Rocket® COBOL

Problem: Issue with Greek Characters when ANSI characters are used (on .Net). In a .Net Winforms environment Greek characters are not displayed correctly when passed into a Winform. Resolution: This is caused by conversions taking place between OEM and ANSI character sets and UNICODE. To resolve the problem you need to perform the following code when your application starts:- call "PC_WIN_SET_CHARSET" USING BY VALUE 0 This sets up the COBOL system so that all conversions are ansi based. Old KB# 5362

Problem: You may have a character based screen application that you want to run inder Windows as a full screen display. However, when you run it the screen display may be much smaller than required and you may want to extend the screen to be a full screen making the screen a 25 lines by 80 column screen. Resolution: COBOL doesn't set a 25x80 screen as default for console based applications. Instead, the screen characteristics are set by Windows. When you originally developed your app, 25x80 was probably the standard screen size, although there were some exceptions where 43 and 50 line screens were used. (These subsequently led to the intorduction of the C4 and C5 runtime switches). The only way to get a full screen is by clicking the top left corner of the application screen and selecting 'Properties'. One of the options then available is 'Full Screen'. However this only expands the display to cover the full screen and does not necessarily set up the scr

Problem: Can web services built with Net Express be deployed on any other third party servers or does it have to be deployed on Enterprise Server? Resolution: Any web services written in Net Express must be deployed on Enterprise Server no matter what the platform is. Old KB# 5379

Problem: When running a Dialog System application built with the ANIM compiler directive and deployed under Application Server, the following error message might possibly be encountered in some circumstances:          DSDEBUG-0113          Error message file mot found          Error number = 0113          Group tag name = DSDEBUG          Group set number = 0027 The title of the error message dialog box would be "NLS Text Failure". Resolution: In this case, rebuild the application without the ANIM directive and redeploy it. Old KB# 5336

Problem: Are there any further documentations on how to use INCLUDE or OMIT control statements in MFSORT? Resolution: Here is the description of the INCLUDE/OMIT control statements in the Net Express Help: ----------------------------------------- INCLUDE/OMIT Specifies conditions in which records will be included or omitted from the sort process. For details, see the IBM documentation to be found at Using DFSORT Program Control Statements. INCLUDE and OMIT are mutually exclusive. ----------------------------------------- You will note there is a link (http://www.microfocus.com/docs/links.asp?nx=dfs2) for details on how to use them. If you click on the link, it will take you to the documentations on DFSORT Program control statements. You will find from that site all the details about how to use INCLUDE/OMIT control statements. Old KB# 5364

Problem: How to search a directory for a given file specification (e.g. *.cbl)? Resolution: The routine x"91" function 69 can be used to search a directory for a given file specification. Another way also is to call to FindFirstNext, a WinAPI function. You will find a demo for each of this routine at the Micro Focus SupportLine site (http://supportline.microfocus.com) in the "Net Express Examples & Utilities" page. The one for x"91" function 69 is called DIRLIST.ZIP while the one for FindFirstNext is called FINDFIRSTNEXT.ZIP. Old KB# 5347

Problem: Release 4.0: How to setup the File Handler configuration .cfg file a) to prevent getting this error message: 'A file which your program is accessing is too large for successful execution to continue' (extended file status code 194) and also to prevent spreading the data (file striping) under Microsoft Windows NTFS? b) to ensure that files generated and used IDXFORMAT"8" can be easily handled if they are greater than 1 or 2 or 4GB? Resolution: The .cfg file has to cover also an entry FILEMAXSIZE=8 (if not: FILEMAXSIZE=4 will be assumed by default) For additional information, under Net Express refer to: Help-> Help Topics-> Index-> FILEMAXSIZE-> FILEMAXSIZE File Handler configuration option Old KB# 5360#netexpress#RMCOBOL#COBOL#ServerExpress#AcuCobol

Problem: While executing a program this error occurs: Load error : file 'EXTSM' error code: 173, pc=0, call=1, seg=0 173     Called program file not found in drive/directory What must we do to correct this problem? Resolution: There is a simple solution. Use the following command to create a Extsm.dll. cbllink -d -RS -k -v extsm.obj>cbllink.txt<Enter> Place the extsm.dll in the folder where your application is executing. This will make the sort available to all .EXE and .DLL programs. Cbllink.txt will capture all the details published by the "verbose" switch (-v) and the "keep" switch (-k) will retain the module definition file (.def) and the import library (.lib) for the dll. Old KB# 5366

