Editing ISPF (section)

==PC use==
Many of the early users of PCs were mainframe programmers or users, who were accustomed to and liked the ISPF panel system.  This led several companies to create partial clones of ISPF that run on [[DOS]], [[OS/2]], [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]] or [[Unix]] PC systems.  In 1984 IBM introduced the [[EZ-VU]] dialog manager for DOS PCs,<ref>{{cite news|last=Fosdick|first=Howard|title=ISPF key in convergence|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hCqdKWvxFT4C&q=ispf+ez-vu+ibm+software&pg=PA28|accessdate=October 26, 2012|newspaper=Computerworld|date=March 30, 1987}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Why IBM Isn't King of Software|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-S4EAAAAMBAJ&q=%22EZ-VU%22+IBM&pg=PA20|accessdate=February 6, 2013|newspaper=Info World|date=July 29, 1985}}</ref> and later [[OS/2]]. In 1991 Tritus, Inc introduced Tritus SPF (TSPF), a program to allow use of mainframe ISPF applications and edit macros written in [[REXX]] on DOS, OS/2 and Windows; the last release was 1.2.8 in 1994. Freeware ISPF-style editors for Windows include [[SPF/PC|SPF/SE]] and SPFlite.

In 1994 IBM introduced a built-in downloadable client program called the ISPF Workstation Agent (WSA){{efn|IBM has announced the intention of dropping WSA.}} that can install and run on OS/2, Windows and selected [[UNIX]] workstations; the z/OS version of ISPF only includes WSA for Windows and selected [[UNIX]] workstations. WSA communicates directly with ISPF on z/OS and provides a point-and-click [[graphical user interface]] automatically.

The ISPF Workstation Agent can be used to edit PC based files from the ISPF editor to take advantage of the editor's strengths.