BMS support

BMS (Basic Mapping Support) is an interface between XCICS and its application programs. It formats input and output display data in response to BMS commands in the application programs. An XCICS program does not use program language commands to perform input and output, but it normally uses BMS commands to communicate with the terminal.

The advantage of BMS is that it simplifies programming as the code is kept largely independent of any changes in the network or of the used terminals. Moreover it handles all terminal devices as standard IBM 3270 terminals, granting backward compatibility with those applications handling terminals with device-dependent streams.

XCICS/TS is completely compatible with IBM FULL-BMS management.

Also BMS maps definition is source-compatible with the mainframe one: in fact maps are defined using the DFHMSD, DFHMDI, DFHMDF macros system, like for IBM CICS.

Maps source definition coming from the mainframe, as well as newly created ones, may be compiled using "xbms2mod" utility.

For further information about BMS handling and map definition please refer to the "IBM CICS Application Programming Guide".