Tim's Hercules Page (original) (raw)
Background
I am probably one of the more unusual Hercules and MVS users because I used Hercules before I ever used a real mainframe. One day in January 2005 while I was feeling curious I searched for "os/360 emulator" on Google and stumbled across the Hercules community. I was much more comfortable using Linux so for the first few months I spent most of my time playing with Linux on S/390 and zSeries while occasionally trying to figure out MVS.
I realize how confusing MVS can be to people who have no previous experience. I'm aiming to write the documentation on this site for all Hercules and MVS users, but with enough detail so first time mainframe users can follow along. That said, due to my own relative inexperience, there may be some errors or incorrect explanations here or there, but I have personally used all the steps I document on the site on my own system and can confirm that they work for me. I encourage feedback on anything confusing or anything that I may not have explained correctly or completely.
I would like to thank all the folks on the Hercules mailing lists who have helped me with MVS and answered my various questions. I would also like to thank the people who make Hercules and the MVS Turnkey system, as well as VM/370, DOS/360, and MUSIC/SP possible and continue to enhance them.
MVS Turnkey v3 Guides
- Installing Hercules, installing the latest version of Hercules for Windows 2000/XP and Linux
- Installing RPF, a free alternative to ISPF
- Installing and Using IND$FILE, a PC-to-mainframe file transfer utility
- Installing GCCMVS, a free C compiler
- Using GCCMVS, a brief tutorial
- Practical GCCMVS, some more practical uses of GCCMVS
- Installing RAKF, a security system inspired by RACF
- Installing HERCMD, a program that lets you execute Hercules (and host operating system) commands from TSO
- PDF Printing from JES2, a homebrew tool for automatically generating nicely formatted PDFs on the fly
External MVS Guides
- How can I import files from outside Hercules/MVS 3.8? (by Jay Moseley), includes a section on how to read XMIT files on MVS
Linux on Hercules Guides
- Linux on Hercules Overview, an overview of running Linux on the mainframe
- Installing Debian for System/390 on Hercules
Miscellaneous Hercules Information
Links
- hercules-390.org, the official Hercules website
- Volker Bandke's website, home of the MVS Turnkey system, New User's Cookbook, and many helpful documents
- Jay Moseley's website, contains many useful tutorials, compilers for MVS, and an outstanding FAQ section
Feedback
If you have any comments, questions, or if the guides are unclear or you spot and errors, please send me feedback.