Re: How proprietary is the "COBOL file system"


On Sep 30, 4:18 pm, "Pete Dashwood"
<dashw...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Can anyone tell me if MicroFocus COBOL can read Fujitsu ISAM files, and vice
versa? What about Realia?

Obviously, at the source code level (SELECT and FD/01) the code is
compatible, but what about object level?

This is no better nor worse than with RDBMS or other databases. One
cannot put an Oracle database file into a PostgresSQL system. MySQL
data files can't work with Informix, etc. Of course the _source_ SQL
is (mostly) compatible, but data has to be extracted and reloaded to
move it, possibly with conversion.

Is there a single PC ISAM system, or do all the COBOL vendors have their own
proprietary indexed system which is delivered with their COBOL compiler?

C-ISAM file system is an X-Open standard and used by Informix, C (or
any C callable language), and MF Cobol. However, other ISAM systems
are faster, more compact, and more reliable. Btrieve was another ISAM
system that tried to be a standard system for all languages.

I know what I THINK the answer is, but would be gald to hear any other
facts/opinions about this.



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