I often use the Work with Product Information (WRKPRDINF) command to sign on to IBM's online databases. One thing to be careful of when using this command is that a 3270 printer emulation job (QIAPRT) is automatically started in subsystem QBATCH. The job queue QBATCH on my system is single-threaded, which means that while I'm signed on to IBM, no other batch jobs can run.

Since the printer session that holds up the traffic is submitted by the Start Printer Emulation (STRPRTEML) command using job description QBATCH, a simple way of getting around this problem is as follows:

1. Create a duplicate of job description QBATCH.

 CRTDUPOBJ OBJ(QBATCH) + FROMLIB(QGPL) + OBJTYPE(*JOBD) + TOLIB(QGPL) + NEWOBJ(PRTEML) 

2. Change the new job description to use another job queue.

 CHGJOBD JOBD(PRTEML) + JOBQ(QSPL) 

3. Change the job description used by the STRPRTEML command.

 CHGCMDDFT CMD(STRPRTEML) + NEWDFT('JOBD(PRTEML)') 

Using this technique, the printer job runs in QSPL, and you can take your time exploring IBM's online databases, without inadvertently preventing other people from getting their work done.

It is preferable to make your changes to a copy of the STRPRTEML command. Then place the copy in a library ahead of QSYS in the system portion of the library list. This preserves the original STRPRTEML command and avoids future problems with release upgrades.