Problem: The comp-3 arithmetic should only retain the result equal to the defined pick value not what it can hold.        WORKING-STORAGE SECTION.       *****************************************************************        01  PIC-S9X4-COMP-3         pic S9(4)   COMP-3  value 5001.        01  PIC-S9X9-COMP-3         pic S9(9)   COMP-3  value 5001.        01  WRK-S9X4-COMP-3         pic S9(4)   COMP-3  value 0.        01  WRK-S9X9-COMP-3         pic S9(9)   CO

Problem: Program A call Program B, receing error on call to Program B. Works in debug mode, error produced in Release Mode. Resolution: This was corrected by a HOTFIX for  RPI 1057346 - this occurs due to a change to the compiler to accommodate mainframe dialects. the outdd and\\or  indd are the cause and the solutions is as below: Run-time system error COBRT226 ("EXTERNAL data definition        inconsistent") was returned sometimes if programs in a run unit had been compiled with a        mainframe dialect. The error occurs because the        attributes used for the SYSOUT file when using a mainframe dialect        changed in WrapPack V4.0.005.        If you receive this error you should recompile all the programs   &nbsp

Problem: I want to create a new environment variable in the registry from within a program - how can I do this? Resolution: There is an example of how to do this on the SupportLine website -  look for the cobreg program on the sample programs page. Old KB# 5382

Problem: To pass a structure like this: 01   LINKVARS.     03  VAR1             PIC X(02).     03  VAR2.        05 VAR3           PIC X(10). from COBOL to Java but to also  send it as a Byte[] type instead of a string.  Is there some way to do this? Resolution: You can't pass a record structure directly from COBOL to a Java method which is expecting a byte array, as there is no mapping for that within the Object COBOL runtime support.  However, we do have a means of creating arrays using the jarray class. If you create a one dimensional byte array using the jarray class, the getData/commitData methods can then be used to copy a COBOL buffer into it.  That jarray can then be passed to the

Problem: You open a Net Express Command prompt and you enter the adiscf command to be able to configure adis behavior for screen i-o. But although you can see the menu bar at the bottom, you can not see any of the menu options in the main panel. Resolution: Adiscf was designed when the command prompt window had a fixed size and there were not any screen buffer. So to get it working properly, you need to reduce the screen buffer size to match the real window size. For example, if you wanted to configure adis to enable function keys, these are the steps that you would need to do: 1. Open a Net Express command prompt 2. At the command prompt window you need to reduce the Screen Buffer Size to match exactly the Window Size, or you will have problems with adiscf. Click on the top left corner and select properties. Then reduce the Screen Buffer Height to 25, that is the same value that you see in Window Size. Then click OK. If you select "Apply prop

Problem: Clicked on remove and it seemed to uninstall but it is not gone from the add and remove programs list. If NX is clicked on again, it says it is not there although still visisble. Resolution: Clear Unwanted Entries from Add/Remove Programs Intended For Windows XP Windows 2000 Windows Me Windows 98 Windows 95 In Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel, a list of installed applications is displayed for the purpose of easy removal. Unfortunately, but there is no obvious method for removing these entries (either to prevent accidental removal, or if the application was removed some other way) without uninstalling the programs. To remove an entry, do the following: Run the Registry Editor (REGEDIT.EXE). Open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\ SOFTWARE\\ Microsoft\\ Windows\\ CurrentVersion\\ Uninstall, and remove any unwanted keys under "Uninstall." Old KB# 5387#netexpress#AcuCobol#COBOL#RMCOBOL#ServerExpress

Problem: How can I get an error when a REDFINES source/target are different lengths? Resolution: This "error" would return an informational message from the checker and is not reported by default (as you have found).  If you want to see these errors then you will need to specify the WARNING"3" directive on your compilations. Old KB# 5365

Problem: What does a status 1 code returned from a WinApi call mean? Resolution: A status 1 returned from a WinApi call means "Error - invalid function". Old KB# 5390

Problem: How can I create a Shortcut on my desktop from my application? Resolution: The simplest way to do this is to use COM Automation objects provided by the Windows Script Host. Attached is an example (Click on the "Related" tab above, and see "wshshortcut.zip" under "Attachments" towards the bottom of the screen.) Attachments: wshshortcut.zip Old KB# 5357

