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We have several systems written using NetExpress 3.0 and Dialog using a Sybase database. These were written back in about 2000.  The COBOL programs mostly called Sybase stored procedures but some of them have the actual SQL in the program.  Back then we had a Sybase - COBOL precompiler that was used to precompile these programs.  These days all of our development uses Oracle and not Sybase.  We need to convert the Sybase applications to Oracle. I'm not sure what Oracle precompiler there is for COBOL or what would work with NetExpress 3.0.  I've seen an Oracle product called  PRO-COBOL and i'm wondering if this is what I need.  Does anyone know what precompiler I can use. I know there has to be one because we originally were going to use Oracle instead of Sybase and had talked to Merant/MicroFocus about it.  Any help will be appreciated.

We have several systems written using NetExpress 3.0 and Dialog using a Sybase database. These were written back in about 2000.  The COBOL programs mostly called Sybase stored procedures but some of them have the actual SQL in the program.  Back then we had a Sybase - COBOL precompiler that was used to precompile these programs.  These days all of our development uses Oracle and not Sybase.  We need to convert the Sybase applications to Oracle. I'm not sure what Oracle precompiler there is for COBOL or what would work with NetExpress 3.0.  I've seen an Oracle product called  PRO-COBOL and i'm wondering if this is what I need.  Does anyone know what precompiler I can use. I know there has to be one because we originally were going to use Oracle instead of Sybase and had talked to Merant/MicroFocus about it.  Any help will be appreciated.

Yes, Pro*COBOL is the name of the Oracle precompiler and Net Express 3.0 has an interface to this product called COBSQL.
Please see the Net Express 3.0 documentation here:

The problem that I see though is that the Net Express 3.0 product is so old that it has never been tested against newer versions of Pro*COBOL or with new versions of Oracle itself as I believe the Oracle version which was current at the time NX 3.0 was released was probably Oracle 8.

The other alternative to Pro*COBOL is to use the Micro Focus OpenESQL precompiler which is provided with Net Express and works in conjunction with ODBC drivers.

I would highly recommend that you take this opportunity to upgrade your Net Express product to the current version which is Net Express 5.1 if you desire to run with current versions of Oracle running under newer operating systems like Windows 7 as Net Express 3.0 is not supported in these scenarios.

Thanks.

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