Setting up

[Anonymous]

I installed MinGW GnuCOBOL 3.1 on my Windows 10 computer and I also
installed OpenCobolIDE 4.7.6. In the IDE, I "created" the helloworld
example and executed in the IDE ok. The IDE created an executable and when
I try to run it outside the IDE, it says it can't find libcob-4.dll. That
file only resides in the IDE's structure. Where have I gone wrong?

Alan

[Simon Sobisch]

Where have I gone wrong?

In no place. The OCIDE installation does not cahnge anything in your system; if you want to use the generated modules put the correct folder in your Windows or Users' PATH setting (just press [WIN], then enter "path" [without the quotes] and you're there).

On question though - what do you mean by "Installed MinGW GnuCOBOL 3.1"? Did you extracted it somewhere (else than the OCIDE install path)? If yes then you should possible delete the gnucobol folder found under the OCIDE installation and change it (open it, press F2 or use configuration/setting from the menu) to use the path to your 3.1 installation (otherwise it compiles with a different one).

[Anonymous]

OK. I installed MinGW GnuCOBOL 3.1 and then installed OCIDE, not realising they would set up separate Cobol installations. As someone new to this setup, but not new to Cobol, I'm hearing that I should adjust the OCIDE environment variables to point to the MinGW GnuCOBOL 3.1 installation. Is that correct?

[Simon Sobisch]

Yes. Note: you don't have to use OCIDE if you don't want to, there are other editors with code-highlighting and nice COBOL support (I've used Notepad++ in the past, now moving to VSCodium + bitlang.cobol extension -> more features as the old envrionment, you onyl have to setup the plugin once...).

[Anonymous]

I have tried VSCodium but got lost. Ok (caution... RANT), coming from the Windows community but with a reasonable technical knowledge, when wanting to install this very interesting open-source Cobol compiler, I naively expected to download a package and either execute it off the bat or open it and run "setup.exe". Instead I'm faced with a plethora of choices often with significanct "technical" instructions which I barely understand . It takes me back to my days at HP when I was interfacing with Unix people with their commands and acronyms (have I unwittingly put myself in such a tech community?) . I do not wish my failure to understand this product and the actions necessary to undermine or devalue the excellent work which has gone into creating this FREE SOFTWARE. This is not my intent., I'm just a simple person trying to get back to using Cobol with my limited technical knowhow. (end RANT)I have installed OCIDE and set my PATH and System Variables to point to the GNUCobol within it and I can compile a simple program and execute outside of OCIDE so I'm off and running for now. Thank you for your help and guidance.

[Anonymous]

After reading a number of positive comments on VSCodium, I'm now trying it out. A couple of things off the bat - I can't find a User Guide, is the VSCode guide applicable/relevant? I quite like the vertical guide lines in OpenCobolIDE, can they be put into VSCodium? Lastly, there is only one line in settings.json and I don't know what else is required. Are there any workable examples?

[Simon Sobisch]

I quite like the vertical guide lines in OpenCobolIDE

I guess you mean the same as visible in the sample attached. That comes for free when installing the COBOL extension from bitlang.
Ensure to have the outline (in the left area) be opened, possibly sorted in order.
You'll likely adjust settings.json for the extension (can do it via the extensions settings), possibly adjust copybook paths. That's a setup I used:

{
  "files.autoGuessEncoding": true,
  "coboleditor.copybookexts": [
    "cpy",
    "CPY"
  ],
  "coboleditor.copybooks_nested": true,
  "coboleditor.pre_parse_line_limit": 30,
  "coboleditor.copybookdirs": [
    "${workspaceFolder}",
    "${workspaceFolder}/src/cpy/common",
    "${workspaceFolder}/src/cpy/files",
    "${workspaceFolder}/src/cpy/screens",
    "${workspaceFolder}/../Release Components/common/cpy/common",
    "${workspaceFolder}/../Release Components/common/cpy/files",
    "${workspaceFolder}/../Release Components/common/cpy/screens"
  ],
  "coboleditor.experimential_features": true,
  "coboleditor.cache_metadata": "on"
}

and tasks.json to actually do a compile (add -j to cobc arguments to run it after compilation) - but that's only a simple example, for any "real" COBOL applications you are normally better of using a makefile or a solution.
Some samples for this file can were given in [efbb216fc0].

[David Wall]

VSCodium
I have free-format source files and couldn,t find a way of removing the line numbers at the left side - notepad++ has them if you want - but I don't need them.
I also tried associating files named like COBa or COBx with COBOL as the language and didn't find where to set it permanently. I could click COBOL language and the file would be coloured accordingly - but it wouldn't stay for next opening of the same or another file.
I'm reasonably sure I looked hard on the Net but to no avail.
Apart from the 'mini-view' on the Right-hand side it didn't have 'much' extra to offer me.

[Simon Sobisch]

Does the setting coboleditor.fileformat help? If not please report this as in issue to the extension's issue tracker.

