VisualAge COBOL updates

This file provides information about changes made for Version 3.0.7, Version 3.0.6, Version 3.0.5, Version 3.0.4, Version 3.0.3, Version 3.0.2, and Version 3.0.1 of VisualAge COBOL. It also describes changes to prerequisites, and known problems and limitations.

Changes in Version 3.0.7

VisualAge COBOL now runs on and is supported on Windows XP.

The following table contains changes to various product components:

BMS Editor In the BMS Editor, field-variable names are no longer restricted to 7 characters. They now can be up to 30 characters in length.
Debugger
  • Previously, the debugger was displaying incorrect characters instead of Kanji characters when Kanji business terms were used for data-names. This problem is now fixed.
  • Previously, when message MSGIWZ200S was displayed on a Japanese machine, its text was in incorrect characters and not the correct Kanji and Hiragana characters. The error occurred only on an OPEN verb. This problem is now fixed.
Foreign File System (FFS) For FFS, we have made several fixes, including:
  • Previously, when a user incorrectly attempted to read or write to a RECFM=U data set, FFS kept the data set allocated. This problem is now fixed.
  • Previously, the FFS server sometimes terminated when it read a large file. This problem is now fixed.
Job Monitor For Job Monitor, we have made several fixes, including:
  • Previously, Job Monitor issued OC4 abends when you tried to look at the spool data sets of a currently running job. This problem is now fixed.
  • Even though the documentation for the Job Monitor server says not to change the workstation code page value from UTF-8, the UTF-8 code page might not correctly reflect incoming ASCII text that contains NLS characters above x'7F', such as the British pound sterling. In that case, change the value CODEPAGE=UTF-8 to something like CODEPAGE=IBM-1252 in the Job Monitor configuration file.
  • Job Monitor restricts the use of CANCEL, HOLD, PURGE, and RELEASE to jobs for which you are the owner. This restriction was previously undocumented.
MVS Connections Manager Two additional EBCDIC Japanese code pages are now supported: IBM-1390 and IBM-1399. For them to be recognized, add them manually in the MVS Connection Manager. The identifiers of the code pages are case sensitive.
Program Editor (LPEX) For LPEX, we have made several fixes, including:
  • When you use Save as... to save a host file, the ISPF-style lock on the old file is released, and a new ISPF-style lock is obtained on the new file.
  • LPEX now recognizes COBOL reserved words as of Enterprise COBOL Version 3.
  • Copy file expansion no longer fails when the path to the copy file contains spaces.
  • When Key behavior --> ISPF is selected, the tab key now behaves in the same way as the host tab key; that is, the cursor jumps to the line numbers, then to the first column of text, then to the next row of line numbers, and so forth.
  • The toolbar previously scrolled out of the window when Style --> Text was selected. The toolscrl macro was added for this fix. To enable scrolling of the toolbar, run toolscrl from the command line of an existing edit session or invoke it in a startup profile.
  • Previously, the editor sometimes terminated abnormally when you scrolled with an IBM TrackPoint device. This problem is now fixed.
Sort For Sort, we have made several fixes, including:
  • Previously when you tried to sort records larger than 4096 bytes, you erroneously received message MSGIWZ026W and a return code of 609.  This problem is now fixed.
  • The SMARTsort User's Guide states that if you direct SMARTsort output to an existing non-VSAM file, the file's contents are overwritten. That statement is incorrect. If you direct SMARTsort output to an existing non-VSAM file (including the SMARTsort input file), the output is appended to the contents of the file.

 

Changes in Version 3.0.6

VisualAge COBOL component Change
Foreign File System (FFS) For the FFS client, we have made several fixes, including:
  • FFS now tolerates a wider latitude in network configuration when it tries to connect to a host system. Previously, in certain circumstances, FFS would try only one of the gethost functions (gethostbyaddr or gethostbyname) before reporting a failure to connect.  Now it will always try both functions before reporting a failure.
  • Previously, in certain cases when you copied multiple files using a wildcard character from the host to the workstation, the copy ended prematurely without issuing an error. That is, the COPY command behaved as if it had copied all of the requested files when it had not.  This problem is now fixed.
  • Directories no longer fail to refresh after a failure to create a new file in that directory (such as attempting to copy a file with the wrong file extension into an MVS "directory" or PDS).
Foreign File System (FFS) and TSO Commands For the FFS server, PTF IP22527 provides several fixes. After the PTF is installed, the system programmer must make some changes to ensure that the TSO command server continues to work.

The TSO command server no longer requires the host COBOL or PL/I product.  Two new parts are now included in the PTF:

  • The sample JCL FBNFTPAD replaces IGYFTPAD (or IBMFTPAD).  FBNFTPAD has also been enhanced to include an example showing how to enable non-interactive ISPEXEC commands by using TSO commands.
  • The transaction FBNFSERV replaces IGYFSERV (or IBMFSERV)

Rename the APPC transaction IGYFSERV to FBNFSERV (or you can use FBNFTPAD plus any modifications that you have made to IGYFTPAD to create a new transaction named FBNFSERV).

