Hallo together,
my name is "Kay-Uwe", i'm from northern germany. In 1986 i learned COBOL in Hamburg. After that, i had a job as "Software Developer" in southern germany from 1988 until 1997 in a software-house. We developed software for the building industry in europe.
Now, i would like to use Cobol again, so i'm very glad, that i found this Cobol here from Gnu!
I remember, that our programming environment consisted of more, than only the compiler. There was a separate software to build the screen mask. For saving the data, there was a separate Database-system. All these components where nessesary to develop our software.
Today, i would like to do something with cobol again. Is there an information, wich components are nessesary and available here in the Gnu-world? Is there a screen mask software and a database software? Can i download these things here?
I woukd be very glad about more Information.
Thanks a lot.
Greeting from north germany: Kay-Uwe
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Well, for the core COBOL that is GnuCOBOL, you can't beat Gary's Programmer's Guide. Follow the links from the top menu bar here, (Manuals and Guides).
For all (ok, a lot) of the external options available, skim through the FAQ, (top menu bar again, FAQ and How-To). Scan for SQL for the database options, but core GnuCOBOL supports a fairly complete ISAM interface as defined in the COBOL standard. SQL options include PostgreSQL ESQL, MariaDB (MySQL) ESQL, ODBC, umm, SQLite, DB2, others (all mentioned in the FAQ).
For screens, I'm not too sure. GnuCOBOL does a pretty good job with curses based TUI programming, with built in SCREEN SECTION, but it is an area of the runtime that could use work, and is always getting some attention and incremental improvements.
GUI's are proven, but only skeletal, unless you dive into COBJAPI, a full on binding to Java AWT. Look through Contributions (top menu bar) and follow into Tools for that beauty. It is built up on User Defined Functions, the application COBOL you can write with that is very short, sweet and powerful.
For Report Writer, for now, you need to check out a different branch. Top menu bar, Code, follow the links in Branches and find Ron's awesome ReportWriter. (Build instructions are hinted at in the FAQ, and there are a few guides in Manuals and Guides).
Oh, and the search box here in Discussions, can lead to a lot of knowledge base, but might take a while to read through.
Have good, make well,
Brian
Last edit: Brian Tiffin 2016-12-29
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With Gnu-Cobol you can do nearly everything you want. You can write programs witch have the look and feel like CICS-programs on a Mainfraime. Even you have the ability to convert real mainfraime-data to unix-data. I did so with old MVS-Data witch we had to archive when we stopped using a mainfraime and went to SAP in our company.
For things, cobol can not handle - like signals and so on - you can wirte your own C-function and call it like any other cobol-program too. This compiler is realy great.
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I started using GNUCOBOL and I am compiling using the following command
cobc.exe -C -g -v -x c:\temp\para24a.cbl
My code is OK, being translated to C but it's not creating an exe file, any reason why?
Thanks,
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you pass -C "generate C source (only)" to cobc. As you already compile with C debugging symbols via -g the C sources will be kept in any case. If you don't compile with -g and still want to get the C source while creating a binary use -fsave-temps.
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I am still having problems with compiling and linking regardless of what option I use. I have a simple cobol program that I want to compile and create an exe file, on windows 10, how can I do it?
Thanks,
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Still having some trouble, I added the path for the include and it is not accepting -t, and using the command below
cobc -x -W -fnotrunc -I "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\VC\include" -o para24a.exe para24a.cbl
I am getting the following error
C:\Users\Krikor\AppData\Local\Temp\cob9BEA.c(14) : fatal error C1083: Cannot open include file: 'libcob.h': No such file or directory
and I can't seem to find where libcob.h is
Thanks,
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i moved those libraries to VC\include but now I am getting the following error
LINK : warning LNK4044: unrecognized option '/Lc:\OpenCobol\lib'; ignored
LINK : fatal error LNK1104: cannot open file 'MSVCRT.lib'
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Krigor, you use a very outdated VC package (I assume from kiska.net) - I highly advise to use a newer one. In no case you should copy any include files or libraries to the compiler's directory.
If you want to use VC as compiler (BTW: I don't see much reason for this and you'd need to install the MS C runtime when you want to use the compiled result on different machines later) then get the rc2 win zip package from https://sourceforge.net/projects/open-cobol/files/gnu-cobol/2.0/ unpack it and follow the README.txt in build_windows to build a version from 2016 on your own.
If you don't need to use Microsoft's C compiler then use a prepared MinGW package. rc2 doesn'
t have an official package but Arnold's builds from http://www.arnoldtrembley.com/GnuCOBOL.htm are good to use.
If you want to use an IDE for writing COBOL I suggest to get OCIDE - the windows version comes with Arnold's latest MinGW package and is preconfigured to use it, if you like to you can setup a VC build, too.
Krikor, I downloaded the OpenCobolIDE (can't find where it is at the moment) but it's the easiest way of compiling (and even running) programs I've found so far.
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Hallo together,
my name is "Kay-Uwe", i'm from northern germany. In 1986 i learned COBOL in Hamburg. After that, i had a job as "Software Developer" in southern germany from 1988 until 1997 in a software-house. We developed software for the building industry in europe.
Now, i would like to use Cobol again, so i'm very glad, that i found this Cobol here from Gnu!
I remember, that our programming environment consisted of more, than only the compiler. There was a separate software to build the screen mask. For saving the data, there was a separate Database-system. All these components where nessesary to develop our software.
Today, i would like to do something with cobol again. Is there an information, wich components are nessesary and available here in the Gnu-world? Is there a screen mask software and a database software? Can i download these things here?
I woukd be very glad about more Information.
