Rocket® COBOL

Problem: Receive the following error message An error was detected while installing c:\\windows\\MFUnweb.exe The installer will attempt to undo any changes it has made to your system. Resolution: When looking at the log produced by the websync install in the temp directory it was discovered that the customer was attempting to run the the wrappack from a network drive when the directory containing the wrappack started with a $. The WebSync technology doesn't allow $ in network locations.  Placing the WrapPack in a standard location on their network and not a hidden one or copying it locally will resolve the problem. Old KB# 3521

Problem: How do I find files larger than a specified number of blocks? Resolution: The following script shows how one might use -size to return a full listing of files in a recursive find. We display the owner, size and location. support 1884712 ./products/SX50EAP/lib/libcobcheck.so support 1884712 ./products/SX50EAP/lib/libcobcheck.so.2 #! /bin/sh # largerthan # find a standard file from current directory, larger than n-bytes if [ $# -lt 1 ] ; then     echo "usage:  largerthan  nunmber-of-bytes   [user] "     exit 1 fi if test $2 then     USR=" -user $2 " fi find . -size $1c -type f  $USR -print | xargs ls -l | awk '{ print $3 "\\t" $5 "\\t" $9 }' Old KB# 3712

Problem: I can't use REMOTE DEBUGGING when the operating system of the remote machine is SuSE 9 . A error message about the rm command is displayed Resolution: It is necessary to modify the file $COBDIR/bin/cobrps . The command who am i  must be modified to whoami The cobrps file must be : : #------------------------------------------------------------------------------- # @(#)cobrps   1.0 # # $Revision:   1.3  $ # $Date:   29 Jul 1999 15:59:10  $ # $Author:   RHS  $ # # Remote process list #  Output: <processid><tab><other information><newline> # # N.B. #   This script must not make ANY assumptions about the environment in which it #   executes: in particular, it must not assume that COBDIR, PATH, LIBPATH, #   LD_LIBRARY_PATH, etc., are set. #-------------

Problem: This sample demonstrates file status code handling of CBL_ file handling routines Resolution: INTRODUCTION ========== This is a subroutine which converts the nonzero return  codes from CBl_ file handling routines to ANSI file  status strings of the form "9/xxx", where "xxx" is a  number documented in the Error Messages manual as a file  status. If the input value is not a valid file status, the string "Unk! " is returned.  A normal completion is X'0000', which is not a file status in the internal format expected and thus will return as "Unk! ".  Please refer  to KnowledgeBase item 21106. SOURCE FILES: ========= Program Files     Description ----------------     ----------------------------------------------------------- rc2fstat.cbl        

Problem: Server Express includes example COBOL programs in the XML tutorial, as described in the documentation.  When a person follows the directions in the tutorial, program "customerdbxml.cbl" may not compile.  A long list of compiler errors may appear, where the first error is actually the cause of the rest.  The first error message might be either: 17 working-storage section. * 803-S*******************                                                   ** **    Integrated preprocessor message **    Bad format of COPY statement - COPY ignored Or:     13 fd customer-file. *  12-S**************** 

Problem: Changing Dialog System application screensets to properly show the Visual Style layout on Windows XP. The Adobe Acrobat file and .zip file attached to this document contain the full Knowledge Base document containing the explanatory screen prints and the example application to show how to accomplish the modernization.  Please download them to view the full information. Resolution: For the past 10 years, GUI Dialog System screensets have looked more or less like the following screen shot: This screen shot was made on a Windows XP PC using the classic layout. Switching the XP operating system to the new XP style layout without any change in the Dialog System screenset will result in: which may look like XP on the first view. But only the title bar has got an XP style layout.  The rest of the features are still the classic style. This article describes how to get a full Visual Style layout on windows XP f

Problem: When a Dialog System program is busy, it does not accept input from the keyboard or mouse clicks.  This can be shown very easily by changing the default arrow-like shape of the mouse pointer to an hourglass shape, which users are generally familiar with, and changing it back when the control flow returns to the Dialog System. Resolution: The Dialog System function to accomplish this is the SET-MOUSE-SHAPE function.  It does this when the following lines are included in your dialog:      SET-MOUSE-SHAPE $WINDOW "SYS-Wait"      RETC      SET-MOUSE-SHAPE $WINDOW "SYS-ARROW" or      SET-MOUSE-SHAPE $WINDOW "SYS-Wait"      CALLOUT "MyProgram" 3 MyParameter      SET-MOUSE-SHAPE $WINDOW "SYS-ARROW" The attached demo shows the use of

Problem: The Sample demonstrates how to call _CODESET to translate character data between ASCII and EBCDIC. Resolution: BUILD W/RELEASE:     Any version of Server Express or Net Express                                     or Object Cobol Developer Suite SOURCE FILES: ========== Program Files      Description ----------------     ----------------------------------------------------------- atoe.cbl              Sample of ASCII to EBCDIC to ASCII conversion Note: Source is in Unix format.  It will not display correctly in Windows Notepad, but will display corectly in Wordpad. It will display, compile, and animate correctly

