For starters in June, a letter has been sent to GNU and the Free Software Foundation to see if the FSF would be interested in being assigned the copyrights to the OpenCOBOL source code. Their response will in part dictate how things proceed, especially on the 2.0 front.
The FAQ has a new entry for open source COBOL, and I'd like to build up a fairly comprehensive index where people can find sample sources, and complete projects like Vincent's Applewood Computes Accounting System.
We received word from GNU/FSF. They appreciate the offer, warn that copyright transfers require signatures (full stop), GNU projects do not need to be copyright GNU or FSF. Open is not preferred in free software titles, as the FSF takes the difference between free software and open source software seriously.
Opinions?
These steps are moving things closer and closer to resolving the status of 2.0 sources.
Underpinning all of this; Hopes and hearts for Roger While.
Brian
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August is summertime, so volunteering comes in bursts and dribbles.
ESQL
The release of the ESQL, EXEC SQL, preprocessor for PostgreSQL is a nice addition to the open COBOL ecosystem. Brought to us by the good folk of the Open Source COBOL Consortium in Japan. Should add to the usefulness of OpenCOBOL immensely and provide even more incentive for production COBOL shops to take OpenCOBOL out for a test drive.
Will likely require a pass through Google Translate, but pretty easy to navigate. Look to DB interface tool (Open COBOL ESQL) v1.0.0. And while there, why not check out the 1.3J version of OpenCOBOL, with UTF-8 support and a few niceties added to support production environments. (We plan on folding some of the key 1.3J sources into the 1.1CE version here on the forge, and that work will be announced when it's ready. In the meantime, the ESQL preprocessor stands ready to add EXEC SQL features to OpenCOBOL. It is set to use PostgreSQL, but the source code will provide a HUGE leg up for anyone needing to support a different SQL engine.
GNU/FSF
Summertime being what it is, the proposal to FSF/GNU is proceeding slowly (dribbles), but there is still a chance for a burst of activity before September. All news of how that progresses will be posted here in the OpenCOBOL forum.
small s.c.r.i.p.t.
As an aside, an esoteric programming language, small s.c.r.i.p.t, has been implemented completely in OpenCOBOL. See http://esolangs.org/wiki/Small_s.c.r.i.p.t. for a bit of useless fun in a script engine.
ACAS
Looks like Vincent has updated the Applewood Computers Accounting System, and anyone that needs an accounting package, is encouraged to check it out, right here on the forge.
Bruce Martin seems to be keen to add more COBOL support to his RecordEditor application. See his post here, http://sourceforge.net/p/open-cobol/discussion/2526793/thread/83e44765/#d824 and then encourage the effort. It'll be to our benefit to ensure that Bruce knows people would appreciate the efforts. Right Bruce? Because we will, whether anyone actually realizes it yet or not. ;-)
Prologue
Other than that, assumptions are that everyone is enjoying the summer, and that the next bits of news may be more sweeping in nature.
Cheers,
Brian
Last edit: Brian Tiffin 2014-05-27
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Seems to be lots happening, and tonight there will be efforts to discuss the best way to release 2.0 sources. I dislike raising hopes if deadlines are missed, but I'm really hoping to have open-cobol-2.0.tar.gz posted to the forge before September 22nd, this Sunday.
2.0
What do we get?
User Defined Functions
ALTER
Conditional compiler directives
Fully integrated Locale support, English, Japanese, Spanish so far
More data types
More support for static linkage
More command line control over tools in the compile chain
USE FOR DEBUGGING declaratives
What do we also get?
An alpha release when compared to 1.1. 2.0 has partially implemented features and some edge cases in new features may break. So we get to pound on things and make sure OpenCOBOL remains production ready. The current builds pass over 9700 NIST COBOL 85 tests, failing none of the attempted tests, so this release is still very much worthy, but it is new relatively speaking and not yet well soaked. The 2002 feature set needs some source code run through the paces.
As a bonus.
Gary Cutler has been updating the OpenCOBOL Programmer's Guide, so when we post, it'll come with documentation, Gary level world class documentation.