Thanks a lot.
Greeting from north germany: Kay-Uwe
Well, for the core COBOL that is GnuCOBOL, you can't beat Gary's Programmer's Guide. Follow the links from the top menu bar here, (Manuals and Guides).
For all (ok, a lot) of the external options available, skim through the FAQ, (top menu bar again, FAQ and How-To). Scan for SQL for the database options, but core GnuCOBOL supports a fairly complete ISAM interface as defined in the COBOL standard. SQL options include PostgreSQL ESQL, MariaDB (MySQL) ESQL, ODBC, umm, SQLite, DB2, others (all mentioned in the FAQ).
For screens, I'm not too sure. GnuCOBOL does a pretty good job with curses based TUI programming, with built in SCREEN SECTION, but it is an area of the runtime that could use work, and is always getting some attention and incremental improvements.
GUI's are proven, but only skeletal, unless you dive into COBJAPI, a full on binding to Java AWT. Look through Contributions (top menu bar) and follow into Tools for that beauty. It is built up on User Defined Functions, the application COBOL you can write with that is very short, sweet and powerful.
For Report Writer, for now, you need to check out a different branch. Top menu bar, Code, follow the links in Branches and find Ron's awesome ReportWriter. (Build instructions are hinted at in the FAQ, and there are a few guides in Manuals and Guides).
Oh, and the search box here in Discussions, can lead to a lot of knowledge base, but might take a while to read through.
Have good, make well,
Brian
Last edit: Brian Tiffin 2016-12-29
With Gnu-Cobol you can do nearly everything you want. You can write programs witch have the look and feel like CICS-programs on a Mainfraime. Even you have the ability to convert real mainfraime-data to unix-data. I did so with old MVS-Data witch we had to archive when we stopped using a mainfraime and went to SAP in our company.
For things, cobol can not handle - like signals and so on - you can wirte your own C-function and call it like any other cobol-program too. This compiler is realy great.
I started using GNUCOBOL and I am compiling using the following command
cobc.exe -C -g -v -x c:\temp\para24a.cbl
My code is OK, being translated to C but it's not creating an exe file, any reason why?
Thanks,
Welcome Krikor,
you pass
-C"generate C source (only)" to cobc. As you already compile with C debugging symbols via-gthe C sources will be kept in any case. If you don't compile with-gand still want to get the C source while creating a binary use-fsave-temps.We should not forget the ability to use CGI and thus a "web" interface.
We also have a knock off of HP's VPLUS screen handler from the HP3000 but it would take someone like Vincent Coen to document it.
@Kay-Uwe
It will be hard for you to find a more talented and dedicated team than the development team of GnuCOBOL. The product fulfills our needs.
jimc
I am still having problems with compiling and linking regardless of what option I use. I have a simple cobol program that I want to compile and create an exe file, on windows 10, how can I do it?
Thanks,
The easiest way to compile is to use opencobolide. But if you want to compile from the command line, I would suggest something like this:
cobc -x -W -fnotrunc -t para24a.lst -o para24a.exe para24a.cbl
But first you must run something like set_env.cmd in the folder where the GnuCOBOL compiler resides.
I hope this helps.
Still having some trouble, I added the path for the include and it is not accepting -t, and using the command below
cobc -x -W -fnotrunc -I "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\VC\include" -o para24a.exe para24a.cbl
I am getting the following error
C:\Users\Krikor\AppData\Local\Temp\cob9BEA.c(14) : fatal error C1083: Cannot open include file: 'libcob.h': No such file or directory
and I can't seem to find where libcob.h is
Thanks,
i moved those libraries to VC\include but now I am getting the following error
LINK : warning LNK4044: unrecognized option '/Lc:\OpenCobol\lib'; ignored
LINK : fatal error LNK1104: cannot open file 'MSVCRT.lib'
Krigor, you use a very outdated VC package (I assume from kiska.net) - I highly advise to use a newer one. In no case you should copy any include files or libraries to the compiler's directory.
If you want to use VC as compiler (BTW: I don't see much reason for this and you'd need to install the MS C runtime when you want to use the compiled result on different machines later) then get the rc2 win zip package from https://sourceforge.net/projects/open-cobol/files/gnu-cobol/2.0/ unpack it and follow the README.txt in build_windows to build a version from 2016 on your own.
If you don't need to use Microsoft's C compiler then use a prepared MinGW package. rc2 doesn'
t have an official package but Arnold's builds from http://www.arnoldtrembley.com/GnuCOBOL.htm are good to use.
If you want to use an IDE for writing COBOL I suggest to get OCIDE - the windows version comes with Arnold's latest MinGW package and is preconfigured to use it, if you like to you can setup a VC build, too.
If you still want to use the outdated VC builds from kiska then get https://sourceforge.net/p/open-cobol/code/HEAD/tree/branches/gnu-cobol-2.0/build_windows/set_env_vs_dist.bat place it in your OpenCOBOL directory and call it before calling
cobc.Krikor, I downloaded the OpenCobolIDE (can't find where it is at the moment) but it's the easiest way of compiling (and even running) programs I've found so far.
OpenCobolide can be downloaded from here:
https://launchpad.net/cobcide/4.0/4.7.6/+download/OpenCobolIDE-4.7.6_Setup.exe
And I apologize. I assumed you were trying to compile with a MinGW version of GnuCOBOL, not a microsoft visual C++ version.
Krikor: if you want to use OCIDE with a VC build here's the doc how to do so: http://opencobolide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/advanced.html#setup-a-custom-compiler-on-windows
I downloaded OpenCobolide and it is working very well, thanks everybody.