Rocket® COBOL

Hi.In native COBOL I have an OO Dictionary that stores entries of the following group level item and this is incredibly fast and suits my purposes perfectly.I’ve converted this program to .NET COBOL and am really struggling to get this to perform anywhere close to native COBOL because of the overhead converting the PIC entries to a string when outputting to and retrieving from the dictionary.Do you have any suggestions that may help me to get the process to be performant?        01 def-fieldtouse.          03 def-any-output       pic x.              03 def-num-cols         pic x(2) comp-5.               03 def-next                 pic 9(18).          03 def-filename          pic x(100).          03 def-col-array.             05 def-columns occurs 800.               07 def-col-name   pic x(100).               07 def-col-type     pic x(15).  

I have an application written in MF Netexpress 5.1, within this application I'm trying to use Tree View thru Python I did use the following command:CALL "SYSTEM" USING "python fa_tree.py"it's working but it displays CMD black screen which is I don't want that, is there a solution for this issue please?

Hi,How can I download VISUAL COBOL  11.0 free trail  to install on my Windows 11?I just downloaded file  “Visual COBOL for Visual Studio Personal Edition 11.0.zip”, but this one does not have the install module.Thank you

Does anyone know where I can get a copy of Visual Cobol?I have a book on the subject but the author gave the reader a bogus web address.Or do I just have to wait to be told where to go to get my copy of the compiler. I like working with Visual Studio Community. 

Visual COBOL 11 at this point compiles to .NET Core 8.0, when you create a new project there is no option to select .NET Core 10.0On my machine I have:2.1.526 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]3.1.426 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]5.0.104 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]5.0.214 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]5.0.303 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]5.0.408 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]6.0.136 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]8.0.206 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]8.0.418 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]9.0.100-preview.3.24204.13 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]9.0.311 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]10.0.102 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]10.0.103 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]What would happen if I start my application using:MyApp.Host.exe -roll-forward LatestMajoror update my runtimeconfig.json to use rollForward? 

Good morning, I have been working in COBOL for over 20 years and I have always believed that when a main program (PA) calls a second program (PB) using `CALL PB USING field1 field2 field3` and the procedure in PB is `PROCEDURE USING field1 field2 field3`, the parameters that are put in the `using` procedure of a program (PB) should be defined in the `linkage` section, but I see in the documentation this“ Data-name-1 must be defined as a level 01 or a level 77 entry in the Linkage Section , File Section or Working-Storage Section”This raises a lot of questions for me.Has this always been the case? If the variables in PB are defined in the working storage section, what relationship do the variables in PA have with those in PB? How does assigning values ​​to variables in PB affect the variables defined in PA? Could the call be made from PA without passing those parameters?

I’m not sure if this is the right forum to ask this question. What are employers looking for when  it comes to COBOL. Is proficiency in COBOL the only requisite they want, or are they looking for other things as well? At the age of 70, and with issues like memory retention and learning new things, learning COBOL is one thing. Learning more than just a programming language may be more than I can muster.

Hi,I have found a changes in behaviour with the sql disconnect function between native COBOL (using ODBC) and .NET COBOL (using ADO) and was wondering whether these are deliberate or notScenario: I have a primary SQL connection ‘MAIN’ which is used for the majority of processing. However I have two other connections ‘ADMIN’ and ‘ALTERNATE’ which are used to perform elevated functions (ADMIN) or functions which I want disconnected from main (ALTERNATE)In native COBOL when I disconnected from one of these secondary connections it automatically reverted to the MAIN connection however in .NET COBOL this is not the case and I am finding I need to issue a ‘set connection’ .Also in native COBOL when the connection is closed it physically kills the connection to SQL - i.e. the SPID is no longer active. In NET COBOL whilst the connection is logically closed I see that the SPID still exists in SQL.  Are these changes deliberate? Peter 

Let’s address  the AI-lephant in the roomHi everyone, Welcome to our monthly Rocket ACUCOBOL newsletter. This edition tackles the biggest question of the month (or maybe even the year): How is GenAI changing ACUCOBOL modernization?Code Translations vs. Modernization:What’s the difference This week, COBOL made headlines again as the debate around AI‑generated COBOL resurfaced. The market reaction and the conversations online point to one thing: change is no longer coming. It’s here.Though after more than 5,000 successful COBOL and ACUCOBOL modernization projects across all the industries, we’ve learned one lesson that matters now more than ever:Code translation is not the same as software modernization. And confusing the two can put enterprises at real risk. Code Translation Is Useful. But Language Isn’t the ProblemMany AI companies promise rapid “COBOL modernization,” but what they’re really talking about is syntax translation. And while COBOL is a straightforward language (ask any COB

Our Cobol apps run natively on a Linux host with just local logging files, and I was wondering if there is any documentation on emitting (Opentelemetry) traces to an external collector (via network).If not natively supported, maybe people have some other ideas how to bridge the gap? Maybe building some integration via “Consolidated Tracing Facility” (CTF)?Thanks for any idea!Tung

This pertains to the use of external filehandlers, where my COBOL class is compiled with CALLFH"abcdef", which in tern needs to call fh/aaaaaa.dll which exists in the sub folder fh.The COBOL has :CALL “fh/aaaaaa” using ………During animation I debug the class, debug abcdef, but when it gets to the CALL “fh/aaaaaa” it doesn’t raise an exception but doesn’t execute the code either.I can see from procmon that the assembly was indeed loaded as well as the .pdb but just ignored almost as though it was looking for the programid but that didn’t match.Is this not supported?Is there an COBOL .NET  replacement for COBPATH ?Neil 

​​​​​​I am currently launching a Python script from RM/COBOL with CALL SYSTEM. Seems there is some overhead associated with SYSTEM, I am looking for a more efficient method.  Are there any alternatives recommended? 

