Windows 8, ARM processors, etc...

[Migrated content. Thread originally posted on 29 October 2011]

OK, since nobody else has asked...

We have all seen the news out of Microsoft on their new Windows 8 coming out some time next year.

The two big changes are the Metro UI and support for ARM processors.

Does MF have any comment yet on if/how the Visual COBOL product will be adding support for these environments? For example, are there any plans to support native COBOL on ARM? Will there by any ARM support?

Thanks

Hi Scot -

Thanks for your detailed response.

At the moment we are just watching W8 evolve. As the betas come along we will be getting deeper into the platform and its capabilities.

The big issue for us is evolving our win32 UI. Clients choices right now are all over the place. Most users at the moment are using Citrix/Terminal services clients into the server. These clients are available for the iPad and Android tablets. We are planning to evolve the UI to something more modern - HTML5 is one choice. Another is to provide Metro and stay a Windows platform-based product. Or perhaps offer both? Don't know how architecturally challenging that would be. At the moment there aren't a lot of heavy-duty Metro example applications out there. Some simple apps but nothing beefy.

So for now we play "wait and see" watching how W8 evolves and Visual COBOL along with it.

Thanks

[Migrated content. Thread originally posted on 29 October 2011]

OK, since nobody else has asked...

We have all seen the news out of Microsoft on their new Windows 8 coming out some time next year.

The two big changes are the Metro UI and support for ARM processors.

Does MF have any comment yet on if/how the Visual COBOL product will be adding support for these environments? For example, are there any plans to support native COBOL on ARM? Will there by any ARM support?

Thanks

Hi Greg, great question, would love to know if you have plans or thoughts about Metro for your own applications – what would COBOL applications running on a tablet mean for your organization?

We believe portability is one of the key strengths of COBOL. Looking back at all the platforms that have come and gone over the years, many organizations have depended upon just this feature of the language to move applications from one platform to another and maintain not only business as usual but also, extend market reach.

Micro Focus will always intend to make COBOL deployment available on current business platforms.

Next to portability, stands future-proof -- and of course Windows 8 means a lot more than just x86/64 we know today. We’ll see new processors on new tablet devices and a new UI experience too.

As we continue our efforts, we anticipate providing support for Windows 8 and these capabilities in the future. More specific details on the Metro UI and ARM will be forthcoming soon.

Keep watching this space.

Regards, Scot Nielsen