C++
There is likely going to be a version of 2.0 that emits C++ unveiled soon. I can't really speak to when just yet, but it's real and coming soon to an internet near you.
Contributions to 1.1CE
Thanks go to Steve Williams, his World Cities samples being a really nice addition to open COBOL sources. ISAM and ocesql versions. The source is a nice read. [1183a23c]
Joe Robbins bumped into a pretty steep merge curve, and has to work through some source code issues header files were merged, but if Joe and Simon can work it out, we get split keys in indexed files, and an updated fileio.c runtime for 1.1CE. Here's hoping, and Joe, muchly appreciated. Maybe the fossil 3-way-merge could come into play?
And oh yeah, me. The Pygments lexer I wrote up for COBOL syntax highlighting is now installed in SourceForge.* COBOL code listings in discussions now have color. [9dd840ce]
Firebird ESQL
Received a note from a Firebird team. The CEO has figured out the tectonics and successfully tweaked the configuration to have the Firebird gpre EXEC SQL preprocessor pump out OpenCOBOL cobc suitable sources. There is some manual tweaks to set things up, but win, win. [a28b4a36]
GNU/FSF
Plan is to finalize the proposal to GNU and start formal activities towards seeing if OpenCOBOL (or a renamed GNU COBOL perhaps) could be included in the GNU suite of projects.
Why a name change? It's only hypothetical, but FSF doesn't really like the connotations of the open expression. OpenCOBOL isn't just Open Source, it's Free.
Side quests
A challenge has been informally laid down. A native Windows gui sample will be answered with a raw X11 sample. Damon, game on. I'll see your Windows and raise you an X. "This one goes to ee-leven".
It's done. An evaluation request has been sent to GNU for inclusion in the GNU ecosystem. (And I misspelled Sytem, in the very first line of the proposal ... doh).
I've also pulled the trigger on getting 2.0 pre-released. More soon and high hopes.
Cheers,
Brian
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Seems to be lots happening, and tonight there will be efforts to discuss the best way to release 2.0 sources. I dislike raising hopes if deadlines are missed, but I'm really hoping to have open-cobol-2.0.tar.gz posted to the forge before September 22nd, this Sunday.
At long last. I'm looking forward to it. I'll try to get some time in the next few weeks to give it a test drive.
Plan is to finalize the proposal to GNU and start formal activities towards seeing if OpenCOBOL (or a renamed GNU COBOL perhaps) could be included in the GNU suite of projects.
Why a name change? It's only hypothetical, but FSF doesn't really like the connotations of the open expression. OpenCOBOL isn't just Open Source, it's Free.
The more I think about it, the more I like GnuCOBOL. My first pick would be GnuCOBOL.
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and now the shell is setup for testing the C++ emit version of OC 2.
These path and environment setting scripts (atconfig, atlocal) require source to modify the existing process environment space and not through a subshell as ./home/builds/version/tests/atconfig would do.
That little snag makes ease of use when switching versions a little more difficult, as there needs to be a separate alias or sourced script for each version; but per version
$ alias cobol-1.1='source /1.1-dir/atconfig; source /1.1-dir/atlocal'
$ alias cobol-cpp='source /cpp-dir/atconfig; source /cpp-dir/atlocal'
$ alias cobol-jr='source /joerobbins-dir/atconfig; source /joerobbins-dir/atlocal'
and you can toggle between versions without too much fuss.
Cheers,
Brian
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GNU Cobol 1.1 is missing some documentation stuff (-> Brian) and at least one bugfix (INITIALIZE of EXTERNAL vars is broken since years, already fixed in 2.x and will be fixed in the near release).
I'd suggest everyone to get this version via svn checkout when installing on a new machine.
GNU Cobol 1.2
GNU Cobol 1.2 development will be started soon:
gets at least ACCEPT/DISPLAY ... WITH TIMEOUT/TIME-OUT [retrofix from Roger's 2.0 changes, already finished]
ships with a debugger [by Ronald Heirbaut and Ed Borchert, needs integration]
likely together with a new system routine CBL_OC_SOCKET [freshly contributed (was used in production for years) - I'll add information about this contribution when I'm working on it]
GNU Cobol 2.0
GNU Cobol 2.0[most changes from Roger While in 2009-2012] rocks, will be developed further and will get the 1.2 addons as soon as they are finished. You're free to test this version (I consider it beta status), please do a svn checkout (it's likely to get some changes and svn update will help you to get the most recent version).
