Re: COBOL Compiler for Windows

Howard Brazee wrote:
> On Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:11:55 -0400, Graham Hobbs <ghobbs@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> wrote:
> 
>> Do the MS and Fujitsu compilers sup****t VSAM KSDS files?

Do you mean "MF and Fujitsu compilers"? Microsoft hasn't sold a COBOL 
compiler since the mid-1990s, if memory serves, and even then it was a 
rebadged Micro Focus compiler.

>> What about
>> DB2 access, CICS access, guess I'm asking EXEC CICS suchandsuch and
>> EXEC SQL suchandsuch.
> 
> Huh?    It looks as though you want an IBM mainframe compiler, not a
> Windows compiler.   Or maybe you want terminal software to allow you
> to run TSO/SPF on your mainframe.

Or maybe he wants a mainframe emulation environment, which would let 
him run programs with EXEC CICS and EXEC SQL macros. We do sell such a 
product, after all (a few of 'em, actually).

It's not free, though. It's not even cheap. Emulating the mainframe 
operating environment is not trivial.

For the truly ambitious, there's the free Hercules mainframe emulator, 
on which you can install the public-domain MVS 3.8 and its compiler 
pack, which includes an ancient IBM COBOL compiler. (Apparently 
someone has now hacked that to even sup****t VSAM files. Luxury!) But I 
don't believe there's any free emulator for CICS available.

If the OP can do without CICS, and this is for personal 
(non-commercial) use, there's the academic version of MF COBOL: Net 
Express Personal Edition, which is a free (big) download or $50 for 
media in a box.[1] It includes Open ESQL ("EXEC SQL") sup****t.


[1] http://microfocus.com/Resources/Communities/Academic/shop/index.asp


-- 
Michael Wojcik
Micro Focus