Rocket® COBOL

Created On:  18 August 2011 Problem: When using the compiler directive CALLFH(ACUFH) you receive the following error message after building the project:DUMP-UG.obj : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol _ACUFHobj\\x86\\Debug\\Menu.exe : fatal error LNK1120: 1 unresolved externals Resolution: To resolve this issue you will need to souround the ACUFH option string in quotes (").  For example:CALLFH("ACUFH") Incident #2532915 Old KB# 34339#COBOL

Created On:  01 September 2011 Problem: When creating XML comments for a method in a Visual COBOL source program using the characters "*" followed by ">>", the comment is displayed in Intellisense when the method is referenced from within a program that resides in the same project as the source containing the comment but if the source is in a different project than the referencing program then the comment is being ignored.Why is this and how can I get it to work? Resolution: There is an option under Solution Explorer Project Properties > COBOL Tab > Advanced Options called XML documentation file. If you check this and provide a filename in which to store the comments then it will work correctly from within different projects. This must be turned on in the project containing the source with the comment in it. Incident #2535275 Old KB# 34381

Created On:  23 August 2011 Problem: I am having a problem linking 'C' lib content in Visual CCOBOL.  In the Visual COBOL solution where linking to C libs is being specified, e.g. Links Settings had "diskcopy.lib" specified. When building the solution errors where returned such as:  unresolved external symbol _open referenced in function _diskcopy_open. Resolution: The words 'open', 'close', 'read' and 'write' in diskcopy.c were not compatible with the latest VISUAL STUDIO 2010 build and have to be amended to '_open', '_close', '_read' and '_write'. Try to rebuild and it should complete without further problems. Incident #2524182 Old KB# 34348

Created On:  04 August 2011 Problem: When running a Visual COBOL Windows Forms Application and clicking into a textbox control a space appears in the first character of the textbox. How do I get rid of this leading space character? Resolution: This most likely has to do with how you are intializing the text box text property. Are you initializing the field using something like:set textbox1::text to " "This is different than initializing it to the empty value which is two quotes without a space separating them.  Instead, try using:set textbox1::text to "" Incident #2530929 Old KB# 34305

Created On:  05 August 2011 Problem: Beginning with version 8, unlike previous versions of the ACUCOBOL-GT Runtime, when the bin directory is copied to another Windows machine or a client PC is mapped to the bin directory on a server one of the following or similar errors may occur. ACUCOBOL-GT Runtime initialization errors such the following are usually corrected by copying the Microsoft redistributables, Microsoft.VC80.CRT and Microsoft.VC80.MFC, into the bin directory as discussed in articles 2731, 14870, 14931, and 31750. "The system cannot execute the specified program."“This application has failed to start because the application configuration is incorrect.”"The application failed to initialize properly."The directions provided in those articles were followed, however, the error below continued to persist."The application failed to initialize properly." Resolution: It was discovered that the installation had been done from a net

Created On:  10 August 2011 Problem: The error message "can not create temporary directory" appears when compiling a program, or when executing a utility (such as Micro Focus's mfsupport utility). Resolution: Here are a few items to check in resolving this problem:Is the TMPDIR environment variable set?  Micro Focus follows the value of this environment variable when creating temporary files. If TMPDIR is set, does the directory pointed to by TMPDIR exist?  If so, do you have permission to write in that directory?  You can test this by using a UNIX command to create or "touch" a new file in that directory.If TMPDIR is not set, Micro Focus uses default locations of /tmp or /var/tmp.  Is there a permissions problem, or a disk space problem, in these locations?To solve the problem, you could set the environment variable TMPDIR to a location having adequate permissions and disk space. Old KB# 34324

Created On:  01 August 2011 Problem: Commencing on version 9.0.0, there is a new location of the installation and the licenses on Windows platforms. Resolution: New Installation location on Windows:The Windows installation directory structure for all extend products has changed. In particular the former directory "Acucorp" has been renamed to "Micro Focus". For example, version 8.x of ACUCOBOL-GT is installed here: C:\\Program Files\\Acucorp\\Acucbl800\\AcuGT Now, version 9.0.0 and higher is installed here: C:\\Program Files\\Micro Focus\\Acucbl900\\AcuGT Windows license file location changes:Version 9.0 now follows the Microsoft guidelines for license file locations. When using a standard ACUCOBOL-GT installation and License Activator you should see no change in behavior. However, license files are no longer created in the installation directory (C:\\Program Files\\Acucorp\\Acucbl900, by default on Windows XP). Instead, license files are created in an a