GNU Cobol 2.0 C++
GNU Cobol 2.0 C++[branch by Sergey Kashyrin from GNU Cobol 2.0, switched to C++ (libcob, cobc and generated C sources)] is now "officially" integrated and will get the 2.x changes as soon as they are finished. You're free to test this version (I consider it alpha status), please do a svn checkout (it's very likely to get some changes and svn update will help you to get the most recent version).
Simon
BTW: see earlier post from Brian how to setup all these (likely 1.1 with make install, the others after a working ./configure && make check for testing purposes via . tests/atconfig && . tests/atlocal)
Last edit: Brian Tiffin 2013-11-06
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and for everyone that cannot access an svn client the way to wget from svn (if it hang just kill [CTRL]+[C] and restart wget, if it hang again when downloading the same file rm this single file and wget again)
Trying to get a February 2009 based source kit onto ftp.gnu.org, but there is a wrinkle. Should be fixed soon. This is trunk, so there are some changes, but mostly in-line with the open-cobol package in most GNU/Linux repositories. Many of the changes are small, OpenCOBOL to GNU Cobol branding related. The release is later than it should have been, sorry.
Edit:It went in from a trunk source kit. Jan 18th. Roger's work up to 2012.
GNU Cobol 1.1 is officially up at ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gnucobol/
There has been a lot of really good code being developed. Both on the 2.1 Report Writer front, the C++ front, the fileio.c rewrite, and the contributions with frameworks and tooling. Once the GNU FTP 1.1 source kit gets accepted (see above, it was accepted), 2.1 should get bumped up to trunk, and then I'll get out of the way holding things up and let go of the 1.1 nostalgia, so people like Ron, Simon, Joe and Sergey can run without glue down distractions.
New documentation formats
Gary Cutler is in the midst of re-sourcing his famous Programmer's Guide from Word to Texinfo (a text) format. This is a fair to big deal. Text and .texi means tooled processing. (A verb website with hyperlinks and oh, so much goodness, like context help in editors (I'll help with vim and emacs), all with Gary's train diagrams). Nice.
Completely off topic:
Tried the Extensibile vim Layer for emacs. Sweet. Both. Well done. evil
yuminstallemacsemacs-evilaliasemacs='emacs -nw'#aGUI?fortextediting?Nah.;-)
#in.emacsadd(require'evil)(evil-mode 1)# C-z (Ctrl-z) turns on and off vim key mappings (mostly, lots)
Now editing with OrgMode AND :q which lets the brain flail away on finger memory key strokes and usually get away with it. grand.
The Cloud
Ran some experiments. GNU Cobol runs just fine in the cloud. Instances can be ramped up, deployed, and then let loose, all pretty much as if development was on a local machine (Apache installed and configured, COBOL with ESQL, C, installed and configured, ready to compile application layers, dependencies included, in a spot you know is the master spot.) Single click deployments, once written. CGI/AJAX, EZA-SOKET, libCURL/libSoup, ocesql/esqlOC/DB2 and on and on, all awaiting a chance to get hooked into just about any existing COBOL assets out there. All fancy like, with web access and cloud-things. The current state of the art in virtualization is pretty impressive.
So, there is the option of replacing COBOL assets with all new things, or keeping the archive of COBOL assets and adding new integrations. The latter is likely far less risky and a lot easier on the bottom line. In my not so humble fanboy opinion.
2014
The year of COBOL on the desktop, errr, laptop, errr, ... direct to eyeballs.
Cheers,
Brian
Last edit: Simon Sobisch 2014-01-20
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Simon has been keeping a good pace at the consolidation required for preparation of a 2.0 release candidate and working with Ron on the 2.1 pre-release cycle. This is the teaser. Keep an eye on SVN here on the forge.
