Re: Thoughts on MF COBOL, Unix, and RDBMS

"Richard" <riplin@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message 
news:0321abee-3182-42f4-9b2f-8c36f718539d@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 May 3, 12:51 pm, "Pete Dashwood"
<dashw...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> 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 sup****t SQL, and
the
> ISAM is C-ISAM. :-)

Is that a really old compiler ?

[Pete]

Yes, I think so. I know NET Express sup****ts SQL very well. I think this
is 
one of the predecessors. Of course, if they're not using RDBMS they have
no 
need of SQL... :-)

> 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 sup****t 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 im****ted 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.

There is UnixODBC that will work with PostgreSQL and MySQL and others.
You can run your program on a Windows machine and put the data into
the Unix Database (given ODBC for that).

[Pete]

Yes, I thought about that, but the program would need to read the C-ISAM 
files and it is a Fujitsu program. There might be an ODBC driver for that
as 
well... I know EasySoft have one, but it costs about 2000 UK pounds and 
that's a bit more than I want to pay if I don't have to...:-)

I'd like to think there is some way using the external file handler in 
Fujitsu but I can't find much about this at the moment.
[/Pete]

A CSV file is a good option, it would also allow a manual tidy up of
the data before  it is read into the DB.

[Pete]

Yes, that is a good option, but each field will need conversion to a
string 
before it can be put in the CSV file (or XML file, come to think of it). 
Dates are especially problematic...

[/Pete]

Or write the INSERT commands. Actually with templated output from the
program it need not know nor care whether it is outputting CSV or
INSERTs or XML, it will just read a text template and populate the
tags with data.

[Pete]

I'll certainly use a templated approach, but whichever way I look there is

still the spectre of field conversion to strings, and I'll probably have
to 
push the known dates through a separate component for validation and 
conversion.  Actually, I believe I may have a component somewhere which I 
wrote years ago that could help... forgotten all about that... :-)

Thanks very much for the response Richard. It has helped to clarify my 
thinking and, as usual, your advice is pretty much on the money...:-)

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