Created On:  26 July 2011 Problem: The problem occurs on the Windows 7 64-Bit platform using AcuBench V9.0 Screen Designer when creating a new AcuBench product. When using screen designer and adding a GRID, Notice its completely blank and has no grid patterns etc. This issue is only linked to this platform configuration. Resolution: You simply create a separate Windows .bat file to execute AcuBench .Within this you just set PATH=(Setting the PATH to nothing and executing AcuBench - the grid (columns and rows) displays). Old KB# 34275#GRIDBLANKACUBENCH

Created On:  02 August 2011 Problem: Is it possible to do the following:- Move the cursor between entry-fields, using events- Return to the main screen and show the cursor on a new screen control- Move focus between grids Resolution: The attached samples show how to do this.Program1.cbl shows:- how to move between entry-fields;- how to open a new screen, close it and return to a third entry-field.Grid.cbl shows how to move from Grid1 to Grid2, using events and exceptions.Both samples are provided standalone and within an Acubench 9.0.1 project. Incident #2530249 Attachments Grid.cblProgram1.cblaccept-control-4.zip Old KB# 34300

Created On:  01 August 2011 Problem: Working with AcuBench projects that are sitting in a server where they can be reached from several developers, there are occasions when we will get the following message: “AcuBench has detected a corruption in one of your Project's files. Acubench will restore your project from your most recent Auto-Save.” It points to a temporary file, which does not exist. This results in not being able to work at all with the project. The project can be opened from other machines without any problems. Resolution: As the normal procedure when working with AcuBench, it generates some temporary files and registry keys related with those temporary files. When AcuBench closes a project, it removes those files and registry keys. When it starts over, it checks those registry entries and if the value is different to 0 it is when it sends this message. The registry key in question is: \\\\CurrentUser\\\\SOFTWARE\\\\CASEMaker\\\\AcuBenchxxx\\\\Tem

Created On:  02 August 2011 Problem: Using runtime 8.1.1 or earlier on Windows 7, no Font dialog box opens when called. A CALL "W$FONT" USING WFONT-CHOOSE-FONT returns value -1. Resolution: Windows 7 manages the Font dialog box in a different way than Windows XP. It is now mandatory for it to call the native API comctl32.dll. However, setting WIN32_NATIVECTLS to 0 (the default value) causes the exclusion of the said dll. So, a workaround may be to turn WIN32_NATIVECTLS configuration variable ON, using runtime 8.1.1 or earlier.  From runtime 8.1.2, this is no longer necessary and the Font dialog box is shown correctly, regardless of the value of WIN32_NATIVECTLS.See ECN-3976 for further information about this issue. Incident #2530193 Old KB# 34299

Created On:  05 August 2011 Problem: In which version of Acu4GL for Oracle was Oracle 11G R2 supported? Resolution: Although Oracle 11G has been support by Acu4GL for Oracle since version 8.1.0, support for Oracle 11G R2 did not begin until version 8.1.2.1. Incident #2526126 Old KB# 34311

Created On:  04 August 2011 Problem: I have a Visual Cobol Solution, that contains two projects each with a Windows Form. One Windows Form has a button and the other a textbox control.How can a value (string) be sent across projects, for example, if I click on Button on Form1 I want it to populate the textbox1 on Form2 with some text.Would the line of code look something like the following for the btnSend_Click method:        set form2::textbox1::text to "this is a test". How can I reference components on other forms that are in other projects but in the sane solution? Resolution: Add a reference in the Form1 project to the Form2 project.Form 1 needs to define a data item to hold the instance of Form2.In this example Form2 will be instantiated from within Form1.       class-id testtextspace.Form1 is partial                 inherits type