I am trying to call non-static Java methods from an executable file since static methods work fine in this environment.  I can accomplish this using cobjrun but it seems like the $java$ is not resolved correctly without cobjrun.I have tried adding all mf*.jar from the VisualCobol/lib directory into my CLASSPATH before execution but always get a load error similar to the following:Load error : file '$java$JavaCalculator'error code: 198, pc=0, call=1, seg=0198     Load failure Here are the files that show the failure:natcobol.cbl       $set ooctrl(+p-f)       program-id. natcobol.       class-control.          claJavacalled is class "$java$JavaCalculator".      * The above maps the Java class 'JavaCalculator' to the COBOL class name 'claJavacalled'       working-storage section.        copy "javatypes.cpy".           01 hCla            object reference.           01 l1              jlong value 10.           01 l2              jlong value 5.           01 retl            jlong.           0

We would like to open a PDF file in the program and extract an attachment (in this case, an XML file) from this PDF file.Is there a way to do this?

Hi,I am posting this question on behalf of a customer, to ensure it goes to the relevant forum and a place they they can see the post. Once I post this I'll share the link with the customer and ask to reply/comment here also.They ask:Does somebody know how to translate the following C#-Lambda-Command to Visual Cobol ?Example (the second last line):private void FlexGrid_Load(object sender, EventArgs e){string conn = Util.GetConnectionString();var ds = new DataSet();string[] tables = "Customers, Orders".Split(',');foreach (string tableName in tables){Util.FillTable(ds, tableName, conn);}// Defining relation between master and detail gridds.Relations.Add("Customers_Orders",ds.Tables["Customers"].Columns["CustomerID"],ds.Tables["Orders"].Columns["CustomerID"]);flexGrid.DataSource = ds;flexGrid.DataMember = "Customers";flexGrid.RowDetailProvider = (g, r) => new C1FlexGridRowDetail();flexGrid.AreRowDetailsFrozen = false;}}They have used the C# to COBOL convertor website but the code that

Currently our ACUCOBOL (compiler v.10.3.1) print modules use WIN$PRINT to create PDF files using locally installed PDFCreator (on the user’s Windows machine) and -P SPOOLER.  We are looking for an alternate solution which will enable us to use a PDF printer installed on the Linux server instead.  All the options we’ve explored so far, incl. cupspdf; C$PDF and -P PDF involve extensive code changes or loss of predefined formatting.  Is there a solution available which will allow us to do the conversion with minimal code impact?

Good morning.I'd like someone to explain how the cobutf8 utility works to see if we can use it in our company.We work with Microfocus Visual COBOL 8.0 for Eclipse (Unix/Linux).The database is Informix, and a few years ago we migrated to the UTF-8 locale.The OS has LANG=es_ES.UTF-8.However, some integrations with other companies require files with a fixed position structure. We've found that with UTF-8 encoding, there's a left shift for each UTF-8 character written. Currently, we've added calls to iconv before each move to the file variable, but that's very cumbersome when the file has many fields.

The following code crashes when it is executed within Visual Studio 2022: CALL GetCurrentDirectory  USING BY VALUE     PC-PATH-LENGTHBY REFERENCE CURRENT-PC-DIRECTORYRETURNING iRetEND-CALL.it fails with the error message: 173     Called program file not found in drive/directory: GetCurrentDirectoryAI updated the PATH variable to include the folders where the COBOL runtime exists. So why does it not find the Windows API function? Is this a limitation of the PE version or some other property to build has not been set correctly? Any help is appreciated. Kevin

Hi ,we works with Micro Focus Visual cobol 8.0 for Eclipse on linux/UnixWe have a program  with a file that we defines so:file-control.     select prevcob    assign to wk-prevcob     organization is line sequential.data division.file section.fd prevcob.01  reg-prevcob               pic x(185).and a working variable that defines the file structure as follows:01 wk-reg-prevcob-pru.    10 prevcob-nombre-pru            pic x(40)      value spaces.    10 prevcob-impdivisa-pru         pic 9(16)v99   value 0.    10 resto                         pic x(127).We define a cusor that obtains data from a database with UTF-8 locales in Informix and passes it to the variables of the working (the host variable are defined like pic x(300) and pic s9(16)v9(2))move clinombr                    to prevcob-nombre-prumove srvimpdivi                  to prevcob-impdivisa-pru we write the file as follws:write reg-prevcob from wk-reg-prevcob-pruThe problem is that when field prevcob-nombre-pru contains a utf8 ch

Is there any documentation on help in converting from Fujitsu COBOL to Visual COBOL?