Appendix F: Sample Application

Overview

THE MANAGER FOR ORGANIZED DISTRIBUTION LISTS (MODL) is a DCL application that helps you manage distribution lists for the MAIL utility. A distribution list is a text file containing a list of users who are to receive mail about a particular topic. For example, you might have a distribution list for a software project; the list contains the user names of all the developers working on the project. You might have another list containing the names of all the managers in your organization. Distribution lists tend to proliferate, and the same people can appear in multiple lists. It quickly becomes difficult to manage the updating of distribution lists, and it can even take some time to locate the particular list you need.

The MODL system introduces the idea of a single distribution file containing a record for each user in the organization. The organization might be a project group, a department, or the entire company. The larger the organization encompassed by a MODL distribution file, the fewer distribution files there are. In addition to user records, the MODL file contains records for keywords, which are mnemonic identifiers for particular groups or projects. A keyword can be associated with one or more users who are members of the group or project for which the keyword stands. For example, the keyword MANAGER might signify people who are managers in the department. Once this keyword is associated with the users who are managers, mail can be sent to the...