Created On:  09 August 2011More Visual COBOL results at kb.microfocus.com Problem: While attempting to install Visual COBOL 2010 you receive the top message below or while attempting to install COBOL 2010 Runtime you receive the bottom message below:What does this mean? Resolution: These error messages are correct in that Visual COBOL for Visual Studio and COBOL 2010 Runtime products cannot be installed on the same computer.  Visual COBOL is the development environment which integrates into Visual Studio 2010. It has all the components of the COBOL 2010 Runtime product installed with it so that you can test your applications on the development computer without the requirement of a production runtime license. The COBOL 2010 Runtime product is for production use and it contains all of the files necessary to run the developed applications on a computer where Visual COBOL is not installed.  These products each are licensed separately.  Where you might h

Created On:  29 July 2011 Problem: There is a problem with the Visual COBOL R4 documentation for using the RM compatible C$RERR routine.The documentation states:Configuring the RM/COBOL File Handler  In acurmfm.cfg, set the file handler. DEFAULT_FILESYSTEM RMFMTo retrieve RMFM file status codes or call C$RERR in your COBOL programs: In acurmfm.cfg, set the following environment variables. set CONVERTSTATUS=rmstatset COBCONFIG=cobconfig.cfg  *> cobconfig.cfg is your MF COBOL run-time configuration file.In cobconfig.cfg, set the following environment variable: set ACU_LIBRARY=TRUE-------------------------------------------------------This does not work. Resolution: The COBCONFIG and CONVERTSTATUS environment variables must actually be set in the computers environment instead of in the acurmfm.cfg file.  If you follow the instructions in the documentation you will get a Runtime Error 173 on the call to C$RERR.If the COBCONFIG and CONVERTSTATUS envir

Created On:  26 July 2011 Problem: Using CBL_DELETE_FILE for large and small files on Windows and UNIX. It successfully removes files less than 2GB on both Windows and Solaris, and removes files larger than 2GB on Windows. But it is failing (with status code 1) to remove files 2GB or larger on Solaris. Resolution: This should be resolved by setting the environment variable below:USE_LARGE_FILE_API=1  export USE_LARGE_FILE_APIOn UNIX systems, this variable allows you to turn on or off file system API support for very large files (greater than 2 gigabytes). Support for large files is enabled when USE_LARGE_FILE_API is set to "1" (on, true, yes). Some UNIX systems do not support files greater than 2 gigabytes in size. In those situations, setting this variable to the default of "0" (off, false, no) causes the runtime to use the standard 32-bit file system API. This variable has no effect on Windows platforms. Old KB# 34282#deletelarge2GB

Created On:  01 August 2011 Problem: Users have the utility called CHKLOG to periodically clear the event.log, but there is no utility to clear the connect.log file.  How is this done? Resolution: You can go ahead and delete the connect.log as it will create a new one for the next log entry. If you receive an error message when trying to delete it you will need to stop the server first. You can disable the creation of the connection log by deleting the "InstallDirectory" entry from the [SimbaServer] section of the odbc.ini file, which is located in the Relativity Data Server installation directory. Incident #2530278 Old KB# 34296

Created On:  26 July 2011 Problem: When running Thin Client from a Windows XP machine, you get the message "Connection failed. Server failed to start remote process. Check message on server."The trace file on the server (Windows 2008 server) shows a message "Trying to create Process" ... and at end of message "failed: 267). Resolution: The Error 267 in Windows environment means Invalid Directory.  An invalid directory path/name or inadequate permissions on one of the directories or sub directories causes this error.  Ensure the working directory specified in the Alias entry is correct. Check the permissions for all leading directories to both the runtime and object files.  Check the AcuRCL configuration file (acurcl.cfg) to ensure the correct path specification is set for SERVER-RUNTIME.  This must be set if the remote runtime is installed in a different directory than AcuRCL. Old KB# 34286

Created On:  08 August 2011 Problem: Users have both data files, with and without extension. Using AcuXDBC, there is a file-suffix variable they can set into the configuration file, but it will not find any that do not have a suffix. Needs to be able to see both. Resolution: Multiple suffixes are not support by AcuXDBC; but there are two workarounds that users with the same issue have implemented: a) Use multiple acuxdbc.cfg configuration files and point these in separate DSN's. b) Setting Up File Aliases, as we mentioned in our AcuXDBC User's Guide: Chapter 5:Installing AcuXDBC; 5.5 Loading the System Catalog with Your XFDs; 5.5.1 Setting Up File Aliases. In this last approach you do not have to use the FILE-SUFFIX variable in the acuxdbc.cfg fil; but you will need to add the files to the System Catalog using the following syntax: xfdname#tablename#filename.dat (or whatever is the suffix you are using or none). This way AcuXDBC will link the table name with the fi