Problem: Problem sample sources sent in to SupportLine are often missing copy members and/or critical directives or compiler command line options.  A listing (.lst) file can contain all the information, but considerable hand-editing is required to turn the .lst file into usable source and directives. An attempt to complie the .lst file directly will fail due to the embedded page titles. Sometimes the source file is lost, but a listing file remains.  An automated means of retrieving the source could save time spent on other copying methods. Resolution: The attached COBOL source, list2src.cbl, runs on Unix or Windows and will work with Unix or Windows listing files. Compile the source to executable:  cob -x list2src.cbl Run with a listing file specified as the first and only command line argument: ./list2src /somewhere/listing.lst  (note: Windows file specs are equally valid) Listing file name on command line i

Problem: What RPM packages need to be installed on Linux prior to installing Micro Focus Server Express?   The following error is returned after running $COBDIR/bin/cobsje    unable to load libcobjvm_sun_150    If libcobjvm_sun_150 is on shared library PATH, then ensure    'libjava' and 'java' are found on the PATH/Shared Library PATH. Resolution: It may be the library libjava or java is causing the problems, or it could be another shared object entirely. The resolution is to install the missing RPM for C runtime (libstdc ), which is a pre-requisite package that needs to be installed in order to run the C parts of the Micro Focus Server Express - which includes running the cobsje script.) libstdc -3.4.6-9.i386.rpm             and libstdc -3.4.6-9.x86_64.rpm. .    Old KB# 3724

Problem: "You are trying to use a data-name which you have not declared, or which you have misspelled." This error occurs at compile time.  The unknown operand is listed in the message.   Resolution: First insure that the operand is spelled correctly. Check the compiler directives used to compile the program. These may be listed in the compile command or be included from a directives file such as COBOPT.  There is a directive "REMOVE", that tells the compiler that the specified word is no longer to be considered as a COBOL Reserved Word.      If there is a   corresponding statement "REMOVE(XXXXXX)" take out this directive and try the compile again. Check with you Systems Administrator to find out why the command was removed in the first place. Old KB# 3700

Problem: Ths is a package of three minimal programs for conversion of line sequential files Resolution: BUILD W/RELEASE:     Any Micro Focus Cobol product for Unix.                                     line2win is not usable in Windows.                                     rec2line and line2rec may be used with any version of NetExpress                                        as well as any vers

Problem: When animating, customer receives an error on the CICS statement: "EXEC CICS ADDRESS  TCTUA (TCTUABLL) END-EXEC." Animator Screen Output:    999 1010-ADDRESS-TCTUA.   1000   1001     EXEC CICS ASSIGN   TCTUALENG (WS-TCTUA-LEN) END-EXEC.   1002     IF  WS-TCTUA-LEN  LESS THAN   255   1003         EXEC  CICS  SEND lPerform/Call Stack - viewqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqk xProgram Name                    Section Name                               &

Problem: I test my application with  Server Express . Now it is not possible to open  a file in a module of the application  when this file is open in an other module . Resolution: With Server Express, by default , if the file is open with lock mode exclusive in a module , no other module can open this file, even if this other module is in the same run unit .    To give permission for opening by an other module in a same run unit , it is necessary to modify the value of the RUNITLOCKDETECT option of  the file handler configuration file . An exemple is : echo '[XFH-DEFAUKT]' > my.cfg echo 'RUNITLOCKDETECT=OFF' >> my.cfg EXTFH=./my.cfg export EXTFH cobrun prog   Old KB# 3716

Problem: The article "Modernize DialogSystem Applications with Windows XP Visual Style controls" see: http://www.microfocus.com/mfnewsletter/technicalarticles/20050701-002.asp showed how to get the modern looking XP style for DialogSystem screen sets NOTE: A .PDF version of this document is available through the link at the bottom of this page and includes screen shots and tables which further explain the topic. Resolution: Enlarging the entry field by a factor of 4, you can see a line in a dark colour at the top and on the left site - in a light colour at the bottom and to the right: Also the list box shows such lines. These lines are the inherited 3D effect from the standard layout of the entry fields. To switch it off, you need to manipulate the layout of each entry field (and each list box) by class library methods in the following way: In Dialog System: Even if the demo only contains one entry field and one list box, the followi

Problem: Demonstration of CBL_DIR_SCAN_library routine usage. Resolution: BUILD W/RELEASE:     Server Express 2.2SP1 or later, or  NetExpress 4.0 or later Overall, the process is similar to opening a file, reading and processing "records" (directory entries in this case) until an "end" condition is encountered. Also demonstrates use of CBL_GET_OS_INFO to deal with  Unix and Windows platform specifics. SOURCE FILES: ========== Program Files     Description ----------------     ----------------------------------------------------------- dirdemo.cbl        Complete demonstration Copy Files: Uses Micro Focus-supplied copy files.  Environment variable COBCPY must include product's cobcpy directory in its value. REQUIREMENTS: ========== Server Express version 2.2SP1 or later, or NetEx

