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This looks like something that should be relatively easy to fix - especially now that IBM has publicly stated they have increased their staffing for ISPF development.
The impact to this issue is larger than I first thought.
Because ISPF applications use FTOPEN TEMP, and FTOPEN TEMP does not generate unique data set names when used in a stacked session, ISPF has an internal list of all ISPF functions that are possibly affected. ISPF will not allow ANY of these applications to be used in the same session as any other; you can't even start the application without getting error ISPD230 (Recursion error/Recursive use of an ISPF function is not allowed).
The recursion blacklist includes at least: ISPF option 4 (foreground), 5 (batch), 3.6 (hardcopy), 3.8 (outlist), 3.12 (SuperC), 3.13 (SuperCE), and 3.14 (SuperC Search-for).
There are two ways to solve this:
A. Change every ISPF application from using FTOPEN TEMP to instead generate a unique temp file on its own.
Or, B. Enhance FTOPEN TEMP so that the generated file name is unique when used within the same ISPF session.
Open B would be preferred, because then all users of FTOPEN TEMP would be fixed. But it is tricky. The scope of a possible conflict is from the time temporary data set is created, until it is last used. When is that?
I'd think an algorithm for FTOPEN TEMP could be:
Generate a temporary data set name (i.e. the CNTL file name)
If this data set is currently allocated to a DD then go to step 1, generating a different name.
What that would mean is that to avoid a possible conflict, an application should use FTOPEN TEMP, and if the application is going close the file and then allocate it on its own, it needs to do so before the next panel display that would give the user an opportunity to entire an arbitrary command. As long as the file is allocated to a DD, other use of FTOPEN TEMP would detect it and come up with a non-conflicting data set name.
This item is not in our plans but is being kept in our backlog.
Creating a new RFE based on Community RFE #83438 in product z/OS.
Attachment (Use case)