Rocket® Visual COBOL®

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

After installing the Visual COBOL PE, a took a utility program written in Fujitsu COBOL, to see how much of the source would or would not compile. There were few lines of code in the utility program that did not compile and I changed and/or deleted them so as the original source compiled successfully. However, the source included the COPY WINDOWS statement and that is where the majority of the errors occurred when compiled the windows.cpy file! My first thought was that the original source was to blame. I subsequently took the COBOL source template  file that is created when a new project is started. Below is the contents of that file:         identification division.       program-id. Program1.       environment division.       configuration section.       data division.       working-storage section.       COPY WINDOWS. *> pick up Windows defines       procedure division.           goback.       end program

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-pru

I have requested to download Visual COBOL Personal Edition, but I have not received an email or reply to download Visual COBOL Personal Edition. What should I do so that I can download Visual COBOL Personal Edition?

The book is by Micro Focus, which is the previous owner of Visual COBOL. It references available materials at their website: http://www.microfocus.com/visualcobolbook. The book itself is copyright 2017 by Micro Focus. Following that link results in a 404 (page not found) error. Is there a current website that contains the materials related to the book?Concerning murach’s mainframe COBOL, the book is copyright 2004, Mike Murach and Associates, Inc. It also makes references to Visual COBOL, but given the copyright date, I can see any links provided in that book as being more outdated than the Visual COBOL book. Is there a current website that contains any materials related to that book?

I filled out the digital form with my email, as you are supposed to do to get the license to use the product. But I have not received a license code via email yet. I was hoping someone here could help me. 

I have successfully downloaded Visual COBOL. Reading the pdf, I find it talks about which versions of Visual Studio are supported. I think the doc may be somewhat outdated since it doesn’t talk about .NET 8 or Visual Studio Community 2022 edition. The first recommended topic to view is 8 years old, so I don’t think it applies. I am withholding installation until I know it will work with my system. I have:--HP Pavilion 64-Bit Gaming LaptopAMD Ryzen 5 Processor16 Gigs RAM1-TB Internal StorageWindows 11 Home EditionExternal 8-TB Solid-State Hard DriveVisual Studio Community 2022 64-bit Edition, Version 17.14.24Will Visual COBOL work with my system? 

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 

Hey everyone,As we step into 2026, one thing is certain: GenAI will remain a major topic this year. That raises an important question — how can you leverage GenAI to accelerate COBOL modernization?This question inspired our latest insights article:✅ When generative AI delivers real value in COBOL modernization, and when it can lead to dangerous hallucinations✅ How to address the skills shortage and improve knowledge transfer using GenAI✅ What makes Rocket Software’s approach to GenAI different, ensuring you get insights you can trust for your modernization projectsRead the full post here: The Role of Generative AI in COBOL Modernization | Rocket SoftwareIf you have any questions or want us to dive deeper into any of these topics, let us know in the comments. We’d love to hear from you!

We currently have a native COBOL application that uses dynamic SQL (via OpenESQL) to fetch, insert and update into Microsoft SQL.This includes varbinary(max) columns which we have working and I suspect it was based on the demo which was available from this link https://community.rocketsoftware.com/rocket-visual-cobol-28/demo-using-the-varbinary-max-column-type-from-cobol-4560. Unfortunately the link to the actual demo is no longer available.I now have the fun and games of trying to convert this logic to .NET core Visual COBOL and I am really struggling to work out how to ‘stitch’ the 65k blocks back together into the correct format and would really appreciate some guidance on this (the same goes for splitting it into the 65k blocks to insert/update).Is there any chance for the demo mention

I think that no, but…Can I do something like that?:       77 lsMethod string.           Move 'gabert' to lsMethod           Invoke Classes lsMethod returning QuebraGalho  Hugs.Antonio JoãoVisual COBO + Visual Studio.

Hi everyone,Thank you again to everyone who joined the State & the Future of COBOL webinar.  If you missed it or would like to share it with your colleagues, here is the recording: The State & The Future of COBOL | Rocket SoftwareStay tuned and turn on the Rocket Forum notifications so you don’t miss the next event. Here are the quiz winners:Marc C.Sebastian S.Thibaut C.Elsabe A.Frank B.Jebastin K.Paul M.Jonathan S.Juan U.Florian G.And then Allan L. who guess the author of the COBOL quote.We'll share the gift details with everyone next week.Best,Rocket COBOL team

Hi! I am currently testing Visual COBOL 11 against my software, and when I run a program that has Database Connectors in them, I get a 9D,25 error on all the SQL tables that are in the program.Copilot tells me that the 9D,25 means the XFD is corrupt, but I re-created the XFDs and I am still getting the error. I re-created the Aculock DB, and made sure that my ACUFH file is pointing to the correct folder, and I have a valid license.  Is there anything else I can look at? 