Cheers,
Brian
Oh, and Sergey is porting GMP/MPIR up to C++ in the gnu-cobol-cpp branch. Code just posted.
More teasers; Gary has completed a Texinfo conversion for the Programmer's Guide, along with Samples and a Quick Reference. Over a 1000 printed pages in three books. These info and PDF files will start making the rounds, real soon now.
Last edit: Brian Tiffin 2014-05-12
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Gary has done so many grand things, and I think I have a handle on the FAQ as a pdf now. Latest Pandoc release by John MacFarlane handles ReStructuredText directives and roles now. That means much nicer listings and images in the pdf.
Gary has completed a conversion to Texinfo format. This is a huge boon to the GNU Cobol project. We have a world class documentation set (in GNU preferred format) to go with the world class compiler sources now.
I'll try to keep the most recent treats at the top of the lists, which include older versions of the same docs.
Many thanks to Gary Cutler, that was a lot of work
Have good.
Cheers,
Brian
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Simon Sobisch has graciously accepted the title, along with the role, of GNU Cobol project lead. To anyone that may not know, Simon has been in charge of the source tree since we moved here to the forge, from opencobol.org. Over 200 commits later, from 5 different angles, and job well done.
The versions
There is a blitz of activity going on. 2.0RC is developing, Joe is posting the refactoring effort in regards to file io, Ron's Report Writer branch is revving in the wings, C++ for those that want, and Howard Chu is looking at LMDB as an ISAM engine perhaps the default. Lightning Memory Data Base, where memory is memory-mapped io, hence the Lightning.
LMDB isn't as feature rich as BDB perhaps, but it is fast, and in terms of the needs of GNU Cobol ISAM, rich enough to handle all COBOL syntax and expectations. Including locks and concurrency, reliability and recovery.
Vincent has been helping people get to grips with the -Xref command line switch, and bettering the GNU Cobol cross referencer experience. See [866b7594#4e5a] for one of the discussions.
On the versions, just so every one knows. If you take any branch on any given day, and it passes make check, you have a good COBOL. Swapping in and out various binaries should be seamless, and will be, except in rare cases. Jump in, and don't fret too much over which is best. 2.0 Release Candidate is near(ing), but all the branches can use testing and soak time.
FUNCTION-ID
We need more of these. These UDF things.
Toolkits, frameworks, helpers. Am I right?
EOP
Once more, many thanks to Simon for his efforts and leadership and now, a title.
As well as the thanks to all the contributors, large and small.
Have good, everyone.
Cheers,
Brian
p.s. Not a huge fan of EOP, how did that get into COBOL? ;-)
END-OF-PAGE.
June 2013
Hello everyone,
For starters in June, a letter has been sent to GNU and the Free Software Foundation to see if the FSF would be interested in being assigned the copyrights to the OpenCOBOL source code. Their response will in part dictate how things proceed, especially on the 2.0 front.
The FAQ has a new entry for open source COBOL, and I'd like to build up a fairly comprehensive index where people can find sample sources, and complete projects like Vincent's Applewood Computes Accounting System.
It's a new entry and kinda empty, but will build. http://opencobol.add1tocobol.com/#where-can-i-find-open-cobol-source-code
Drop a reply on the Open source COBOL thread [95820ca3] if you have a link to some sources.
Cheers,
Brian
Related
Discussion: 95820ca3
Last edit: Brian Tiffin 2013-06-04
July 2013
We received word from GNU/FSF. They appreciate the offer, warn that copyright transfers require signatures (full stop), GNU projects do not need to be copyright GNU or FSF. Open is not preferred in free software titles, as the FSF takes the difference between free software and open source software seriously.
Opinions?
These steps are moving things closer and closer to resolving the status of 2.0 sources.
Underpinning all of this; Hopes and hearts for Roger While.
Brian
They don't need to be copyright GNU or FSF? Then what?
If they don't like the name OpenCOBOL, change it to FreeCOBOL? A rose by any name still smells as sweet.
Not sure Luke, treading slowly.