Problem: Application developers may need a special file handler which works with a particular type of file or device, but must keep all normal COBOL file handling functionality for other file types. Resolution: Attached is an example of a file handler written in COBOL which deals with Comma Separated Value (CSV) files.  CSV is a common data export format for Windows programs.  File organization is line sequential, (records delimited by platform-dependent newline character, X'0D0A' on Windows, X'0A' on Unix.) The file handler in this example expects the file name to end with ".csv" to distinguish it from other line sequential files.  The CSV handler monitors all COBOL file activity while it passes to and from the normal file handler, but does nothing unless all of the following conditions are met: Organization is line sequential Current operation on the file is "read". File name ends with ".csv" The requested read operation is

Problem: If you have migrated an application from Windows to UNIX/Linux, which uses line drawing (to draw boxes etc), you may find that it doesn't work as expected. Under Windows, you may have inserted the specific characters used to draw (corners, vertical and horizontal lines etc) into working storage fields, or your screen section, and displayed these directly onto the screen.   If you port these to a UNIX or Linux environment, the characters used for drawing may not be correctly represented, the possible exception being if you use ansi emulation. Resolution: The best way to solve this, is to use the CBL_GET_SCR_LINE_DRAW library routine.  This will load the characters required for line/box drawing into working-storage screen section fields, for manual drawing.  This allows you to load the required characters without needing to be concerned with the terminal emulation being used, and provides a platform independent way (

Problem: Running the following piece of code through OCDS and then Server Express will return different results on the COMPUTE statement: FD 01 TOT-CALC                 PIC 9(02) VALUE ZEROES.     01  FILLER REDEFINES TOT-CALC.         03  TOT-1            PIC 9(01).         03  TOT-2            PIC 9(01). 01 NUMERO-ASSEGNO           PIC 9(10) VALUE ZEROES. 01 TAB-NUM REDEFINES NUMERO-ASSEGNO.   03  EL-NUM               PIC 9(01) OCCURS 10. PROCEDURE DIVISION. COMPUTE EL-

Problem: How to calculate a random number in COBOL? Resolution: The following example shows one method of generating a "random" number.  The number generated is not a "true" random number but should suffice for most purposes. The program is written as a sub-routine that can be called from another COBOL program. To simply pass the maximum value for the range of random numbers (e.g. 100 for a number between 1 and 100) and a variable to pass the result back in. If it is the first time the program has been called then the random seed is set based on the time to reduce the chance of a duplicate string on random numbers.        working-storage section.        01  ws-first-time               pic 9(1) value 0.        01  ws-rnd-seed-

Problem: This sample demonstrates how to add line numbers to your source program Resolution: INTRODUCTION ========== COBOL source decks (punch cards) had line numbers in colums 1-6. Fixed-format COBOL source files still reserve those columns for  line numbers, but they are seldom used.  Some programmers prefer to have line numbers in source, but there are no supported methods of doing so. As a programming example, this source demonstrates:    - parsing the command line,    - determining whether the operating system is Unix or not,    - determining the nonblank length of a string,    - determining whether or not a string is entirely numeric,    - use of CBL_ library routines,    - and use of environment variables within a COBOL program. SOURCE FILES: ========== Program Files      Description ---------------

Problem: Is it possible to immediately begin animating a Dialog screenset while animating the COBOL program, to view how the screenset deals with the data passed to it from the program. How is the environment established? Opening up a screenset from within the project and setting a breakpoint on the first line, is an option. However, a separate screenset is started with DSGRUN from within the COBOL program. Resolution: To break immediately into the Dialog System code by changing the call to Dialog System from DSGRUN to DS. For example: 78  dialog-system               VALUE "DS". *78  dialog-system               VALUE "DSGRUN". - i.e. comment out this line and replace               &nbs

Created On:  02 March 2008 Problem: Is OpenESQL supported on SCO UnixWare? Resolution: SCO UnixWare is not a strategic platform for RDBMS nor ODBC driver vendors.  Oracle's final release on this platform was 8.1.7, which is now unsupported. IBM have never released DB2 on this platform. Neither iWay nor DataDirect have ODBC drivers available for this platform, and there are no plans to produce them. These are the ODBC drivers Micro Focus use for testing. Given the lack of support from major database vendors Micro Focus has no plans to add Micro Focus ODBC technology to this platform.  However, Server Express and Visual COBOL for Linux Intel provide OpenESQL support. Old KB# 3706

Problem: I would like to sort with mfsort in a script file called by command at . Resolution: The file status 9/037 can be displayed during a sort , if the size of the repertory defined in the environment variable $TMPDIR is not right. When the command at is used , it is necessary to verify the values of all environment variables recovered by the script file called by command at. Old KB# 3727

Problem: The AcuCOBOL-GT program is executed by an MPE batch job. The program ACCEPTs input from the batch job like this:      !JOB MYPROG,MGR.ACUCOBOL;OUTCLASS=LP,2      !MYPROG.PUB.ACUCOBOL      data-to-be-accepted      !EOJ But when executed the program receives no data. The program is compiled with -Cp and -Ca. Resolution: The Runtime configuration variable ACCEPT_AUTO must be set to 1 either in the Runtime configuration file or in the environment.  This applies to AcuCOBOL-GT 7.3.0, or earlier versions which have been patched with ECNs 3212 and 3309. Old KB# 3182