Problem: Found cblcore modules  in many directories.  Can these safely be deleted? Resolution: Cblcore is a debugging tool - it puts out a cblcore dump anytime an abend occurs. By typing in CBLCORED from a command prompt, it will put up a pop up box and you can enable or disable it. If you have already resolved the abends and do have no need to look at the dumps, you can delete them. If this is occurring on your development machine, check the animate options and uncheck core dump to stop using the function. Old KB# 5383

Problem: Some COBOL code from another environment does a WRITE statement to a line sequential file but a special character is not written out as expected. The special character is less that 1F hex. Resolution: This is the default behaviour. In Line Sequential files if there is a character less than x"1F" then a null is inserted before the character. You can switch off this by using the COBOL Runtime switch (N) or a file handler config entry INSERTNULL. If you set one of these options then your file will be produced as expected. Old KB# 5374

Problem: How can access the Vtable from a COM DLL? The VTable is the low level interface  that a COM Object Object exposes. Its structure is similiar to a C Object. Resolution: If you already have a COBOL OLE Domain object you could use the COM Class library IUnknown "fromDomainObject" class method and QueryInterface to get the COM Interface (vtable) you want. Alternatively you could CoCreateInstance and QueryInterface COM API calls. If possible its far better to use a automation object so you can invoke on it. Thats far more forgiving and simpler from COBOL. Old KB# 5358

Problem: "FATAL ERROR -- Cannot access message file" observed when compiling Resolution: The message files are MFLANG*.lbr in <product directory>\\base\\bin. The normal reasons for the message are:- (1) PATH doesn't contain this folder (2) COBDIR doesn't contain this folder (3) The files aren't in the directory for some reason If none of these apply, then reinstalling often cures the problem. Don't forget to 'RetainKey' when uninstalling. Old KB# 5331

Problem: how to create an event handler for a control in .NET Resolution: 1)  Click the form or control that you want to create an event handler for. 2)  In the Properties window, click the Events button (looks like a lightning bolt). 3)  In the list of available events, click the event that you want to create an event handler for. 4)  In the box to the right of the event name, type the name of the handler and press ENTER. 5)  Add the appropriate code to the event handler in the code behind. Old KB# 5340#netexpress#AcuCobol#COBOL#ServerExpress#RMCOBOL

Problem: Client was getting error COBCH0250S status field is missing or illegal on every compile. This was occurring for every field specified as a FILE  STATUS in their SELECT clause. The file status field had been set as follows: pic xx comp-5 Resolution: The first character of the file status field cannot be defined as a comp field. Only the 2nd character can be defined as comp. For example: 01  file-stat.      05  fs-1     pic x.      05  fs-2     pic x comp-x. This format will allow for the extended Micro Focus file status codes to be retrieved. Old KB# 5354

Problem: Method to pass variables between programs.  Correct syntax for passing a variable back to the calling program from the EXIT PROGRAM RETURNING ... statement. Resolution: First Method - returning a value from the EXIT PROGRAM statement in the called program: Pass the value of an alphanumeric variable from the called program in the RETURNING clause of the EXIT PROGRAM statement. The variables are defined in the working-storage section of both programs. The call to the called program is             call prog2 returning ws-var1. The correct syntax of the called program (prog2) would be: procedure division returning ws-var1.       ... exit program returning ws-var1. Returning a variable with this method (from the EXIT PROGRAM statement) returns the 'value' of the variable. On a 32-bit machine, the length of the value is limited to 4 character

Problem: You may see that data defined in a VARCHAR host -variable appears as "padded" with spaces when examining the record on the database. Is it possible to stop data from being padded when written out this way? Resolution: To avoid this from happening you can declare your host variables with the new Open ESQL syntax that is now supported in Net Express - CHAR-VARYING, which is a synonym for VARCHAR. The Net Express documentation describe this new syntax as follows: CHAR-VARYING Example: 01 hv-name SQL TYPE IS CHAR-VARYING(n) generates 01 hv-name pic x(n). CHAR-VARYING data is passed to OpenESQL as SQL_VARCHAR. When data is sent to the data source, trailing spaces are trimmed, except for the first space if the value is all spaces, and values fetched from the data source are padded with spaces. Having the ANSI padding checked on the driver should trim off any NULLS. Old KB# 5342