GOBOL and the gobc compiler? Umm, kidding Naming things is hard. :-)
Brian
Gnu/COBOL or GnuCobol? I kind of like it. Has a nice ring. I think it would add some prestige.
GOBOL (pronounced GO'ball) wouldn't be bad either.
I just made a preliminary response to the GNU/FSF contact.
I'm going to suggest to some people that we prepare an evaluation package
http://www.gnu.org/help/evaluation.html
That'll take a little work before it gets sent.
Cheers,
Brian
August 2013
Hello everyone,
August is summertime, so volunteering comes in bursts and dribbles.
ESQL
The release of the ESQL, EXEC SQL, preprocessor for PostgreSQL is a nice addition to the open COBOL ecosystem. Brought to us by the good folk of the Open Source COBOL Consortium in Japan. Should add to the usefulness of OpenCOBOL immensely and provide even more incentive for production COBOL shops to take OpenCOBOL out for a test drive.
http://www.osscons.jp/osscobol/download/
Will likely require a pass through Google Translate, but pretty easy to navigate. Look to DB interface tool (Open COBOL ESQL) v1.0.0. And while there, why not check out the 1.3J version of OpenCOBOL, with UTF-8 support and a few niceties added to support production environments. (We plan on folding some of the key 1.3J sources into the 1.1CE version here on the forge, and that work will be announced when it's ready. In the meantime, the ESQL preprocessor stands ready to add EXEC SQL features to OpenCOBOL. It is set to use PostgreSQL, but the source code will provide a HUGE leg up for anyone needing to support a different SQL engine.
GNU/FSF
Summertime being what it is, the proposal to FSF/GNU is proceeding slowly (dribbles), but there is still a chance for a burst of activity before September. All news of how that progresses will be posted here in the OpenCOBOL forum.
small s.c.r.i.p.t.
As an aside, an esoteric programming language, small s.c.r.i.p.t, has been implemented completely in OpenCOBOL. See http://esolangs.org/wiki/Small_s.c.r.i.p.t. for a bit of useless fun in a script engine.
ACAS
Looks like Vincent has updated the Applewood Computers Accounting System, and anyone that needs an accounting package, is encouraged to check it out, right here on the forge.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/acas/
RecordEditor
Bruce Martin seems to be keen to add more COBOL support to his RecordEditor application. See his post here, http://sourceforge.net/p/open-cobol/discussion/2526793/thread/83e44765/#d824 and then encourage the effort. It'll be to our benefit to ensure that Bruce knows people would appreciate the efforts. Right Bruce? Because we will, whether anyone actually realizes it yet or not. ;-)
Prologue
Other than that, assumptions are that everyone is enjoying the summer, and that the next bits of news may be more sweeping in nature.
Cheers,
Brian
Last edit: Brian Tiffin 2014-05-27
September 2013
Seems to be lots happening, and tonight there will be efforts to discuss the best way to release 2.0 sources. I dislike raising hopes if deadlines are missed, but I'm really hoping to have open-cobol-2.0.tar.gz posted to the forge before September 22nd, this Sunday.
2.0
What do we get?
What do we also get?
An alpha release when compared to 1.1. 2.0 has partially implemented features and some edge cases in new features may break. So we get to pound on things and make sure OpenCOBOL remains production ready. The current builds pass over 9700 NIST COBOL 85 tests, failing none of the attempted tests, so this release is still very much worthy, but it is new relatively speaking and not yet well soaked. The 2002 feature set needs some source code run through the paces.
As a bonus.
Gary Cutler has been updating the OpenCOBOL Programmer's Guide, so when we post, it'll come with documentation, Gary level world class documentation.
C++
There is likely going to be a version of 2.0 that emits C++ unveiled soon. I can't really speak to when just yet, but it's real and coming soon to an internet near you.
Contributions to 1.1CE
Thanks go to Steve Williams, his World Cities samples being a really nice addition to open COBOL sources. ISAM and ocesql versions. The source is a nice read. [1183a23c]
Joe Robbins bumped into a pretty steep merge curve, and has to work through some source code issues header files were merged, but if Joe and Simon can work it out, we get split keys in indexed files, and an updated fileio.c runtime for 1.1CE. Here's hoping, and Joe, muchly appreciated. Maybe the fossil 3-way-merge could come into play?
