PIE®/TSO-MultiTask

With PIE/TSO-MultiTSO, you can switch out of any session — even a session that is processing a task — and work in another session. However, with PIE/TSO-MultiTSO alone, processing can only occur in the session you see on your screen. Once you switch out of a session, it stops processing until you return to it.

This presents a problem when you execute a task that takes a long time to run, such as a QMF search of a DB2 database. Although you can switch out of the session now and then, if you want the task to get done, eventually you have to switch to the session and wait the task out.

PIE/TSO-MultiTask solves this problem by allowing TSO to process a task in the background while you work in the foreground. As long as the foreground session is not active — that is, you have not pressed ENTER or a function key within five seconds — TSO will continue to process the task in the background.

So you can view output, type in data, write code, consider how to respond to data on the screen, and so on, while the task in the background runs undisturbed. If you press ENTER or a function key, PIE/TSO-MultiTask immediately returns control to the foreground session so that you don't have to wait. Then PIE/TSO-MultiTask waits five seconds, and if you haven't pressed ENTER or a function key in that time, it returns control back to the background session which continues to process as before.