If you use the outline (part of the explorer view on the left) you may get something more already, in any case the "peek/show definition/references" functions are quite useful for me.
In any case you should also trigger your build from within vscode (with a "default build task"), which may use cobc directly or make or whatever you use. Attach the gnucobol/gnucobol3 problem matcher to it and you get a very nice support in editing.

[Anonymous]

Hey thanks for that but you didn't say anything about the User Guide. Also, I've installed Cobol and Cobol Plus Pack from bitlang but can't see where to switch on the vertical lines....or are they there but I can't see them on a white background...

[Simon Sobisch]

For questions concerning the extensions like those: please check with its documentation and/or as on its issue tracker and come back + answer your own question. Thank you.

[Anonymous]

I've now installed the COBOL extension from bitlang and in the notes it says that COBOL tab stops can be changed by editing the coboleditor.tabstops setting - where is that to be found?

[Simon Sobisch]

In the extension settings. There are at least two ways to get there:

1. When you already know how the extension setting is named: press [F1], enter "set" and choose "Preferences: Open User Settings", then in the new search entry enter "coboleditor" or even the single one "coboleditor.tabstops", then click on "edit"
2. Go the the extension view, then click on the gear wheel, then search for the setting

In both cases you may only want to define it for the current workspace not for everywhere, in this case switch between "User" and "Workspace" (below the search) bar.

[Anonymous]

using your option 2, under Coboleditor:Tabstops it says "Setting has an invalid type, expected "array". I don't know how to express an array. This is what it has:
{
"workbench.colorTheme": "Throwback (NX Inspired)",
"coboleditor.tabstops": [

    0,
    7,
    11,
    15,
    19,
    23,
    27,
    31,
    35,
    39,
    43,
    47,
    51,
    55,
    59,
    63,
    67,
    71,
    75,
    79
]

}

[Anonymous]

ok, fixed that by adding a comma after the square bracket but in attempting to set the rulers, I get the "setting has an invalid type, expected "array"" message in the following:

{
    "workbench.colorTheme": "Throwback (NX Inspired)",
    "coboleditor.tabstops": [
        0,
        7,
        11,
        15,
        19,
        23,
        27,
        31,
        35,
        39,
        43,
        47,
        51,
        55,
        59,
        63,
        67,
        71,
        75,
        79
    ],
    "editor.rulers": [

    8,
    12
    ],
}

[Simon Sobisch]

I suggest to check at https://github.com/spgennard/vscode_cobol/issues/ and report back,

[Anonymous]

In desperation at not understanding the coding rules for the settings, I installed VSCode to see if it's settings were any different. I noticed that it picked up my extensions as well. When I loaded my COBOL source into VSCode, lo and behold there were red rulers for cols 7,8 and 12! Looking through VSCode settings, I noticed:

"workbench.colorCustomizations": {
        "editorRuler.foreground": "#ff0000",
    "[Red]": {}
    },

under coboleditor.fileformat. When I added the above to VSCodium settings, I had the rulers I wanted for the Cobol editor alone. I'm assuming they were always there but uncoloured and therefore invisible. Also, there were red columns at cols 8 & 12 in the settings code. That was because I set them under "editor.rulers" not realizing that means rulers for the settings editor. I have yet to find where the Cobol editor rulers are set.

[Alan Honeyman]

As someone who has spent a lot of years in IT and programming, mainly on Cobol and JavaScript (always on Windows), and now having time on my hands I decided to get back into programming, specifically Cobol. Thus, on my Windows 10 system, I downloaded the latest GNUCobol package and proceeded to read through the README & DEPENDENCIES documents. I then downloaded GNU MP (gmp-6.2.1.tar.lz) and have been trying to figure out how to open this archive and how and where to install it.

I guess I assumed I would download a package, double-click and it would all install ready to go. The reality is, to me, much more "complicated".

Hopefully, someone can help me get over this first hurdle.

[Arnold Trembley]

If you are looking for installer packages, there are several on this webpage:

https://www.arnoldtrembley.com/GnuCOBOL.htm

I would recommend the following OSDN MinGW32 based build of the latest stable release (3.1.2). Simply rename the file extension from .7z to .exe and run the self-extracting file. Then look for the STARTHERE.txt file, and if you have questions, ask them in this forum. The complete compiler is already built for you.

https://www.arnoldtrembley.com/GC312-BDB-SP2-rename-7z-to-exe.7z

If you feel adventurous, you can try one of several GnuCOBOL 3.2 Release Candidate 2 builds available from the same web page. Here is the link to an MSYS2/MinGW64 based 64-bit compiler:

https://www.arnoldtrembley.com/GC32M-BDB-x64-rc2-rename-7z-to-exe.7z

It will likely be several weeks until there is a GC 3.2 RC3 available, or a GC 3.2 Final stable release.

Kind regards,

[Anonymous]

Arnold, installed fine, many thanks.