Created On:  28 July 2011 Problem: What is the difference between system time and total user time? Resolution: Total user time: This is the total number of seconds used by all the programs in the executed run. It is shown under the Program Summary in the report. System time: This is the number of milliseconds of CPU time spent processing system code on behalf of the profiled process. Incident #2529788 Old KB# 34288#SystemTime

Created On:  22 June 2011 Problem: When attempting to compile the Server Express demo program $COBDIR/demo/c-cobol/cobsub1.cbl, the module "cmain1.cpy" cannot be found in any of the demo directories. Resolution: Copy the $COBDIR/demo/c-cobol directory contents into a working directory and then run the script ccob1.sh. This should create cmain1.cpy. Incident #2508072 Old KB# 34184

Created On:  24 June 2011 Problem: This article details how to run Micro Focus LMF, ASLMF and ESLMF licensing as a non-root user.  The following instructions assume that the Server Express and Server products are being installed on a clean machine. The instructions do contain some steps to remove files if they are present from a previous installation. Resolution: LMF LicensingStep 1.Install Micro Focus product.  See product install notes that came with product for full details. During the installation you will be taken into the LMF installation.   Text will appear as….This product is protected using the Micro Focus License Management Facility (LMF). Please refer to the Development System Licensing Guide for information relating to the installation of the licensing system and licenses.If you do not have LMF installed or want to upgrade to the latest version, we recommend you install it now.Would you like to install LMF now? (y/n):yEnter the directory name

Created On:  30 June 2011 Problem: Trying to install Server Express on Solaris gives an error message as follows:Enter the absolute path to the directory where Server Express should be installed.   Press return to use (/opt/microfocus/cobol)/home/support/products/opt/microfocus/cobol Installation directory /home/support/products/opt/microfocus/cobol does not exist.Do you want to create it? (y/n): y Installing into /home/support/products/opt/microfocus/cobol Do you want to continue? (y/n): yCopying files. This can take several minutes. Please wait....tar: ././@LongLink: typeflag 'L' not recognized, converting to regular filetar: ././@LongLink: typeflag 'L' not recognized, converting to regular filetar: ././@LongLink: typeflag 'L' not recognized, converting to regular filetar: ././@LongLink: typeflag 'L' not recognized, converting to regular filetar: ././@LongLink: typeflag 'L' not recognized, converting to regu

Created On:  22 June 2011 Problem: The COBOL application loops continously until an operator terminates the application.  It first connects to a database and reads transactions from a table, then goes into an idle mode wherein the application is just incrementing a counter until it reaches a specific value.   It then connects to an external database and updates an external table, goes back into idle mode, and the whole cycle begins again. During this idle period the CPU usage is very high as measured by Task Manager. The application is just counting and there is no I/O yet the CPU usage spikes during this time. Is there a parameter somewhere that we can change to lower the CPU usage without changing the code? Resolution: If the application is incrementing a counter then it is still utilizing the CPU.  You should instead call the library routine CBL_THREAD_SLEEP or the winapi Sleep function to actually relinquish the time sli

Created On:  16 June 2011 Problem: For certain programs, it may be desirable to use the CHAINING phrase as part of the PROCEDURE DIVISION header. While the AcuBench documentation discusses the automatic generation of the USING phrase, there does not appear to be a way to incorporate the CHAINING phrase. Resolution: AcuBench does not have a way to automatically insert the CHAINING phrase into a generated program. This can be worked around with a manual modification and changing one of the settings in AcuBench.The two AcuBench tags below in the .cbl file are removed then the CHAINING phrase is inserted with the parameter desired as shown below.*{Bench}linkpara <---- remove     PROCEDURE DIVISION CHAINING MY-PARAMETER. *{Bench}end      <---- removeBefore regenerating, AcuBench must be configured not to regenerate the tags that were removed. From the Tools menu, select Options, Code Generator, check the Regenerate tagged a