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Status Future consideration
Workspace IBM Z NetView
Created by Guest
Created on May 22, 2025

Add native support to Netview for running Python scripts in addition to REXX

With the current focus from IBM/zOS on advancing capabilities and adoption of modern programming languages on the Mainframe it would be nice to see native capabilities added to Netview to execute Python scripts in addition to REXX. While REXX is a good language, it has not received any meaningful feature updates in decades and it continues to be left behind in terms of capabilities such as it likely being the last in line for receiving APIs for interacting with EzNoSQL.

Python has the same benefits of REXX around being a very good scripting language, being easy to write and being performant enough for most scenarios, while being much more capable due to the tons of useful utilities that come built in on Python's standard libraries. Python is also a modern language that early professionals are likely to be more familiar with or share an interest in learning.

That being said, this request is for Netview to add native support for running Python scripts in addition to REXX anywhere where one could call a REXX script, one example being able to call a Python script directly from an Automation Table entry. To ensure no loss of capabilities when it comes to running Python instead of REXX, there should also be a Netview Python library created to permit execution of Netview Commands and PIPE. Ideally one would be able to indicate which virtual environment the Python script would be executed from as well, but I'd be happy even with no virtual environment support for a first implementation.

P.S. I understand one can already execute Python scripts using BPXWUNIX for example, but I believe a native implementation on the Netview Product itself would be better in terms of usability and performance compared to this option (Which I'm already using today).

Idea priority High
  • Guest
    Jul 9, 2025

    The requirement is known and the item is on a future roadmap - but no timeframe is known at this time. Keep in mind that integration like you want is non-trivial and because Python is radically different from REXX, we cannot commit to providing everything that REXX provides in NetView. Note that REXX will not disappear in NetView.

    Writing a separate Idea will not speed things up and it requires extra admin work on the NetView team's part. In the future, please do not open a separate Idea if one is already open. Additionally, only 1 vote per client counts, so trying to "stack the vote" won't change anything either. If you want your clients to vote, have them vote for the original Idea and not this one.


    Thanks, Pam