And oh yeah, me. The Pygments lexer I wrote up for COBOL syntax highlighting is now installed in SourceForge.* COBOL code listings in discussions now have color. [9dd840ce]
Firebird ESQL
Received a note from a Firebird team. The CEO has figured out the tectonics and successfully tweaked the configuration to have the Firebird gpre EXEC SQL preprocessor pump out OpenCOBOL cobc suitable sources. There is some manual tweaks to set things up, but win, win. [a28b4a36]
GNU/FSF
Plan is to finalize the proposal to GNU and start formal activities towards seeing if OpenCOBOL (or a renamed GNU COBOL perhaps) could be included in the GNU suite of projects.
Why a name change? It's only hypothetical, but FSF doesn't really like the connotations of the open expression. OpenCOBOL isn't just Open Source, it's Free.
Side quests
A challenge has been informally laid down. A native Windows gui sample will be answered with a raw X11 sample. Damon, game on. I'll see your Windows and raise you an X. "This one goes to ee-leven".
Cheers,
Brian
Related
Discussion: 9dd840ce
Discussion: a28b4a36
Discussion: 1183a23c
Last edit: Brian Tiffin 2013-09-18
It's done. An evaluation request has been sent to GNU for inclusion in the GNU ecosystem. (And I misspelled Sytem, in the very first line of the proposal ... doh).
I've also pulled the trigger on getting 2.0 pre-released. More soon and high hopes.
Cheers,
Brian
At long last. I'm looking forward to it. I'll try to get some time in the next few weeks to give it a test drive.
The more I think about it, the more I like GnuCOBOL. My first pick would be GnuCOBOL.
I couldn't have said it better. His previous guide is excellent. Am looking forward to this release all the more!
Very much excited on 2.0 coming. So many things needed.
More September
Big.
2.0 is posted to http://sourceforge.net/projects/open-cobol/files/open-cobol/2.0/open-cobol-2.0-feb2012.tar.gz/download
GNU
Bigger?
OpenCOBOL has been accepted as a GNU project. To be renamed GNU Cobol.
This is big. Change is coming. A lot of exposure for COBOL.
Cheers,
Brian
Last edit: Brian Tiffin 2013-09-28
Patches for OC 2.0 as well as C++ version are revealed on
http://www.kiska.net/opencobol/index.html
Regards,
Sergey
Last edit: Sergey Kashyrin 2013-09-29
Brian, are you going to change the name to GNU COBOL here on Source Forge ?
Not sure yet.
2 days later. Looks like; but still not sure about the urls.
Cheers,
Brian
Last edit: Brian Tiffin 2013-10-01
October 2013
GNU Cobol is rolling along, very close to the Grand Opening sale. Many thanks to Simon Sobisch, the code repositories are being built and rebranded.
There is still a fair bit of infrastructure to be placed, but those key points are accelerating as accounts and digital keys are created and verified.
Soon. Very soon. Great big trumpets.
Report Writer
Got a note that the version supporting REPORT SECTION has produced a report, and work continues into control break run time management. Woohoo.
OpenCOBOL C++
Just to reiterate, Sergey's source code is available at http://www.kiska.net/opencobol/index.html
Too many versions now?
Yes, yes there are.
Here's a fairly simple way to manage things while we stabilize a production branch.
Roger has set up the source tree to allow for out of tree builds.
http://opencobol.add1tocobol.com/gnucobol/#what-gnu-build-tool-options-are-available-when-building-gnu-cobol
What this boils down to, is:
for each version of a tarball, you can
for example
And the shell is setup for GNU Cobol 2.
and now the shell is setup for testing the C++ emit version of OC 2.
These path and environment setting scripts (atconfig, atlocal) require source to modify the existing process environment space and not through a subshell as ./home/builds/version/tests/atconfig would do.
