Rocket® COBOL

Problem: How to tell what fixpacks ( updates ) are already on? Resolution: Using the MFSupportInfo utility, which will create a log with details of what is on the computer.   This utility can be downloaded from the samples and utilities page on the supportline website. http://supportline.microfocus.com/examplesandutilities/nesamp.asp#Utilities MFSupportInfo is part of the Net Express 5.0 installation based in ..\\base\\bin folder. This is also an essential to send in when  reporting any problems to supportline. To go also into netexpress - help \\ help about \\ and click on the more info button which will reveal the list of updates (version numbers) Old KB# 1301

Problem: How can I clear the highlighting after a text search? Resolution: Please choose View->Clear->Text Finds from the menu to clear the highlighting. Old KB# 1368

Problem: This article documents how to install silently Micro Focus patches in the shape of .msp files Resolution: The Windows Install utility msiexec is used to install .msp files. Running:    msiexec /? getting back the list of options that msiexec can use. The command line tested here for Micro Focus .msp files is:   start /wait msiexec /qn /l*vx myfile.log /p myfile.msp where /qn means that no user interface will be presented and  /l*vx myfile.log means that everything will be logged in myfile.log with verbose output and extra debugging information. Old KB# 1274

Problem: How can an empty idx file be used for rebuilding an ISAM file with a new key structure instead of specifying every key on the rebuild command line with the -k option? Resolution: For IDXFORMAT"3" and IDXFORMAT"4" files: - Copy the empty idx file to the existing dat file. - now rebuild the data file by specifying the infile only   rebuild MyFile.dat   specifying an outfile requires the additional option /d   rebuild MyFile.dat,NewFile.dat /d For C-ISAM files = IDXFORMAT"1", please review KB: 23664 Old KB# 1253#AcuCobol#ServerExpress#RMCOBOL#COBOL#netexpress

Problem: How do I find the cursor postion while animating? Resolution: Via View->Where in the menu or pressing the key command strg w. Old KB# 1366

Problem: If a COBOL Application is called from a C DLL in a multithreaded environment then the C needs to call cobthreadtidy() when it will no longer call any COBOL from that thread. This will allow the COBOL runtime to free any Thread Local Storage that has been allocation and hence stop any memory leaks from occuring. In some applications it is difficult to determine when to call cobthreadtidy. Resolution: In the C DLL that called COBOL you could call cobthreadtidy() from DLLMAIN on  DLL_THREAD_DETACH. This would alleviate the need for any logic to determine when that last COBOL Call had taken place. DLL_THREAD_DETACH in DLLMAIN will be called then the thread is exiting cleanly and it is called on the thread that is terminating. Please see the Microsoft Platform SDK for more information on DLLMAIN. Old KB# 1363

Problem: This error may be encountered when trying to use Dialog System within Net Express and is usually due to incorrect path settings during installation. Resolution: The simplest and fastest way to overcome this problem is to uninstall the NetExpress product via the Control Panel (including fixpacks) and then reinstall cleanly from scratch. Old KB# 1338

Problem: How can I detect if a folder/directory is present? Resolution: The attached demo uses the CBL_DIR_SCAN Call-by-Name routines to check if a directory exists on disk.  The code is self explanatory but if you have any difficulties then please contact your local Micro Focus Support centre. Attachments: 2150094.zip Old KB# 1275

Problem: In Visual Studio 2005 you can now comment out blocks of COBOL Code using a menu option. Resolution: If you have a block of code highlighted you can comment out the code by using the Edit / Advanced / Comment Selection menu option. There is a corresponding "Uncomment" option. This option will comment out code using the "*>" comment syntax. Control-C and then Control-K is the keyboard shortcut for this. Old KB# 1378

Problem: Release 4.0 / 5.0: Is there a tool available to get back version numbers from Net Express Applications installed on both development also Application Server environment? Resolution: Yes, this tool named MFSupportInfo is available as a .zip file for downloading here: http://supportline.microfocus.com/examplesandutilities/nesamp.asp#Utilities Up to Net Express V5.0 MFSupportInfo is part of the Micro Focus product delivery, to find under: (1) ..\\base\\bin  installation directory for Net Express development environment (2) ..\\Server 5.0\\bin installation directory for Net Express Application Server Be aware, running this MFSupportInfo utility needs Administrator rights for the underlying Operating System because of reading the Windows registry. Old KB# 1357

Problem: FD  VAR-LENGTH-REC-FILE                     LABEL RECORDS ARE STANDARD.        01  REC1 PIC X(10).                    01  REC2 PIC X(20).                    01  REC3 PIC X(30).                    but when it gets written all records are 30 bytes long. Resolution: Adding RECORDING MODE V corrected the problem. Old KB# 1328

Problem: You can use Snippits to help you complete repository entries in .Net COBOL. Resolution: In the repository section if you type "class" then TAB it will run a Visual Studio "Snippit" to help you complete your repository entry for the class. Old KB# 1379

Problem: Programs compiled in NT, are going to Windows 2003 and having a problem. error is cannot find entrypoint 'cbl_get_file_info '  in cblrtss Resolution: recompile and link with the dynamically bound runtime on cbllink  -Rs would be required Old KB# 1323

Problem: Using an XP machine with the Regional Language settings set to Japanese. receiving the following syntax error .... * 230-S************************************************ **    PICTURE string has illegal precedence or illegal character 1875             15  WPRTL-PRINT-AMOUNT2        PIC $$$$9.99. * 230-S************************************************ This line of code, compiles fine on an XP machine with the regional language settings set to English.     Resolution: Setting the compiler directive to CURRENCY-SIGN"36" corrects the problem. Old KB# 1370

Problem: When CBL_DEBUGBREAK is included in code containing threads running at the same time, the first thread that hits it causes Animator to start, but the other threads execute through with no animation. Resolution: CBL_DEBUGBREAK tries to start a copy of the debugger, but as only one debugger is allowed per process (Microsoft limitation), the call to CBL_DEBUGBREAK made by the second, third and fourth thread, etc.. fails. Displaying the return-code straight after the CBL_DEBUGBREAK call,  and seeing that is 0 the first time but it isn't on subsequent calls. A solution would be to lock the call to CBL_DEBUGBREAK, so the first thread that gets there it, and all the others wait until the first one unlocks it.  That would give you the chance to start Animator and once Animator is up to swap from one thread to the other using "Animate / Threads...".  You can Freeze threads, Thaw them, set one as active, and so on...

