PicoC for MVS 3.8

Background

PicoC is a small C interpreter originally developed as a lightweight scripting language. I came across the project while looking for a compact interpreter that could be adapted to MVS 3.8.

The MVS Port

I ported PicoC to MVS 3.8 using the JCC C compiler. A number of Unix-oriented functions that do not have direct MVS equivalents had to be disabled or adjusted, but the core interpreter was otherwise a good fit for the environment.

FSS Extensions

After completing the port, I added extensions for the FSS Full Screen Services library. This allows PicoC scripts to use normal C-language syntax while interacting with a 3270 terminal through full-screen layouts and FSS services.

This makes PicoC useful as a lightweight scripting environment on MVS 3.8, particularly for small interactive programs and utilities where writing and compiling a complete C program would be unnecessary.

The sample programs provided with FSS should run as PicoC scripts without modification.