Thoughts on MF COBOL, Unix, and RDBMS

I have some programs written in Fujitsu COBOL (generated by a tool) that
run 
in a Windows environment, read ISAM and write a RDB using embedded SQL and

ODBC.

I would like to have these programs run in a Unix environment. There is a 
COBOL compiler (MicroFocus) available but it doesn't support SQL, and the 
ISAM is C-ISAM. :-)

The fundamental problem is one we see here quite often; The ISAM files
were 
created by COBOL, are "COBOL oriented" (may contain packed and binary 
fields) and this means that accessing them with a language other than
COBOL, 
while not impossible, is fraught with danger and problems. So, it makes 
sense to read them with COBOL. (Especially as there is a COBOL compiler
for 
the platform available.) COBOL definitions of the files are available.

Having got the data, the COBOL program would normally move the fields to 
equivalent host variables and write them to the database, but it can't do 
that because the MF COBOL on the platform doesn't support embedded SQL in 
COBOL.

So maybe the generated code should simply write the data out as strings
that 
can be INSERTED with a script, as another step in the process.

Maybe it should generate a .CSV or maybe an XML file (either of which can
be 
easily imported into most RDBs)

Or maybe this is not a good approach at all...

Given my unfamilairity with Unix environments I may have missed something 
that is normal in that environment.

I'd be interested to hear suggestions, ruminations, musings, thoughts, 
preferably helpful and constructive (but, this being Usenet, I'm not
holding 
my breath...) on how some of you might approach this.

Pete
-- 
"I used to write COBOL...now I can do anything."