Convert::IBM390 -- functions for manipulating mainframe data

Convert::IBM390 is a Perl module.  It supplies various functions that
you may find useful when messing with IBM System/3[679]0 data.  See the
POD documentation in the module, or "man Convert::IBM390" after you have
installed it.

asc2eb, eb2asc, eb2ascp:  ASCII/EBCDIC conversion
pdi, pdo:  packed-decimal conversion
hexdump:  dump memory in an MVS-like format

How to Install
==============

The usual:

    perl Makefile.PL
    make
    make test
    make install

If your C compiler defaults to signed rather than unsigned char (many
do), you will see some warnings about type mismatches.  These are
harmless.  As long as the C code compiles correctly, the module should
work.

One More Note
=============

*** IF YOU CAN USE IBM390 RATHER THAN IBM390p, YOU SHOULD. ***

This module is written in a combination of Perl and C.  It should
compile cleanly in most environments.  If, however, you have trouble
compiling or installing this module, you can instead use IBM390p,
which is a Perl-only version of the same functions.  This version is
to be preferred, however; in my testing, the IBM390 versions of
pdi, pdo, and fcs_xlate ran 5-6 times as fast as the pure Perl 
versions.


Geoffrey Rommel
Technical Consultant
Sears, Roebuck and Co.
grommel@sears.com

January 1999