Problem: This document describes how to open files or create new files that are not included in a Project. It is not necessary to have a project open in order to use the Data Tools. You can open or create new files using the File menu from the Main tool bar in NetExpress. For more help using the Data Tools to convert, browse, edit and create data files, refer to the Getting Start Online Book chapter called Maintaining and Creating Data Files. It contains an excellent sample on performing these tasks. Resolution: Creating New Files using the Data File Editor 1. From the File menu, select New. 2. From the New dialog box, select Data File. 3. Enter the appropriate characteristics for your data file, and select the Create button. Opening Files using the Data File Editor 1. From the File menu, select Open. 2. At the "Files of Type" option, select Data files (*.dat) or All files (*.*) 3. At the "Open As" option, select Dat

Problem: OS: Windows By default Dialog truncates text on a Button when it is larger than the button size. Resolution: There's a demo called buttontext.zip, which demonstrates how to use Windows API calls in order to make the test go over multiple lines.  To locate the demo, go to the Micro Focus Supportline website.  Click on the 'Self-Service' link, then click on the 'Examples & Utilities' link and is located under the 'Dialog System' category. (http://supportline.microfocus.com/examplesandutilities/nesamp.asp) Old KB# 1337

Problem: Wie loesche ich die Markierungen der Elemente, die bei der Textsuche gefunden wurden? Resolution: ueber den Menueeintrag View->Clear->Text Finds. Old KB# 1367

Problem: Have a machine that still uses Microsoft DOS V 6.2 and using IBM's bi-synchroneous communications app that is on the old machine. How to get this running? Resolution: This is not possible because Net Express character-based applications are not DOS programs. They are actually 32-bit Windows console programs that require Windows 98 or higher to run. Only our very old 16-bit Workbench products would create applications that could run under DOS. Old KB# 1329

Problem: Net Express 4.0 Recompilation/rebuild of an existing project fails with error: Rebuilding    F:\\.......\\FILENAME.CBL Error during generation of INT-code Rebuild complete with errors. A new .int file is not created. COBOL programs that are modified may recompile cleanly. Resolution: Close the project and the Net Express IDE. Delete the debug directory for the project. Restart Net Express, open the project and rebuild. Old KB# 1265

Problem: When a deadlock between 2 processes occured it was found that a SQLCODE was being returned with 100 (row not found) rather than a -1205 SQLCODE. Resolution: This issue has been fixed. Please download and apply the latest Net Express 4 patch to resolve the problem. Old KB# 1358

Problem: Is there a possibilty to develop an application on a 64bit Windows (x64 Edition) machine and then deploy that to an Itanium based machine? Resolution: It is not possible doing cross-develop for different 64-bit platforms. So, for example, building an application on an Itanium machine, it will not run on an X64 machine. It is the need to build it on an X64 machine for it to run there. Old KB# 1293

Problem: The following CALL crashes with a runtime error 114. "GetParameter" is a C-function in a DLL created by Visual C . 01 buffer pic x(32000). 01 len binary-long value 32000. CALL WinApi "GetParameter"     using by reference buffer              by value len Resolution: For modifying a buffer with this kind of DLL, it requires a pointer to a buffer. 01 buffer pic x(32000). 01 len usage binary-long value 32000. 01 ptr usage pointer. SET ptr TO ADDRESS buffer. CALL WinApi "GetParameter"     using by reference ptr              by value len In a C program buffer might be specified as char **buffer; Old KB# 1281

Problem: Net Express 4.0 Dialog System Is there a way of making it obvious to a user that a tick box or radio button has the input focus? Most fields change in some way but these object types don't seem to. Resolution: This is a known issue on XP and 2000 operating systems. Pressing the 'Alt' button when the project is running turns on the highlighting. You can change this setting from 'Control Panel > Display > Appearance > Effects...'. By unchecking the last option 'Hide underlined letters for keyboard navigation until I press the Alt key', the highlighting of the controls becomes visible. It is not likely that there will be an enhancement to Dialog System for this. Old KB# 1261

Problem: Ist ein paralleler Einsatz des Net Express Application Servers der Versionen 3.1 und 4.0 moeglich? Resolution: Ja, es kann ein paralleler Betrieb der Net Express Application Server Versionen 3.1 und 4.0 auf einem Rechner ausfuehrt werden, wenn folgende technische Anforderungen erfuellt sind: a) Zunaechst werden die Installationen der Application Server 3.1 und 4.0  vorgenommen und damit  in der Windows Registry die passenden Eintraege hinterlegt (zu finden unter HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Micro Focus) b) Die auszufuehrende COBOL .exe (bzw. die erste COBOL .dll Datei) sollte  'shared dynamic'' gelinkt sein, damit beim Start der Applikation die dynamisch gebundene .exe (die erste .dll Datei) ueber die Windows Registry exakt das passende Runtime des Application Servers benutzt. Gelingt das nicht, dann wird ueber die PATH Umgebungsvariable ein dort gefundener Verweis auf ein Runtime benutzt und dieses gefunde