Frequently Asked Questions

With MLI do you have to make any application modifications or changes ?

No. MLI installs as an application to CICS and intercepts macro calls and ADDRESS command calls (including ADDRESS CSA) automatically at program run time. No modification to program source or load module is required.

Does MLI supports the CICS/ESA storage protect feature ?

Yes. MLI fully supports Storage Protection in CICS/ESA 3.3 and above with no CPU overhead.

What is the Stub size ?

MLI stubs are necessary only for pure macro level programs and are 40 bytes for Assembler and 72 bytes for Cobol programs. For PL/1 programs, the existing CICS stubs is reused.

Does MLI support mixed mode programs ?

Yes. MLI supports programs that have a mixture of macro and command level code.

Does MLI supports Cobol/2 and LE ?

Yes.

Does MLI support all standard DFH calls ?

Yes. All the DFH calls described in the CICS/VS Programmer's Reference are supported. DFHWTO, DFHOC, etc... system calls are supported as well as most CTYPE=LOCATE and BROWSE calls.

How does MLI stand up to high volume usage and does MLI create CPU overhead ?

MLI has a number of performance options that can be customized by the user. One option is the DIRECT LINK feature which can improve performance to the point where CPU consumption will be less with MLI and CICS/ESA than it was without MLI on CICS 2.1.2.

Does MLI support ISAM compatibility or unblocked files under CICS/ESA ?

Yes. With CICS/ESA 4.1 unblocked files are no longer supported. However, MLI provides a user friendly menu where the user can code the DDNAME of files that need to be defined as unblocked. This process is automated under 2.1.2 and 3.3 CICS regions by using RDM (FCT macro definitions).

Does MLI co-exist with debugging tools ?

Yes. MLI fully supports XPEDITER from Compuware and INTERTEST from CA.