Wylbur Retirement: Preparing for the Transition

As announced in issue 243 of Interface (WYLBUR Will Be Retiring) and Titan News (April 7, 2009), Wylbur, the Titan mainframe editing and batch processing system, will be retiring on December 31, 2009.

Many of Wylbur's text editing functions can now be performed with desktop computer tools. In addition, we have many off-the-shelf products on Titan that will provide customers with the same functionality as Wylbur command procedures.

It’s time to prepare for the Wylbur retirement.

Help with the transition

CIT will do everything we can to help you find alternatives to Wylbur that suit your needs. We have set up the Wylbur Retirement website at http://silk.nih.gov/silk/wylbur as a central source of information about the transition and the different types of assistance available for Wylbur users. In addition, Titan News is running a series of articles on how to convert your Wylbur command procedures to alternate tools and applications, such as REXX EXECs (an interactive language for TSO) and ISPF (Interactive System Productivity Facility). ISPF is a multifaceted development tool set that runs under TSO (Time Sharing Option) on the Titan z/OS system. TSO and ISPF provide interactive access to the facilities of the mainframe system for application developers and other users.

For customers who use Wylbur interactively, we will be offering classes in ISPF, a full-screen editor in TSO. In some cases, we can arrange for small group consulting for an office or group of people who support an application using Wylbur. Please see the related article “Small Group Consulting on Wylbur Retirement Issues” in this issue for more details.

More resources for you

CIT has also set up a wiki (at http://wylretire.cit.nih.gov) where users can find a growing library of information on the various alternate tools for Wylbur procedures, including advice on using ISPF for basic mainframe tasks. CIT staff are constantly adding information to the wiki so be sure to check back from time to time. For more information on the Wylretire wiki, please see the relevant article “Wylbur Retirement Wiki Available” in this issue of Interface.

To facilitate discussion and exchange of information, we have also created a listserv that you can join at WYLRETIRE-L listserv (for more information, please see the June 16, 2009, Titan News article Join the WYLRETIRE-L Listserv to Post Comments and Receive Information).

We want to hear your questions and concerns

We want to hear from you and make sure we address your concerns. Please contact the NIH Help Desk at http://ithelpdesk.nih.gov/support or 301-496-4357, 301-496-8294 (TTY), or toll free at 866-319-4357 with your questions and requests for assistance. To keep up with the latest news on the Wylbur retirement, subscribe to the Titan News online newsletter.

Back to top of page