I have a files containing both duplicate and non-duplicate records. The file is already sorted by a key. I want to determine those records that are duplicate and records that are non-duplicate. If duplicate the record is moved to a duplicate file and if non-duplicate that will be moved to valid file. I am using COBOL, and occurenc...
After reading this: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001294.html ...I'm wondering if I would be well-served to learn COBOL so I can replace the COBOL programmers as they retire. Some people in the comments point out that as the old programmers retire or die, salaries might well increase in that field. If I'd like to positio...
This is in reference to Stack Overflow Podcast #65. Assume a typical 60's or 70's server computer with, say, 256k main memory. How large (compiled) COBOL programs could such a machine run at maximum? How severely would this limit the complexity and capabilities of COBOL programs, assuming that the programs are not deliberately made mo...
How can I tell if a module is being called dynamically or statically? ...
We have a Japanese client that has source code in COBOL on an mainframe. He claims the code on the mainframe is represented in Shift-JIS2 (and we think we understand that pretty well). When that code is transferred to an PC, what is the most common encoding used? We've sent him a program to process that COBOL code and it seems to cho...
I found this one: http://tiny-cobol.sourceforge.net/download.php Not sure to undestand how to install it on Windows. Any other ? ...
What is the best tool (best feature, best price, best support) for RPG / COBOL Version Control under OS 400 development? I heard about ARCAD and ALDON. Which one is better? Or is there another better tool? ...
We are processing IBMEnterprise Japanese COBOL source code. The rules that describe exactly what is allowed in G type literals, and what are allowed for identifiers are unclear. The IBM manual indicates that a G'....' literal must have a SHIFT-OUT as the first character inside the quotes, and a SHIFT-IN as the last character before the...
On the rare occasion that people say nice things about cobol, they often mention "copy corresponding" (and "move corresponding"). I'd really like to know more about these -- what are their semantics? Is it the same as: (Perl) for my $key (keys %foo) { $bar{key} = $foo{key} if exists $bar{key}; } Or is there something deeper than t...
I have a number of COBOL programmers who are moving to .NET. I've found many struggle to adopt/understand OO programming principles. I don't have any COBOL experience, so my ability to find what few similarities there are is very limited. There's no way I want to say "forget your twenty years of experience. This is all new," but I don...
I know that a lot of Y2K efforts/scare was somehow centered on COBOL, deservedly or not. (heck, I saw minor Y2K bug in a Perl scripts that broke 1/1/2000) What I'm interested in, was there something specific to COBOL as a language which made it susceptible to Y2K issues? That is, as opposed to merely the age of most programs written i...
I am constantly reading about how much Cobol code is still in production. And the main reason that it hasn't been updated into am more modern language is that it would take too long/cost too much. My question is: If there was a tool that converted Cobol to, say, Java, would any organizations find it useful? Or would they rather continu...
I need to pass the TRAP(OFF) runtime option to an IBM AIX COBOL application. The problem is, I have no idea how to do that, and I can't find anything in the IBM documentation on how to do that. I've tried export TRAP=OFF in my runscript, but that didnt do it. Does anyone know how to do this? ...
I am tasked with programming a routine that will run on a iSeries platform - where I pass in a parm (like userid, timestamp, etc...) into a program that can perform SHA-2 data encryption. I take the encryption result and format it into a string to open a browser. I know how to open a browser using a CLP but trying to find a way to pe...
Reading through some of the questions here, the general concensus seems to be that there to continues to be an enourmous amount of COBOL code "out there", not just because it's a nightmare to refactor or re-code, but simply because for a certain market segment (financials etc.), it has proven itself to be more than capable of holding its...
Does anyone know a tool to convert from Cobol Copybook to XSD? Or XML. ...
Hello, I am trying to update a COBOL packed field via a SQL query in a C# application. Currently, the COBOL packed field is being stored in a character column (char(50)) in a MS SQL database. COBOL Data Type = 4 Byte binary number (“PIC S9(9) COMP”): I can use the following statement to extract the data. I am not sure on how to reve...
I have had a talk with a friend of mine about the relative vulnerability of different types of IT workers to unexpected unemployment (e.g. layoffs, company going out of business, obsolete skills etc.) as it seems COBOL developers (or maintainers?) seems very secure in their positions, regardless of the state if the economy or even...
This is a rather simple question that has me stumped. How do you check for a particular value in an alphabetic field in COBOL 85? For example, I am using an EVALUATE statement to check for several possible values in an alphabetic field; depending on the value present, I will take one of several possible actions. Basically, what I'm tr...
Are there any feasible reasons to start a new project in COBOL? What benefits of this language one would find convincing enough to start a new project in it? I'm thinking more about viewing the language in terms of Behavior Driven Development, something related to the steps involved in using a framework such as Cucumber, only that ...