IET Product Update
IET presented an update of their product set – as has been mentioned in this blog before, VefifIEr is the “new kid on the block” and is a very capable product. More interesting, however was the information presented on xTrace – a product to trace z/OS executables from Meisner IT (with whom IET have partnered).
Why was the product developed ? There are minimal z/OS trace facilities within the native toolset. xTrace adds to these capabilities and makes the trace tools more on a par with what the Windows and Unix Gen developers are used to.
The objectives of the tool (productivity improvements, single interface, low overhead, and eas of use) appear to have been met, as the screenshots that were included as part of the presentation showed. The tracing interface is a Windows interface, which means that the learning curve for developers switching technologies is lower than if they were to learn a different tracing tool.
Portions of the tool bring much-needed functionality to z/OS tracing – setting breakpoints (conditional and un-conditional) – to name one.
This tool has been around a while, but with IET backing it, it should get the audience that it deserves.
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