Re: Thoughts on MF COBOL, Unix, and RDBMS



"William M. Klein" <wmklein@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%3vTj.194703$i_6.7323@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Some comments on Micro Focus compilers, SQL, Unix, et al

At the time that Micro Focus had 3 products for DOS-OS/2
- Compiler
- Toolset
- Workbench

Micro Focus sold 2 products for Unix
- Compiler
- Toolbox

Micro Focus sold (for Windows-OS/2) a SEPARATE "XDB" product which was
their first "SQL" product (and was definitely a DB2 emulator). Later
products included "built-in" SQL preprocessors (including PRO*COBOL at one
stage - as an option).

For as long as I can remember (since at least late 80's), Micro Focus has
supported the "preprocessor" directive on all platforms. For each of the
platforms that I remember, there were "add-on" SQL products. "Integrated"
SQL support (that was not an add-on product) was a "medium-late" addition
from Micro Focus (late '90s, I would guess).

As far as "rebadged" products go, "COBOL/2" (compiler only, and ASCII not
EBCDIC support) was a product available from either IBM or Micro Focus.
(It was "crippled" to NOT have EBCDIC support - or even '85 Standard
support when you bought the IBM version.). This was during the days when
Microsoft and IBM were still cooperating on OS/2. This product had
support for an "MS" dialect that did emulate a much earlier Microsoft
developed/sold COBOL product.

The actual Microsoft "rebadged" COBOL product - that worked with the
Microsoft pwd (???) was "mostly" equivalent to COBOL 3.x from Micro
Focus - but was (again) a crippled product that didn't do every thing that
the IBM or Micro Focus products did, but WAS integrated into the Microsoft
product line.

* * *

Bottom-Line (related to the ORIGINAL issues), I know of NO version of a
Micro Focus product (from the late '80s on) that did not "work with" SQL,
but up thru Server Express,(when talking about Unix) I would expect that
you would need to purchase the correct "add-on" SQL product and use the
Micro Focus "preprocessor" directive to get it to work on Unix.

Also, related to the original question, whether C-ISAM was used or not was
ALWAYS a "directive" question. For the Unix products, the "file-handler"
was always provided in a manner that could be changed by the user.
Although it is for a MUCH later Unix product, if you want to know about
selecting C-ISAM vs other file systems, check out:

http://supportline.microfocus.com/Documentation/books/sx50ws03/sx50indx.htm

then look at
"compiler directives"
and look for
"FILETYPE "
where value "1" is C-ISAM, but many other types are available.

--
Bill Klein
wmklein <at> ix.netcom.com

Thanks very much, Bill.

As usual, you are a mine of helpful information.

I think these folks just don't know too much about COBOL and compilers and
the "finer points" may be lost. Anyway, from recent posts here (including
yours) I have all the information I could want at this stage and I'm fairly
confident we can solve this.

Tahnks again,

Pete.
--
"I used to write COBOL...now I can do anything."



.

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