Fujitsu NetCOBOL for .NET
The following sequences of screen captures let you see the features of NetCOBOL for .NET at work.
Visual Studio Project Manager
Visual Studio Editor
Windows Forms Designer
Web Forms Designer
Building Applications
Debugging applications
Web Services
Runtime Environment Setup Utility
Visual Studio Project Manager
Fujitsu NetCOBOL for .NET is fully integrated into the premier integrated development environment (IDE), Microsoft Visual Studio. Developers of multi-language applications can work within one IDE, instead of having to learn multiple IDE's. The Microsoft Visual Studio Project Manager:
- Encourages you to structure your applications
- Provides a project tree structure
- Builds applications
- Debugs applications
- Invokes other development tools and languages
- Is customizable to invoke additional tools
The following screen capture shows a NetCOBOL for .NET application in the development process.
Visual Studio Editor
The editor utilized in NetCOBOL is the Microsoft Visual Studio editor. Specific support has been added to the editor to enable it to recognize the COBOL language and syntax. The Microsoft Visual Studio editor:
- Lets your developers learn one editor for maintaining their COBOL code as well as VB, C# and any other .NET enabled language.
- Colors reserved words and comments for easier readability
- Is fully integrated with the project manager and debugger so, for example, you can edit programs while debugging.
- Supports Intellisense features such as: indicating syntax errors; listing available items whether classes, data items or method names; giving quick info about data items by displaying the type when you hover over the item; and displaying method parameter information as you enter an INVOKE statement.
The following snapshots show a number of these features:
Coloring reserved words; giving lists of available items (you just hit enter to have the selected text inserted in your program)
Listing available methods:
Displaying method syntax:
"Quick info" on items (cursor is hovering over item Cnt so the type of Cnt is displayed):
Windows Forms Designer
With NetCOBOL for .NET comes support for Visual Studio's Windows Forms Designer. This component lets you design Windows forms (dialogs) using the same sort of tools developed for Visual Basic, but with NetCOBOL's support all your supporting code can be written in COBOL.
Each form is defined and supported by a NetCOBOL program. The Design View lets you see the form with its controls, displayed in a WYSIWYG fashion. The Code View shows you the code behind the form. Double-clicking on a control generates skeleton code for the default event (such as the Click event for a Button control), if it does not already exist, and takes you to that code:
Web Forms Designer
NetCOBOL for .NET also contains support for Visual Studio's Web Forms Designer. This designer is very similar to the Windows Forms Designer except that the form being designed is a Web page. The controls and style of coding are very similar to that used in Windows forms, making it easy to transition or switch between the two.
As with Windows forms the Web form is defined and supported by a NetCOBOL program in which event-supporting code is created:
Building Applications
Fujitsu NetCOBOL utilizes the build facilities of Microsoft Visual Studio. The first step in building applications is to utilize the Solution Explorer to define your application. The Solution Explorer:
- Permits ease of use in locating the pieces that make up your application
- Updates the Error List to display any errors, warnings, and messages generated during the Build process
- Displays a tree like structure of your components for easy visualization
After you have created your application the next step would be to Build the application. The Build Step
- Activates the compiler
- Updates the 'Tasks' list with a list of any errors encountered during the Build process
Debugging Applications
In NetCOBOL for .NET you debug your code using the Microsoft Visual Studio Debugger. The Debugger:
- Displays your source code
- Shows current line/statement of code about to execute (yellow arrow in margin, highlight on statement)
- Colors source code for easy readability
- Makes breakpoints visible (red stop sign in left margin, highlight on statement)
- Can break execution when data items change
- Set sophisticated breakpoints with conditions and statement hit counts
- Has several ways of viewing and updating data variables - such as the Autos window shown below that shows the variables used in the previous and current statement
Web Services
Web Services provide the opportunity to expose your programming interfaces to the web for use by your clients in any manner they see fit. Web Services:
- Are accessible over the Internet (exposing only those portions of the system you deem necessary)
- Use HTTP as the transport protocol (no more vendor specific protocols)
- Are XML based (The de-facto standard for data query across the Internet)
- Utilize Microsoft and IBM's Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)
With .NET, packaging your interfaces in XML is done for you, simply by specifying a system-defined custom attribute:
Runtime Environment Setup Utility
The Runtime Environment Setup Utility provides an easy way of creating and editing any runtime settings required by the application. Settings are stored in the XML app.config or web.config files and copied to an appropriately located and named .config file at build time.
