What's new in HCL Z Data Tools 16.1

Latest service:
For details of the APARs that have been addressed in each release, see Latest PTFs for IBM File Manager for z/OS.

New features and enhancements in V16.1.0, March 2025 (refresh)

This refresh version of Z Data Tools includes the following new support:
  • Z Data Tools provides a Microsoft Visual Studio Code extension client with an intuitive interface to access, edit, and manage data sets and files on z/OS systems. See Z Data Tools on VS Code for more details about downloading the extension.

New features and enhancements in V16.1.0, First edition

This version of Z Data Tools rolls up a number of miscellaneous fixes. It also includes the following new support:
  • Z Data Tools provides updated internal COBOL and PL/I compilers with this version. Starting with this version, by default, the internal default COBOL compiler is used and additional internal compilers are provided.

    To determine which Z Data Tools COBOL compiler is to be used, a new option, ALTCOB, has been added. See ALTCOB for more information about the available COBOL compilers.

    To determine which Z Data Tools PL/I compiler is to be used, a new option, ALTPLI, has been added. See ALTPLI for more information about the available PL/I compilers.

    To discover the level of the internal PL/I compiler being used, a new command is available, SHOWPLI, from both batch and the Z Data Tools command line. See Customizing for processing PL/I include books for more information about submitting this command.

    Updated the security configuration to reflect compiler behavior changes; the Facility class profile FILEM.COBOL.INTERNAL is no longer used and has been replaced by FILEM.COBOL.EXTERNAL, due to the Z Data Tools internal compiler now being the default. See Customizing for processing COBOL copybooks.

  • Auto detect for compiler languages now supports Assembler and is more efficient. See "Auto detect" in Selecting your compiler language.
  • A new option has been added to the Editor Options panel, Show nullable column indicators, so that ZDT/Db2 displays an indicator for columns with nullable status. See Editor Options (4 of 8) panel for more details. For example output, see Table Edit panel, Table Browse panel, and Table View panel.
  • New keywords for the Z Data Tools DEFV function to produce VSAM define statements for Data, Index, and Catalog names in addition to supporting alternate Index, Path, and GDG data sets. See DEFV (Define VSAM Statements) for the syntax and details.
  • ZDT/Db2 IVP updates for supported versions of Db2 Version 12 and later. See the section Verifying the customization of ZDT/Db2 for the updates.
  • Enhancement of SQL prototyping. See Basic SELECT Prototyping panel.
  • Added support for simple comments in SQL statement execution. See Enter, Execute and Explain SQL Statements panel.