That little snag makes ease of use when switching versions a little more difficult, as there needs to be a separate alias or sourced script for each version; but per version
$ alias cobol-1.1='source /1.1-dir/atconfig; source /1.1-dir/atlocal'
$ alias cobol-cpp='source /cpp-dir/atconfig; source /cpp-dir/atlocal'
$ alias cobol-jr='source /joerobbins-dir/atconfig; source /joerobbins-dir/atlocal'
and you can toggle between versions without too much fuss.
Cheers,
Brian
Work in Progress
GNU Cobol 1.1
GNU Cobol 1.1 is missing some documentation stuff (-> Brian) and at least one bugfix (INITIALIZE of EXTERNAL vars is broken since years, already fixed in 2.x and will be fixed in the near release).
I'd suggest everyone to get this version via svn checkout when installing on a new machine.
GNU Cobol 1.2
GNU Cobol 1.2 development will be started soon:
GNU Cobol 2.0
GNU Cobol 2.0 [most changes from Roger While in 2009-2012] rocks, will be developed further and will get the 1.2 addons as soon as they are finished. You're free to test this version (I consider it beta status), please do a svn checkout (it's likely to get some changes and svn update will help you to get the most recent version).
GNU Cobol 2.0 C++
GNU Cobol 2.0 C++ [branch by Sergey Kashyrin from GNU Cobol 2.0, switched to C++ (libcob, cobc and generated C sources)] is now "officially" integrated and will get the 2.x changes as soon as they are finished. You're free to test this version (I consider it alpha status), please do a svn checkout (it's very likely to get some changes and svn update will help you to get the most recent version).
Simon
BTW: see earlier post from Brian how to setup all these (likely 1.1 with make install, the others after a working ./configure && make check for testing purposes via . tests/atconfig && . tests/atlocal)
Last edit: Brian Tiffin 2013-11-06
I'm going to add
Report Writer
http://sourceforge.net/p/open-cobol/code/HEAD/tree/branches/reportwriter
By Ron Norman. Sweet. Worth a smiley.
I add the commands to get the most current trunk:
and for everyone that cannot access an svn client the way to wget from svn (if it hang just kill [CTRL]+[C] and restart wget, if it hang again when downloading the same file rm this single file and wget again)
Simon
Last edit: Simon Sobisch 2014-07-03
Cool, Simon.
I'm going to add your pearl of wget wisdom to the FAQ.
Cheers,
Brian
January 2014
The year COBOL takes over the desktop.
GNU FTP release
Trying to get a February 2009 based source kit onto ftp.gnu.org, but there is a wrinkle. Should be fixed soon. This is trunk, so there are some changes, but mostly in-line with the open-cobol package in most GNU/Linux repositories. Many of the changes are small, OpenCOBOL to GNU Cobol branding related. The release is later than it should have been, sorry.
Edit: It went in from a trunk source kit. Jan 18th. Roger's work up to 2012.
GNU Cobol 1.1 is officially up at ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gnucobol/
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gnucobol/gnu-cobol-1.1.tar.gz
signature at ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gnucobol/gnu-cobol-1.1.tar.gz.sig
Edit by Simon:
On the forge, too (please use this link for downloading because of the download stats):
http://sourceforge.net/projects/open-cobol/files/gnu-cobol/1.1/
The versions
There has been a lot of really good code being developed. Both on the 2.1 Report Writer front, the C++ front, the fileio.c rewrite, and the contributions with frameworks and tooling. Once the GNU FTP 1.1 source kit gets accepted (see above, it was accepted), 2.1 should get bumped up to trunk, and then I'll get out of the way holding things up and let go of the 1.1 nostalgia, so people like Ron, Simon, Joe and Sergey can run without glue down distractions.
New documentation formats
Gary Cutler is in the midst of re-sourcing his famous Programmer's Guide from Word to Texinfo (a text) format. This is a fair to big deal. Text and .texi means tooled processing. (A verb website with hyperlinks and oh, so much goodness, like context help in editors (I'll help with vim and emacs), all with Gary's train diagrams). Nice.
