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Using Visual Cobol IDE to run Cobol program in Windows, same as in Mainframe

  • April 19, 2019
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Dominique Sacre
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When I using Visual Cobol IDE to run Cobol program in Windows, program 'll run same as in Mainframe or not ?
If not, please show me how to Cobol program run same as in Mainframe  ?

    5 replies

    Dominique Sacre
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    When I using Visual Cobol IDE to run Cobol program in Windows, program 'll run same as in Mainframe or not ?
    If not, please show me how to Cobol program run same as in Mainframe  ?

    For mainframe emulation you need one of the Enterprise Developer products (or Enterprise Server in production). It's not included with the Visual COBOL products. Even with Enterprise Developer, running a COBOL program "the same as it [would run on the] mainframe" is not trivial. While our mainframe emulation is extensive, it doesn't include every feature and facility that exists on the mainframe. It's entirely possible to create a program which can only be run in a true mainframe environment, by depending on aspects which would be too expensive to emulate. And in order to use mainframe emulation you have to configure a suitable environment (one or more mainframe "regions", and usually other resources such as VSAM datasets, databases, security, etc).
    Dominique Sacre
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    For mainframe emulation you need one of the Enterprise Developer products (or Enterprise Server in production). It's not included with the Visual COBOL products. Even with Enterprise Developer, running a COBOL program "the same as it [would run on the] mainframe" is not trivial. While our mainframe emulation is extensive, it doesn't include every feature and facility that exists on the mainframe. It's entirely possible to create a program which can only be run in a true mainframe environment, by depending on aspects which would be too expensive to emulate. And in order to use mainframe emulation you have to configure a suitable environment (one or more mainframe "regions", and usually other resources such as VSAM datasets, databases, security, etc).

    Dear

    Thank you for answering me. Base on your answer, I understand that :
    1. If I want to run a Cobol program in windows but need it returns the same result as when running on the Mainframe, there is no other way to run on Mainframe Emulator such as Hercules, ... Is it right ?

    2. There are some cases where it is not necessary to run on the Mainframe Emulator, still returning the same results as when running on the Mainframe Emulator. Is it right ? If right, which are the cases that can return correct result (such as simply arithmetic calculation, ....) and which are the cases that can return incorrect results (?, ...) ?

    Note : I want to know to just run some test case on Mainframe Emulator when necessary , for saving efforts.

    Please support me !

    Regards

     

     

    Dominique Sacre
    Forum|alt.badge.img+2

    Dear

    Thank you for answering me. Base on your answer, I understand that :
    1. If I want to run a Cobol program in windows but need it returns the same result as when running on the Mainframe, there is no other way to run on Mainframe Emulator such as Hercules, ... Is it right ?

    2. There are some cases where it is not necessary to run on the Mainframe Emulator, still returning the same results as when running on the Mainframe Emulator. Is it right ? If right, which are the cases that can return correct result (such as simply arithmetic calculation, ....) and which are the cases that can return incorrect results (?, ...) ?

    Note : I want to know to just run some test case on Mainframe Emulator when necessary , for saving efforts.

    Please support me !

    Regards

     

     

    No, I'm afraid that's incorrect. First, you have not defined what you mean by "return the same result". That phrasing is much too general to be meaningful. Second, Micro Focus does not sell a COBOL product for the Hercules emulator. As I wrote in my previous post, our mainframe emulation features are part of the Enterprise Developer and Enterprise Server product lines. If the program in question simply performs computations - if it is exclusively composed of portable COBOL - then it should be possible to have it "return the same result" under Visual COBOL. On the other hand, if the program depends on mainframe APIs and facilities, as most mainframe application programs do, then you can't even run it without mainframe emulation, because those APIs and facilities are not available to it. It's not feasible in a blog post to enumerate which features are part of standard COBOL or of a supported COBOL dialect, and which are only available with the mainframe emulation features. Broadly speaking, mainframe emulation features include CICS, IMS, and zOS APIs; batch scheduling (JCL and JES); TSO and REXX; mainframe assembly language support; mainframe pointer emulation; communications protocols such as TN3270, CTG, and IMS Connect; and so on. Consult the product documentation for further information.
    Dominique Sacre
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    No, I'm afraid that's incorrect. First, you have not defined what you mean by "return the same result". That phrasing is much too general to be meaningful. Second, Micro Focus does not sell a COBOL product for the Hercules emulator. As I wrote in my previous post, our mainframe emulation features are part of the Enterprise Developer and Enterprise Server product lines. If the program in question simply performs computations - if it is exclusively composed of portable COBOL - then it should be possible to have it "return the same result" under Visual COBOL. On the other hand, if the program depends on mainframe APIs and facilities, as most mainframe application programs do, then you can't even run it without mainframe emulation, because those APIs and facilities are not available to it. It's not feasible in a blog post to enumerate which features are part of standard COBOL or of a supported COBOL dialect, and which are only available with the mainframe emulation features. Broadly speaking, mainframe emulation features include CICS, IMS, and zOS APIs; batch scheduling (JCL and JES); TSO and REXX; mainframe assembly language support; mainframe pointer emulation; communications protocols such as TN3270, CTG, and IMS Connect; and so on. Consult the product documentation for further information.

    Dear Mr. Michael_Wojcik,

    Thank you for anwsering me.

    For more details, I would like to present more : my case is i've got some Cobol files ( cbl, cpy). These files are in one of big program which is running in mainframe, but now i need to migrate these files to JAVA (run on windows and linux) and compare 2 output (cobol in Visual Cobol IDE,  JAVA) to make sure the migration is correct.

    My Cobol files are VS Coboll II - release 4 and not using mainframe APIs and facilities.

    So, base on your answer, I think that, can run in windows/linux (without mainframe and mainframe simulator), still return correctly values.

    Do you think so ?

    Regards

    HungNCV

     

    Dominique Sacre
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    When I using Visual Cobol IDE to run Cobol program in Windows, program 'll run same as in Mainframe or not ?
    If not, please show me how to Cobol program run same as in Mainframe  ?

    It's certainly possible you'll be able to compile and run your programs. No one can say without looking at them. We support various mainframe COBOL dialects. My only advice is to try it and see.

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