Technical detail
z/OS V1R11 offers, as an optional priced feature, the z/OS V1R11 XL C/C++ compiler.
IBM z/OS V1R11 offers better performance through exploitation of new hardware technologies. In addition to upgrading your operating system, stepping up to z/OS V1R11 XL C/C++ is the key to tapping into the benefits of new hardware technologies.
z/OS XL C/C++ V1R11 shares a common code base, including IBM's most advanced compiler optimization technology, with other members of the XL C/C++ and XL Fortran compiler families.
Porting C/C++ applications to z/OS
To facilitate porting to z/OS XL C/C++, our latest release z/OS V1R11 XL C/C++
enhances the Standard C++ Library with select features of Technical Report on C++ Library Extensions (TR1), introduces support for code that exploits Unicode literals and character types, and adds two new features enhancing GCC compatibility: GCC statement expression constructs and zero-extent array members. z/OS V1R11 XL C/C++ also introduces support for a select number of features of the emerging C++0x standard including extended friend declarations, external templates and name lookup in template base class.
Performance and optimization
z/OS XL C/C++ can reduce latency and lift performance with its new PREFETCH option. Prefetch instructions are automatically inserted to improve code performance designed to create faster applications. z/OS V1R11 XL C/C++ also boosts performance through improved tuning of IPA optimized code. The new REPORT option makes it easier to know what types of optimization were done which can assist in tuning for better performance. Upgrading to z/OS V1R11 XL C/C++ allows you to take advantage of new instructions in the hardware architecture leading to better performance and existing source code can be recompiled with no or minimal code changes.
Debugging
Clients can now get the flexibility and power of module level debugging in batch mode with the new debug utility CDADBGLD instead of using z/OS UNIX System Services. Importantly, performance of the debugger, especially at start time, is designed for significant improvement if the CDADBGLD utility is run before execution of the debugger. In addition, the new dbgld –c option allows for source level debugging even when original source files are not available, by adding captured source code into a module level debug side file.
Usability
z/OS XL C/C++ continually strives to improve usability to make it easier for developers to work with the compiler, and thus be more productive. z/OS V1R11 XL C/C++ introduces the MAKEDEP option, which can reduce the complexity of your builds, and streamline the build process. The SHOWMACROS option displays macros definitions in the preprocessor output, which make it easier for developers to follow complex macro definitions, and to determine the available functionality in the compiler, as specified by feature test macros. The SKIPSRC option improves the readability of the source listing by suppressing output of lines which are "#ifdef'ed” out. SKIPSRC makes it easier to look at the listings and understand them which can be very beneficial when working with header files and source files with large segments of non-compiled code.
