User Ratings

★★★★★
★★★★
★★★
★★
53
3
0
1
3
ease 1 of 5 2 of 5 3 of 5 4 of 5 5 of 5 4 / 5
features 1 of 5 2 of 5 3 of 5 4 of 5 5 of 5 4 / 5
design 1 of 5 2 of 5 3 of 5 4 of 5 5 of 5 4 / 5
support 1 of 5 2 of 5 3 of 5 4 of 5 5 of 5 4 / 5

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User Reviews

  • The team did a nice job in implementing a version of COBOL which matches the vast majority (not to say all of them) of MS-COBOL and Microfocus COBOL features. Being a nostalgic, I thought that I would no longer be able to exercise my hobby of programming in a platform like that - and you guys made it happen ! So congratulations for dedicating your off time to this - we, COBOL programmers and former programmers are the ones who benefit from that (not to mention the end users). As a former MS-COBOL 80, Microfocus COBOL and BLIS-COBOL programmer, I strongly recommend GnuCOBOL. And btw, if there is interest in using a screen editor/generator which is able to translate screen layouts into a SCREEN SECTION GnuCOBOL code, stick to EDITEL, a program of my own development also listed in Sourceforge for FREE.
    Reply from GnuCOBOL
    Edited 2024-02-04
    Thanks for the positive review - just to point out: GnuCOBOL is not primarily about software preservation, it is used every day in production environments including government and banking. The real good thing is that anyone can use the same compiler as they do - at no cost and even with the ability to change things (if you know how to do it, but still).
  • I have just started using GnuCobol this year. I am still learning much about the implementation but the support it covers from IBM to MicroFocus and others is just incredible. I wish to thank the team who tirelessly worked on this and I do hope they get their much deserved due for doing this. Amazing!
    1 user found this review helpful.
  • GnuCOBOL, formerly OpenCOBOL, is an open-source COBOL compiler that is compatible with Windows, Linux, and macOS. COBOL, or Normal Business Situated Language, is a business-situated programming language that has been used since the last part of the 1950s. GnuCOBOL is effectively maintained and developed by workers in the local area who are focused on safeguarding and enhancing the COBOL language to meet the needs of current processing. The project's goal is to offer a free, open-source alternative to commercial COBOL compilers to more developers and users. GnuCOBOL is a good compiler that can be used to build a wide range of business applications. It has features and capabilities specifically designed to address the needs of COBOL engineers, and it has areas of strength for a number of clients and donors who are satisfied with its ongoing development and change.
    2 users found this review helpful.
    Reply from GnuCOBOL
    Posted 2024-02-03
    Thank you for the extensive review. As you've rated 4/5 - what should be improved in your view (of course ask 5 people and get 6 different opinions) to make that 5/5? Note: there are donors, but as with many free software projects, that's less than 0.1% of the users in general and possibly around 1% of the commercial users that donor time, docs, code or money. We likely could reach more faster if those numbers look different...
  • Excellent!
  • Thank you for providing this amazing software for free!
  • Very good implementation of COBOL. Developers appear to be very active improving and adding features. OOP is not available yet but that is not unusual ILE COBOL for the IBM iSeries systems implements only 1985 standard with 1989 and 1993 improvements but does not support any 21st century standards and thus has no classes, methods, or properties. GNU COBOL implements 2002 and 2014 with only the exclusion of OOP. Both Fujitsu and Micro Focus implement OOP via .net while GNU COBOL is decidedly multi-platform so .net is not an option for them.
  • Hi! There are more information of install with red hat? I have so many issues with that, and I need install gnucobol in that! Thanks! It's a good project!
    1 user found this review helpful.
    Reply from GnuCOBOL
    Posted 2021-09-23
    For Fedora, dnf install gnucobol, right out of the package repo. For RHEL, or CentOS, I'm assuming the same would work too. That would give you version 2.2, as of Sep 2020+1, I think. You can also use dnf install libcob if you don't need the compiler but need the run-time to run compiled programs.
  • Decent language support. Could be nice if the syntax trees were a bit easier to extract, but I managed. Version 3.1 didn't pass all NIST tests for me. Also found an overzealous optimization.
