In <[log in to unmask]> [log in to unmask] writes:
 
> We, a state agency that supports a Community College system, use HP3000s
> heavily.  There are, however, times when our users must login to another
> agency's IBM mainframe to enter data (employee insurance registrations)
> into their system.  Our users are requesting that we come up with a means
> for them to enter the data (once) on their HP3000 and have it update the
> other agency's IBM either in the background or in batch.
 
> I guess what I am wondering is, are there tools that might read a file
> and feed it to the IBM as if a user were keying it in.  It would
> obviously need to be smart enough to trap errors and keep itself
> synchronized.
>
> If there are other approaches, I would be pleased to hear them also.
 
It's not an easy solution, but if they're still around, Forest Computers
sold an HP1000-based "FNP" (Forest Network Processor) that would talk to
HP3000s, IBM mainframes, Honeywell systems, and several others. It allowed
terminal-to-host access from users on any system to any other system; in a
past life we used it to log onto an IBM mainframe from an HP3000 and vice
versa. It's claim to fame was that it converted all the various terminal
display formats into a common buffer format coming in, then converted that
buffer back to an appropriate format going back out. It even mapped function
keys between various machines.
 
We even managed to write programs that accessed the 1000, logged into CICS
on the IBM system, read data from transaction files on the 3000 and plugged
the data into fields on a CICS dataentry screen.
 
I don't know if they're still selling these boxes, or even supporting them(?)
This is definitely NOT a "quick and easy" solution, but as we were in much the
same position you're in (we could get things done but the 'BMers were
unwilling to change anything) it worked for us.
 
                        Good luck,
                         Chris Bartram
 
 
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