I installed the latest Personal Edition of Visual COBOL.I'm trying to create a class that inherits from base and I'm getting the message "Inherited class 'Type base' not found".How do I fix this?

Welcome to Rocket® COBOL Fuel, your monthly source for all things COBOL. In this issue, you’ll learn about the first challenge of modernization and get the latest webinar recording.  Release of the year: Rocket Visual COBOL 11.0 Your COBOL applications hold decades of mission-critical business logic and data. They are not roadblocks. They are strategic assets. With Rocket Visual COBOL 11.0 released this year, you can unlock, modernize, and extend the value of these applications without disruption.Modernize your development Adopt Agile and DevOps practices in COBOL development using industry-standard tools and GenAI assistance. Onboard and train developers faster with AI-driven insights that make even the most complex codebases easier to understand. Modernize your infrastructure Run COBOL anywhere, from commodity platforms to containers, microservices, and th

Visual COBOL 11, COBOL .NET, .NET Core -  using methods.When using namespaces why use:       $set ilusing "System.Collections.Generic"Over right clicking on the project, properties ~Namespaces or visa versa?The $set places it in the code vs properties~Namespaces setting it in the project.I think the $set is more visible personally at a developer level, But properies~Namespaces might be better for Pipelines. (Easier to pick up dependencies)What is the benefit of either method?Neil

Hello Team,Currently we have Enterprise developer already available in the system , I am trying to integrate VS Code using Rocket COBOL extension to do a BRD documentation using the Co-pilot features. We have two copybooks extension ,one with CPY and another COPYCOB. The intelisense is  able to identify the CPY copybooks but not the COPYCOB eventhough the extensions are mapped. Is there possibility to re-use the XML files of MFED for the integration of VS code.ThanksSanoop

I am trying to call the direct ODBC API from a Visual COBOL program using Visual Studio 2022. I want to know if there are any specific configuration changes required in Visual studio 2022 to make ODBC calls work correctly, especially when linking DLLs that are not part of the same solution. Also, if anyone has a small sample COBOL program that demonstrates how to call ODBC APIs directly (for example: SQLConnect, SQLExecDirect, SQLDisconnect), it would be very helpful. Could you please guide me on the correct setup and share any sample code?

Visual Studio 2022, Visual COBOL 11 Update 1. When migrating old native COBOL code to COBOL .NET which has lots of reference modification code you have to sometimes work out something simple as the length of a string.In OO COBOL you had character arrays and you could get “size” or “sizeinbytes”. Due to my very poor understanding of what a character array was many years ago I got unstuck when using simplified Chinese to do reference modification as getting the “size” means how many simplified Chinese characters are in the array and doing reference modification would truncate the data because I didn’t use “sizeinbytes”.So now moving to COBOL .NET I’d better check the behaviour of this and see how it works.I have a simple C# winform Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = new CultureInfo("zh-CN");Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = new CultureInfo("zh-CN"); 

Hi,I have found that the EXIT PARAGRAPH doesn’t work in .NET COBOL. Is this an error or is it deliberate, and if it is deliberate then is there an alternative?Thanks in advance

Hi,Is there any documentation around that cross references the OO COBOL objects to help me identify what I need to use in .NET COBOL as replacements? For example: characterarray = stringAt this point I have no specifics but any help would be gratefully received.Thanks in advance 

Hello, we are migrating our Visual COBOL development for Eclipse from a AIX server to a Linux server. We have a utility to convert text from ASCII to UTF-8, but it has stopped working because the NATIONAL-OF function does not recognize UTF-8 characters in linux. the locale data are ----AIX LANG=CLC_COLLATE="C"LC_CTYPE="C"LC_MONETARY="C"LC_NUMERIC="C"LC_TIME="C"LC_MESSAGES="C"LC_ALL=-----LinuxLANG=CLC_CTYPE="C"LC_NUMERIC="C"LC_TIME="C"LC_COLLATE="C"LC_MONETARY="C"LC_MESSAGES="C"LC_PAPER="C"LC_NAME="C"LC_ADDRESS="C"LC_TELEPHONE="C"LC_MEASUREMENT="C"LC_IDENTIFICATION="C"LC_ALL=And the code of the utility is :       PROGRAM-ID. anook2       ENVIRONMENT DIVISION.       CONFIGURATION SECTION.       INPUT-OUTPUT SECTION.       file-control.           select futf8 assign to f-utf8