    Reply from GnuCOBOL
    Posted 2021-07-14
    Thanks for the review. We don't pass all NIST tests and skip some, mostly the one related to COMMUNICATION SECTION (not implemented "enough" to pass) and, depending on the question of ORGANIZATION INDEXED used some related tests. If you see errors in `make test`: please report via bug tracker.
  • using GnuCOBOL 3.1.2 under windows 7 and works like a charm! but if you try this on Linux eg Void I am only getting a scrolling ERROR ... ERROR what you crackheads? Was so difficult to display something meaningful when there is an issue? get some life .
    Reply from GnuCOBOL
    Edited 2021-07-20
    All CI builds run with GNU/Linux first, and also the main development, so it is unlikely to be broken "in general" there; actually your review is the first note of it getting a scrolling ERROR. In any case a bug report with the actual error you see and the output of `cobcrun -v --info` is likely more useful to fix the issue you have on your local machine than leaving a rating...
  • This cobol is easy to use once you get install. The support is very good.
  • Important project: about 35% of "production" code is in COBOL, and it processes about 80% of all transactions (e.g., ATMs, telephone calls), so making it robust will allow many companies to thrive. Was easy to integrate (and extend) in my COBOL translation project. In need of thorough testing, as the quality is still "Just OK". Wish I had more free time to help :-)
  • The development team has excellent communication and quick interaction and answers to questions asked. As for the quality of the compiler I found it very good.
  • This review is for the work done by the maintainers of GnuCOBOL. I really want to highlight that I like GnuCOBOL but I hate COBOL language itself.
    1 user found this review helpful.
  • Extraordinary example of Programming techniques.
  • GnuCOBOL allows us to change C backend depends on a computation task and reach highly optimized code, thank you a lot!
    1 user found this review helpful.
  • A free COBOL Compiler with all the features and cross-platform ready. Community help is also exceptional. Thank you all.
    2 users found this review helpful.
  • GnuCOBOL (formerly OpenCOBOL) is a great project, highly recommended.
    1 user found this review helpful.
  • A very interesting and useful Project. I used this Compiler with a lot of fun.
    1 user found this review helpful.
  • After writing in Cobol since my TI 990 days and then HP UX Cobol, RM and Micro focus I was excited to use to GNUCobol. After 2 days of dealing with all of the OpenCobolIDE meaningless compiler error messages and the lack of GNUCobol maintaining any ANSI Cobol standards I finally gave up. The Cobol language, in my opinion, is still one of the finest for business applications but this GNUCobol application is absolutely horrible. Looks like a bunch of amateur C++ programmers tried to write a Cobol cross compiler without understanding how Cobol should be written.
    1 user found this review helpful.
    Reply from GnuCOBOL
    Posted 2018-12-16
    Looks like you have not specified `-std=cobol85` (or `-std=cobol2014`) and still expected to have a COBOL compiler restricted to this (while others expect a compiler that supports MicroFocus or Fujitsu or ...). As GnuCOBOL passes nearly all tests of the COBOL 85 NIST tests I'd argue that "a bunch of amateurs [...] without understanding how Cobol should be written" sounds quite wrong. You may want to use the discussion boards or mailing lists (or read the documentation) to find out how to use GnuCOBOL to get what you want.
