Fujitsu PowerCOBOL

• Abstracts low-level programming to a higher level
• Uses COBOL as the language for responding to events and invoking other methods
• Follows the object-oriented COBOL syntax model for interacting with GUI objects and their properties
• Provides COBOL-edited data definitions using standard PICTURE clause syntax
• Supports calls to standard COBOL programs
• Offers guided development – pop-up menus let you know exactly what events, methods, and properties apply to a selected object
• Provides a WYSIWYG development environment
• Supports the import of ActiveX® controls, still using COBOL interfaces, so that PowerCOBOL applications can benefit from the latest and best gadgets available
• Provides controls for interfacing to many popular data stores such as Excel spreadsheets, ODBC data bases, and ActiveX Data Objects.

With PowerCOBOL you get all the standard controls such as text fields, buttons, tabs, sliders, lists, toolbars, tabs, and tree structures. And PowerCOBOL is COM compliant so you can include ActiveX controls built using other products, or create and export ActiveX controls using PowerCOBOL. This allows you to take advantage of the rich libraries of ActiveX controls that are available.

Code in COBOL

PowerCOBOL uses COBOL as the GUI scripting language to handle application objects, events, and their properties or methods. This makes it easy for COBOL programmers to develop GUI applications. For example, the MOVE statement is used to set control properties. The PowerCOBOL development environment provides context-sensitive lists of events, properties and methods making it easy to know what can be done at different points in the interface.

Develop Multimedia Applications

Now you can build complex multimedia applications using audio, video, and animation with PowerCOBOL’s support for a wide range of Windows controls. The media control interface (MCI) control gives you direct access to the Windows MCI string application programming interface, which is used to control a wide array of multimedia devices.

Database Support

PowerCOBOL provides controls for accessing data directly in ODBC databases or through Active Data Objects. You can focus your COBOL applications on handling the business logic while taking advantage of other data handling packages for the data input and manipulation.

PowerCOBOL ships with sample applications that cover a wide array of PowerCOBOL controls. Additional samples can be downloaded from the Download Center.

PowerCOBOL Advantages

• The advantages of the PowerCOBOL approach will be quickly apparent to experienced COBOL programmers:
• You don't have to learn a new scripting language to work in a GUI environment
• You don't have to search through hundreds of pages of low-level documentation to figure out what events might happen, which calls you can make or what properties apply to a given control
• You don't have to compile and execute your code to see if your GUI looks just as you intended it to look
• You can immediately put your COBOL knowledge to work
• You can integrate your existing application code with your new GUI code
• You can continue to write your code in the language designed for readability and maintainability