Specifying terminal types

Having created a new set of translation tables you must provide a way for users to select the appropriate terminal type to refer to it. The simplest way is for the user to select the option OTHER in the ISPF Settings panel (ISPISMMN) and then enter the name of the load module (see Settings (Option 0)in the z/OS ISPF User's Guide Vol II). The load module is a member of a partitioned data set that is either allocated to the ISPLLIB ddname, or exists in STEPLIB, JOBLIB, or LINKLIB.

Validity checks are conducted on the load module to help prevent a user from loading bad translation tables. This could cause ISPF to fail until the faulty specification is removed by manually editing or deleting the user system profile. These checks are performed:

verify that the module name matches an 8-byte constant at the start of the module (as in the sample program ISPOWNTT)
verify that the uppercase translate table immediately follows the address pointer for the collating sequence translate table
verify that the uppercase and lowercase translate tables are 256 bytes long

If the load of the new translation tables fails, ISPF reverts to the previous terminal type setting.

Older methods for specifying translation tables are still supported. See these topics for more information: