Side-by-side versions possible on same development and production machine?

I'm pretty sure I already know the answer to this, but for the record ...

My understanding is that Microsoft allows different versions of Visual Studio (for example VS 2013 and VS 2019) to coexist "side-by-side" on the same development PC.  And even different versions of .Net to coexist on the same server.

My question(s):

1) Does Micro Focus allow different versions of Visual COBOL to coexist on the same development PC?

2) And different versions of COBOL Server to coexist on the same hardware server or same virtual server?

Thanks

Hi.

1) Does Micro Focus allow different versions of Visual COBOL to coexist on the same development PC?

Yes.  You can have Visual COBOL 5.0 2017, Visual COBOL 5.0 2019 and Visual COBOL for Eclipse installed on the same machine.   Visual COBOL 4.0 follows a similar pattern.

2) And different versions of COBOL Server to coexist on the same hardware server or same virtual server?

No.  Only one instance of COBOL Server can be installed on a machine.  If you have COBOL Server 4.0 installed and install 5.0, it will replace the 4.0 installation.

This only applies to Windows.  On Unix/Linux you can have as many product install combinations as you like.

Thank you  

What about the following more specific scenario?

Given an existing development PC which currently has Visual Studio 2013 and Visual COBOL 2.2 already installed, we now want to also install Visual Studio 2019 and Visual COBOL 5.0 as a side-by-side arrangement so that both the old arrangement and the new arrangement coexist on this same PC?

(The reason that I am asking this follow-up question is, based on the wording of your previous answer, that I am now wondering if this side-by-side capability is possible only starting from Visual COBOL 4.0 forward.)

Thanks

Hi.

This scenario is not tested but I believe its possible to have Visual COBOL 2.2 for Visual Studio 2013 and Visual COBOL 5.0 for Visual Studio 2019 installed on the same machine.

The side by side co-existence has existed has been around for a while, certainly since before 4.0.

Its difficult to make a blanket statement about how the Visual COBOL installers work with each other as they change from release to release due to requirements from the Visual Studio releases and the platform we support.

 ,

From a recent Forum entry elsewhere (see "Multiple Versions of COBOL Developer on same laptop?"), it appears that different versions of Visual COBOL can NOT be installed on the same development machine in a simultaneous side-by-side arrangement.  Please confirm or not here, as I would not want someone reading this forum entry to jump to the wrong conclusion.   Thanks