIC open-bracket to hex d5 (octal 325) but this "tr" will change octal 325 to hex 5b (octal 133), the ASCII open-bracket.

The 6 EBCDIC characters assigned to hex 4a, 4f, 5a, 6a, ad, b0, and bd, as translated by "dd", are re-translated by the "tr". If your data does not have any of these, then you won't need the "tr".

Bill

[Farley, Peter x23353]

The open source jEdit editor allows you to set the "Buffer options" for a particular file to any of several dozen different code pages, among them IBM037 and IBM1047. I have successfully browsed XMIT datasets from CBT zip files using this technique (though of course XMIT Manager is much more friendly).

Changing the jEdit "Buffer options" implies no change to the file itself, so can be used for browsing purposes. In the 5.0.0 version I did have to load the file, change the buffer options, close the file and re-open it in the same jEdit session to see the EBCDIC text displayed correctly. Not sure if that is a bug or not, but it does work.

HTH

Peter

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[Tony Harminc]

On 22 June 2014 03:49, Linda Mooney <Linda....@comcast.net> wrote:
> I am looking for an EBCDIC viewer for Windows, to view flat datasets that were created on the mainframe.

I usually use the HxD editor for this. http://mh-nexus.de/en/hxd

It's a general purpose hex editor with lots of bells & whistles, but
it's easy to configure it to display only the text and not the hex.

The biggest issue, imo, is dealing with the various representations of
EBCDIC data on Windows. I don't so much mean code pages, but more line
ending sequences, fixed vs variable length records, and the like. HxD
doesn't honour line ending sequences, but it can be set to display an
arbitrary number of characters per line, so for F or FB records it
works very well. And if you are ever doubtful about some character or
other, you can turn on hex display mode and see what's really there.

Tony H.

[Kirk Wolf]

FWIW, if you already use Eclipse, the text editor supports setting the
codepage via the properties dialog.

[Howard Turetzky]

There is always my favorite workhorse for EBCDIC (or ASCII or binary), HexEdit Pro, http://www.hexeditpro.com/. It's not free, but it's well worth the price. It's very powerful and frequently updated with new function.

Howard Turetzky
Ricoh

[Tony IBM-MAIN]

I use NoteTab Light to view EBCDIC text on a PC. It has limitations.
Determining line lengths is difficult as EBCDIC wont necessarily have a
CR/LF. And it isn't aware of RWD for VB files. But if you just need read
some text it is good enough.

NoteTab Light is free and far better than the standard Notepad.

Tony.

[Paul Gilmartin]

On Thu, 31 Jul 2014 13:07:25 +0100, Tony IBM-MAIN wrote:
>
>I use NoteTab Light to view EBCDIC text on a PC. It has limitations.
>Determining line lengths is difficult as EBCDIC wont necessarily have a
>CR/LF. And it isn't aware of RWD for VB files. But if you just need read
>some text it is good enough.
>
>NoteTab Light is free and far better than the standard Notepad.
>

I'm curious. I believe that if you transfer the file from mainframe to PC
as text with either FTP or IND$FILE, EBCDIC will be translated to ASCII
and RDWs converted to CF/LF. What technique do you use that doesn't
do this for you?

-- gil

[R.S.]

W dniu 2014-07-31 15:05, Paul Gilmartin pisze:

> On Thu, 31 Jul 2014 13:07:25 +0100, Tony IBM-MAIN wrote:
>> I use NoteTab Light to view EBCDIC text on a PC. It has limitations.
>> Determining line lengths is difficult as EBCDIC wont necessarily have a
>> CR/LF. And it isn't aware of RWD for VB files. But if you just need read
>> some text it is good enough.
>>
>> NoteTab Light is free and far better than the standard Notepad.
>>
> I'm curious. I believe that if you transfer the file from mainframe to PC
> as text with either FTP or IND$FILE, EBCDIC will be translated to ASCII
> and RDWs converted to CF/LF. What technique do you use that doesn't
> do this for you?
>

Since you can switch the translation off, the question IMHO is "why do
you use such technique?"


Personally I use EBCDIC-ASCII translation for text files, and some XMIT
Explorer for XMITted PDS(E)s, so I don't need to view EBCDIC files in
text viewer.
However sometimes (RARELY) I get a file from third party in EBCDIC -
then I use PC conversion/view tools. Example - SCRT tool.

Regards

--
Radoslaw Skorupka
Lodz, Poland






---
Treść tej wiadomości może zawierać informacje prawnie chronione Banku przeznaczone wyłącznie do użytku służbowego adresata. Odbiorcą może być jedynie jej adresat z wyłączeniem dostępu osób trzecich. Jeżeli nie jesteś adresatem niniejszej wiadomości lub pracownikiem upoważnionym do jej przekazania adresatowi, informujemy, że jej rozpowszechnianie, kopiowanie, rozprowadzanie lub inne działanie o podobnym charakterze jest prawnie zabronione i może być karalne. Jeżeli otrzymałeś tę wiadomość omyłkowo, prosimy niezwłocznie zawiadomić nadawcę wysyłając odpowiedź oraz trwale usunąć tę wiadomość włączając w to wszelkie jej kopie wydrukowane lub zapisane na dysku.

This e-mail may contain legally privileged information of the Bank and is intended solely for business use of the addressee. This e-mail may only be received by the addressee and may not be disclosed to any third parties. If you are not the intended addressee of this e-mail or the employee authorized to forward it to the addressee, be advised that any dissemination, copying, distribution or any other similar activity is legally prohibited and may be punishable. If you received this e-mail by mistake please advise the sender immediately by using the reply facility in your e-mail software and delete permanently this e-mail including any copies of it either printed or saved to hard drive.

mBank S.A. z siedzibą w Warszawie, ul. Senatorska 18, 00-950 Warszawa, www.mBank.pl, e-mail: kon...@mBank.pl
Sąd Rejonowy dla m. st. Warszawy XII Wydział Gospodarczy Krajowego Rejestru Sądowego, nr rejestru przedsiębiorców KRS 0000025237, NIP: 526-021-50-88. Według stanu na dzień 01.01.2014 r. kapitał zakładowy mBanku S.A. (w całości wpłacony) wynosi 168.696.052 złote.

[Paul Gilmartin]

On 2014-07-31, at 07:37, R.S. wrote:
>>>
>> I'm curious. I believe that if you transfer the file from mainframe to PC
>> as text with either FTP or IND$FILE, EBCDIC will be translated to ASCII
>> and RDWs converted to CF/LF. What technique do you use that doesn't
>> do this for you?
>>
> Since you can switch the translation off, the question IMHO is "why do you use such technique?"
>
> Personally I use EBCDIC-ASCII translation for text files, and some XMIT Explorer for XMITted PDS(E)s, so I don't need to view EBCDIC files in text viewer.
> However sometimes (RARELY) I get a file from third party in EBCDIC - then I use PC conversion/view tools. Example - SCRT tool.
>

If I got such, I'd be tempted to FTP to some convenient
mainframe as BINARY, then FTP back to the desktop in ASCII.
Record boundaries would probably be lost, but they were
probably lost before I got the file from the "third party".
(Who's the second "party"?)

-- gil

[maxa...@gmail.com]

Thanks a lot.

[Ron Larson]

I like HxD as a Windows Tool
http://www.mh-nexus.de/

It is very handy to view the real contents of any file, which you might need when CR/LF issues get introduced.