Interacting With TSO/E

You can use TSO/E in many environments, such as with the Interactive System Productivity Facility/Program Development Facility (ISPF/PDF), Session Manager, and line mode TSO/E. How you interact with TSO/E depends upon the environment. Line mode TSO/E is the basic TSO/E environment and this topic primarily deals with that basic environment.

On most display terminals, when you are in line mode TSO/E, three asterisks, ***, on the screen mean that you are to press the Enter key to continue. You see *** when:

The screen is full and you need to go to another screen
A process has completed and the system is ready for your input
You were temporarily interrupted by a broadcast message and can now resume your work

The READY mode message indicates that the system is ready for a command. When a command executes successfully, you see another READY mode message. When a command executes unsuccessfully, you generally see a message.