Re: COBOL Compiler for Windows

Bill,
Will ponder this greatly and get back to you. Is excellent. 
Not a word mincer are you:-). 
Graham

On Thu, 01 May 2008 19:21:11 GMT, "William M. Klein"
<wmklein@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

>Graham,
>  This thread has wondered far from what you originally asked.  I think
the EASY 
>summary is:
>
>1) Getting a free or cheap COBOL compiler for Windows that sup****ts IBM 
>mainframe COBOL syntax is easy.  Both Fujitsu and Micro Focus provides
such. 
>OpenCOBOL is "pretty close" to sup****ting IBM dialect COBOL.  All of
these will 
>work for doing "batch COBOL" on PC/Windows (or Unix or Linux). 
Differences 
>between VSAM and "COBOL Indexed" files is trivial.  Many of these also
have some 
>sort of SQL sup****t and should be reasonable for developing DB2
applications
>
>2) Getting a CICS emulation on a PC is another question entirely.  The
products 
>that supply "integrated" CICS/COBOL development are EXPENSIVE.  These
include 
>IBM and Micro Focus (and in my opinion, less so CA-Realia and Fujitsu). 
I did 
>find a webpage with some products that MIGHT be useful.  Check out:
>   http://www.cobug.com/cobug/docs/transproc0044.html
>However, my guess is that the ones on that page that meet your needs are 
>expensive as well.  (Lots of those products aren't what you are looking
for - 
>but some are, I think).
>
>  ***
>
>If it were I, I would look into the IBM "partner" program and see if you
can get 
>qualified.  They no longer use Flex-ES "pc" for mainframe emulation, but
do (I 
>think) provide time share on actual IBM mainframes.  See:
>   http://www-304.ibm.com/jct09002c/isv/index.html
>
>If that doesn't work, you may want to check your area for Universities or
other 
>companies that might be willing to sell (at a minimal cost) some
mainframe time.
>
>Another thing that you need to think about is exactly WHAT environment
you want 
>to target your product for.  Will you have a "minimum" level of COBOL
and/or 
>CICS that you will sup****t?  For example, CICS TS V3.x on the mainframe
no 
>longer sup****ts IBM's OS/VS COBOL.  You would need to know if this is or
is not 
>something that you will be requiring for your prospective customers.
>
>  ***
>
>I hope this helps and gives you some ideas

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