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Fujitsu NetCOBOL for SPARC Architecture

Items in red have been added in the V10.0 release.

Note that enhancements are listed in more detail than the already-existing features of the product as even apparently trivial enhancements can make a big difference to some users.

Standards Compliant

  • ANSI Standard COBOL X3.23 1985, ISO-1989-1985
  • ANSI '74 COBOL X3.23-1974
  • Various elements from the ANSI 2002 standard such as:
    • BINARY-CHAR, BINARY-SHORT, BINARY-LONG, BINARY-DOUBLE data types, and allowing USAGE clauses with these items to be specified on group items
    • DISPLAY-OF and NATIONAL-OF intrinsic functions
    • EXIT PARAGRAPH and EXIT SECTION

Full ANSI 85 Compliant to Include:

  • Nucleus
  • Sequential/Relative/Indexed File
  • Inter-Program Communication
  • Sort/Merge
  • Source Text Manipulation

Support for ANSI'85 Supplement:

  • Intrinsic Functions

Fujitsu Extensions

  • National language programming
  • National character handling
  • UTF-16 big endian support
  • NSPCOMP option for specifying Japanese language space comparison
  • Extended Indexed File -- Multiple key items, reverse order access
  • National character printing
  • Sort/Merge of National characters
  • Floating-point data
  • OO COBOL extensions based on the ISO 2002 standard
  • Bit handling
  • Constant section
  • Functions for system program description -- pointer, etc.
  • CSV (Comma Separated Values) files supported through extensions to the STRING and UNSTRING statements.

XPG4 Specification (X/OPEN Extensions)

  • Line/Sequential file handling
  • Inter-language communications -- passing parameters by value, special register Return-Code
  • File sharing and record locking
  • Screen handling
  • Access to command-line arguments
  • Concatenated expressions

SQL

IBM OS/VS COBOL Compatibility Features Supported

  • Special registers for date, time, return code, sort, etc.
  • System directing statements (example EJECT, SKIP)
  • REMARKS paragraph
  • EXAMINE statement
  • GOBACK statement
  • BASIS statement

IBM VS COBOL II Compatibility Features Supported

  • POINTER variables

Micro Focus COBOL Extensions

  • Enhanced ACCEPT and DISPLAY verbs to permit video terminal screen I/O with full control over data positioning on output and protected/unprotected on input fields
  • Full-screen output and multiple-field input; validation of input with a single COBOL statement
  • Enhanced file I/O with additional-line-sequential organization to handle text files
  • Level 78 named literals
  • BEFORE/AFTER ADVANCING clause supported in WRITE statements for line sequential files.
  • INITVALUE option allows you to specify the default initial value for data items that do not have a VALUE phrase.
  • Hexadecimal numeric literals (H”xx”)
  • COB_ALLOC_MEMORY, COB_FREE_MEMORY, and COB_EXIT_PROCESS supported
  • External file handler interface supported.

NetCOBOL Compiler Options

NetCOBOL supports a rich set of options that allow you to configure various behaviors such as controlling features of the object code, whether to insert debug-assisting checks in the code and output listing formats. Options added in the latest release:

  • MAP option adds memory map information to the output listing, useful when analyzing memory dumps
  • Supports multi-threaded applications.
  • Run-time libraries for initial threads - The run-time libraries for initial threads are provided for Solaris 2.5.1 or later. COBOL applications linked with these libraries can be run on initial threads.
  • COBOL program line numbers are included in runtime messages making it easier to locate errors.
  • Severity of runtime messages to be issued can be specified, and runtime messages can be written to syslog. Helps you to tailor the message system to the operational environment.
  • Readability of runtime messages improved
  • System ensures runtime messages are displayed even if there are errors in the environment settings that might otherwise prevent the messages being displayed.
  • Memory check function available for tracking down memory corruptions within COBOL programs
  • Option to output environment variable settings to a file – helpful when debugging applications
  • KOL6 form overlays, created using Windows PowerFORM, can be printed on Solaris systems without having PowerFORM RTS installed
  • With the PowerFORM RTS installed JPEG, PNG, TIFF(LZW compress form), and GIF are supported in PowerFORM reports/overlays.

Special Runtime Features

  • Supports multi-threaded applications.
  • Run-time libraries for initial threads - The run-time libraries for initial threads are provided for Solaris 2.5.1 or later. COBOL applications linked with these libraries can be run on initial threads.

Project Manager (COBOL Development Environment)

The COBOL Project Manager is a utility that supports NetCOBOL application development and maintenance and consists of a set of tools running on X Window. It provides:

  • Configurable IDE
  • Project tree structures
  • COBOL program editor
  • Compile, Link, Build functions
  • Double-click location of compilation errors
  • MAKE function
  • Source analysis with Grep
  • Code coverage
  • Application packing
  • Support for WYSIWYG character-mode screen designer
  • Remote development from Windows workstations (requires NetCOBOL for Windows Enterprise Edition on the client machine)

Interactive Debugger

The debugger can work in either screen or line modes. Screen mode uses an X Window with the source code displayed. Line mode uses a TTY terminal, using commands and displayed messages to control the debugging session.

  • Setting/removing complex breakpoints
  • Displaying variables
  • Watch data windows
  • Breakpoint window
  • Calls window showing the call chain
  • Passage count window for setting which statements should be monitored for the number of times they have been exectued
  • Stamp window for collecting code coverage information
  • Recording and playing back a debugging procedure to retest user's code
  • Performing batch debugging and automated debugging operations
  • Tracing code execution path
  • Stepping over and through statements
  • Remote debugging from Windows workstations (requires NetCOBOL for Windows Enterprise Edition on the client machine)
  • IPv6 supported in the Remote Debug feature

Product and Online Manual Installation

  • Use shell commands to install NetCOBOL package easily
  • Can be installed and referenced on Microsoft Windows clients

Other V10 Enhancement Details

  • High-speed file processing supported in the File Access Subroutines
  • Named pipes can be used for file input and output – so programs communicating through intermediate files can, instead, be run in parallel communicating the data through named pipes.
  • @CBR_FILE_BOM_READ specifies different ways of handling the Unicode byte order mark (BOM) in Line Sequential files. Options are:
    • ensure the BOM in the line sequential file and program definition match
    • treat the BOM as part of the data
    • do either of the above depending on whether or not the file contains a BOM
  • ACCEPT/DISPLAY statements support dummy files when input/output directed from/to a file
  • PowerFORM Runtime adds:
    • Option to output a trace log that stores PowerFORM usage information such as environment variable settings, form descriptors, printer information file, record data, output printer and fonts, and error information.
    • Runtime errors recorded in the system event log.

Other Features (not listed above) Added to the V9 Release

  • SYNCHRONIZED clause supported on group items
  • CBL routines improved with notification of error details and support for DLOAD
  • BINARY-CHAR,BINARY-SHORT,BINARY-LONG,BINARY-DOUBLE data usage types supported
  • Sanitizing is supported in the Web programming subroutines. Makes it possible to counter cross-site scripting vulnerabilities of Web applications.
  • Configure the date retrieved by COBOL applications in ACCEPT … FROM DATE statements and the CURRENT-DATE function, by using the @CBR_JOBDATE environment variable.
  • Automated functions are provided for concatenating files and appending to existing files, by using the MOD and CONCAT options in the file-identifier environment variable.
  • Support added to allow data to be appended to an existing file when DISPLAY statement output is directed to a file.
  • COUNT information can be added to a file created for a previous execution
  • USE FOR DEADLOCK procedures let you escape from deadlock situations.
  • The compiler provides listings containing information on data areas by specifying the MAP option. Provides more information that is useful when debugging programs.