Completely off topic:
Tried the Extensibile vim Layer for emacs. Sweet. Both. Well done. evil
Now editing with OrgMode AND :q which lets the brain flail away on finger memory key strokes and usually get away with it. grand.
The Cloud
Ran some experiments. GNU Cobol runs just fine in the cloud. Instances can be ramped up, deployed, and then let loose, all pretty much as if development was on a local machine (Apache installed and configured, COBOL with ESQL, C, installed and configured, ready to compile application layers, dependencies included, in a spot you know is the master spot.) Single click deployments, once written. CGI/AJAX, EZA-SOKET, libCURL/libSoup, ocesql/esqlOC/DB2 and on and on, all awaiting a chance to get hooked into just about any existing COBOL assets out there. All fancy like, with web access and cloud-things. The current state of the art in virtualization is pretty impressive.
So, there is the option of replacing COBOL assets with all new things, or keeping the archive of COBOL assets and adding new integrations. The latter is likely far less risky and a lot easier on the bottom line. In my not so humble fanboy opinion.
2014
The year of COBOL on the desktop, errr, laptop, errr, ... direct to eyeballs.
Cheers,
Brian
Last edit: Simon Sobisch 2014-01-20
May 2014
Simon has been keeping a good pace at the consolidation required for preparation of a 2.0 release candidate and working with Ron on the 2.1 pre-release cycle. This is the teaser. Keep an eye on SVN here on the forge.
Cheers,
Brian
Oh, and Sergey is porting GMP/MPIR up to C++ in the gnu-cobol-cpp branch. Code just posted.
More teasers; Gary has completed a Texinfo conversion for the Programmer's Guide, along with Samples and a Quick Reference. Over a 1000 printed pages in three books. These info and PDF files will start making the rounds, real soon now.
Last edit: Brian Tiffin 2014-05-12
Well met
Later in May
Posted a new Guides pile.
http://opencobol.add1tocobol.com/guides/
Gary has done so many grand things, and I think I have a handle on the FAQ as a pdf now. Latest Pandoc release by John MacFarlane handles ReStructuredText directives and roles now. That means much nicer listings and images in the pdf.
Gary has completed a conversion to Texinfo format. This is a huge boon to the GNU Cobol project. We have a world class documentation set (in GNU preferred format) to go with the world class compiler sources now.
I'll try to keep the most recent treats at the top of the lists, which include older versions of the same docs.
Many thanks to Gary Cutler, that was a lot of work
Have good.
Cheers,
Brian
August 2014
Simon Sobisch has graciously accepted the title, along with the role, of GNU Cobol project lead. To anyone that may not know, Simon has been in charge of the source tree since we moved here to the forge, from opencobol.org. Over 200 commits later, from 5 different angles, and job well done.
The versions
There is a blitz of activity going on. 2.0RC is developing, Joe is posting the refactoring effort in regards to file io, Ron's Report Writer branch is revving in the wings, C++ for those that want, and Howard Chu is looking at LMDB as an ISAM engine perhaps the default. Lightning Memory Data Base, where memory is memory-mapped io, hence the Lightning.
LMDB isn't as feature rich as BDB perhaps, but it is fast, and in terms of the needs of GNU Cobol ISAM, rich enough to handle all COBOL syntax and expectations. Including locks and concurrency, reliability and recovery.
Vincent has been helping people get to grips with the -Xref command line switch, and bettering the GNU Cobol cross referencer experience. See [866b7594#4e5a] for one of the discussions.
On the versions, just so every one knows. If you take any branch on any given day, and it passes make check, you have a good COBOL. Swapping in and out various binaries should be seamless, and will be, except in rare cases. Jump in, and don't fret too much over which is best. 2.0 Release Candidate is near(ing), but all the branches can use testing and soak time.
FUNCTION-ID
We need more of these. These UDF things.
Toolkits, frameworks, helpers. Am I right?
EOP
Once more, many thanks to Simon for his efforts and leadership and now, a title.
As well as the thanks to all the contributors, large and small.
Have good, everyone.
Cheers,
Brian
p.s. Not a huge fan of EOP, how did that get into COBOL? ;-)
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