  • COBOL PRINTING COMMANDS DO NOT WORK IN OPEN COBOL ON WINDOWS !! WHY BECAUSE OF THE LIMITATION OF GNU C ,C++ AND JAVA! THE LANGUAGE SPECS DO NOT INCLUDE PRINTING. AS PART OF THE LANGUAGE!! MOST C AND C++ PROGRAMMERS DO NOT EVEN KNOW HOW TO PRINT TO A “REAL PAPER PRINTER” PRINTING IS NOT INCLUDED IN THE LANGUAGE PERIOD!! MICROSOFT INCLUDES PRINTING CONTROLS AND APIS IN THEIR LANGUES: C++ C# THE REPORT WRITER SECTION IN THE MANUALS EXPLAIN A SPOOLER AND KLUDGE SOLUTION, THE “CUPS” PRINT SPOOLER I FOUND WAS AN APPLE PROGRAM NOT A WINDOWS PROGRAM? SO WHAT YOU NEED TO DO IS OUTPUT A TEXT FILE AND THEN PRINT IT ON PAPER USING: THIS SOLUTION WORKS ON ALL COMPUTERS AND ALL OS: 1) MICROSOFT WORD OR APACHE OFFICE 2) OR EXCEL OR APACHE OFFICE 3) MAKE TEMPLATES FOR FORMS TO PRINT 4) USE A PDF PRINT PROGRAM: FOXIT READER TO SAVE PAPER 5) USE REPORT WRITER PROGRAMS TO PRINT ELABORAGE REPORTS AND GRAPHICS I THINK THE GNU COBOL GROUP SHOULD JUST ADMIT THAT BECAUSE OF C AND C++ LIMITATIONS THAT THE COBOL PRINT COMMANDS ARE NOT GOING TO WORK AND JUST DUMMY COMMANDS USED TO AVOID COMPILE ERRORS!!! THIS WOULD SAVE PEOPLE A LOT OF TIME AND AGGRAVATION RATHER THAN PRETENDING THAT THE PRINTER COMMANDS WORK! THE GNU COBOL GROUP SHOULD PIC AN OPEN SOURCE REPORT WRITER PROGRAM AND INCLUDE IT IN THEIR DISTRIBUTION ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- REPLY TO SYSTEM MAINTAINER: ON A WORKING COBOL COMPILER YOU: READ A FILE : READ WRITE A RECORD WHY ARE YOU PRETENDING THAT YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT "PRINTING COMMANDS" MEANS? STANDARD ANSI COBOL, IBM COBOL ETC HAVE REAL WORKING COMMANDS TO WRITE TO A "PAPER PRINTER" AN IBM, HP OR CANNON PRINTER. (NOW DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT A "PRINTER" IS. NOT FAKE COMMANDS THAT DO NOT WORK!!! THIS IS NOT A USABLE COMPILER, I CAN NOT TAKE MY IBM COBOL PROGRAMS AND COMPILE THEM AS A USABLE COMPILER. COBOL IS A BATCH PROCESSING COMPILER, ITS PURPOSE IS TO WRITE FILES AND PRINT PAPER. ITS NOT JAVA OR HTML OR VISUAL C#, DO YOU UNDERSTAND MY COMMENT NOW. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Instead of using the standard c++ gnu excuse "printing on a real paper printer is not part of c or c++", you can fix the printer problems with your compiler. Both microsoft c++ and c# both include "writing to a real paper printer", hp, cannon brother "printers etc! You should build your compiler on a microsoft platform, so the compiler is usable and not incomplete gnu junk! visual c++ and c# and all the other tools you need to build the compiler for linux and windows are included in the visual studio community edition (free version of visual studio). until you fix your printer problem, this is just more gnu junk.
    1 user found this review helpful.
    Reply from GnuCOBOL
    Posted 2018-12-16
    Can you please elaborate what you consider a "COBOL PRINT COMMAND"? GnuCOBOL has a quite good support for the REPORT WRITER module since "3.x" (2018) and some extensions to this module. The COBOL *language* specifies how print files are created, not how they are processed by the printer. Using a system-specific command (or a portable utility) you may use these print files to output to a printer, a spooler or a PDF creation process.
  • Really cool code. Now if I can find someone who's using this compiler and needs a programmer to write some code.
    2 users found this review helpful.
  • This is an excellent product. I just finished using GnuCOBOL in an undergraduate course about business systems. The students completed twelve modest programs in COBOL over the semester. I had no problems with the compiler or the execution. I did round up one or two issues, which I'll file later as bugs/requests but, in general, it worked flawlessly. These issues came about from very poorly formed programs and the compiler not recovering. There was no instance where a proper program failed to compile and execute. The only sad thing is now I will likely shut down the VMS system I was using for a COBOL compiler. One less place for people to go learn VMS. :-D Thanks for a great effort.
    5 users found this review helpful.
  • GNU Cobol does everything I need to do and the community is very helpful.
  • 6 month ago I started learning COBOL via GNUcobol being tired of those languages which use curled brackets. I installed in on SUSE, UBUNTU and MINT and it ran !!! Opencobilide and garys manual are very helpful to make non-frustrating experieces. The help-forum is superfast and they dont blame you asking beginners questions. If you have to do really dataprocessing (which means not writings apps for Iphones) GNUcobol is the compiler for professional DP. MF wrap up yourself warmly.
    5 users found this review helpful.
  • Used for a COBOL training program. VSAM files worked very well. Great job, thank you !
    2 users found this review helpful.
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