Project window (Workframe) We have made several fixes, including:
  • MVS directories that are displayed in a project window no longer fail to refresh after files have been created or deleted
  • An erroneous "no connection to host" message is no longer displayed when you create MVS projects on Windows 2000.
  • The help for the Tools Setup window has been improved.
  • You can now delete projects from the IBM VisualAge COBOL Projects window.
  • An hourglass mouse cursor is now displayed when a monitored action, such as a compile or build, is running. When the action completes, the workframe display is auto-refreshed.
Job Monitor We have made several fixes, including:
  • Job Monitor can now work on workstations that use firewalls to block incoming connections in the ephemeral port range. This feature changed both the workstation and host code. If you apply the changes to only the host, old versions of the workstation code will still function correctly. If you apply the changes to only the workstation, old versions of the host code will reject the connection, and the workstation code will fail with the message "Connection closed by server."
  • In z/OS 1.2, job identifiers changed from JOBnnnnn to Jnnnnnnn.  The Job Monitor Hold, Purge, Cancel, and Release functions were changed to recognize the new format of the job identifiers.
LPEX We have made several fixes, including:
  • When you select Key behavior --> ISPF, you now can delete multiple lines.
  • When a syntax error message is displayed, selecting Action --> Delete Messages now works.
  • The DATE FORMAT pattern field now has context-sensitive (F1) help.
  • Selecting View --> Data Division now works.

 

Changes in Version 3.0.5

VisualAge COBOL component Change
Foreign File System (FFS)
  • On most networks, throughput is improved when you use VisualAge COBOL to work with MVS files. FFS now uses fewer (but larger) TCP/IP transmissions to communicate between the client and the server.
  • If you edit the FFS system definition file, ffs_sys.xml, and add subsystem tags (<subsys-name> and <subsys-parm>) to the file, the changes will be preserved if you later update the information through the MVS connections manager.
Program Editor There have been several fixes, including:
  • The program editor no longer locks if an empty file is saved on MVS.
IBM Distributed Debugger There have been numerous enhancements and fixes, including:
  • Improved performance
  • Improved behavior of the Selected menu
  • Improvements in the reuse mechanism
  • Memory leak fixes
  • Better command-line handling
  • Improvements in breakpoint setting for a particular thread
  • Better behavior of text fields in combination boxes
  • Improved accelerator keys for setting breakpoints
  • Support for display of local variables in the Locals pane for any stack selected in the Stack pane
  • Improved monitoring of variables and expressions:
    • Arrays with any combination of constant and variable subscripts and any number of dimensions can now be monitored; for example, X(I), where I can be any integer variable (zoned, packed, or binary) or index-name.
    • Monitoring an array name now displays the highest-level parent that contains an OCCURS clause, with all its occurrences shown. Any subordinate arrays can be expanded to show their occurrences.
MVS Connections Manager When you connect to a host drive using the MVS connections manager, an error message is displayed if you enter an incorrect login ID or password.
Job Monitor In the Submit JCL dialog, after you click Browse... to select a file, pressing Enter will submit it.

Changes in Version 3.0.4

VisualAge COBOL component Change
Foreign File System (FFS)
  • Migrated data sets will now appear in directory listings. They will have a file extension of <*migrat*>. For example: seq.a00.<*migrat*>
    Note: Only project actions apply to migrated data sets. For instance, you cannot edit, copy, or delete a migrated data set.
  • You can now specify up to 100 qualifiers for each drive letter. The previous limit was 25.
  • Support has been added for accessing data sets that reside in a Librarian subsystem. To use it, you must edit the FFS system definition file, Application Data\IBM\FFS\ffs_sys.xml. For each qualifier that requires a subsystem specification, add <subsys-name> and as many <subsys-parm> tags as required. For example:
    <qualifier>
            <qualifier-name> MYID </qualifier-name>
            <qualifier-type> MVS </qualifier-type>
            <directory> MYID </directory>
            <transfer> text </transfer>
            <subsys-name> ZZZZ </subsys-name>
            <subsys-parm> p1 </subsys-parm>
            <subsys-parm> p2 </subsys-parm>
    </qualifier>

    Changes that you make directly to the XML file might not be preserved if you later update the information through the MVS connections manager. (This limitation was removed in Version 3.0.5.)

    Restrictions: Directory information will not be available for a Librarian (subsystem) data set. You cannot write to a Librarian data set. Thus, for example, you cannot include a Librarian data set in a project or look at its member list through Windows Explorer.

Project window (Workframe)
  • Migrated data sets can be recalled from a Project window. Right-click on the data set, and then select Recall. Alternatively, from a command prompt, use the command FFSRECALL. For example:
    FFSRECALL M:\HLQ.IWZ.COBOL

    Enter FFSRECALL with no arguments for more information.

  • File filtering is changed such that filters are applied to the file name only (not to the path), unless the filter contains a drive or directory specification.
Job Monitor and TSO Commands
  • Window size, position, and properties are saved and restored when the Job Monitor window or TSO Commands window is closed and reopened.
  • When both the Job Monitor window and the TSO Commands window are open, exiting either one does not close the other one. Exiting the second window closes that window and terminates the program.

    If only one of the two windows is open:

    • Clicking File -> Close closes that window but keeps the process active.
    • Clicking File -> Exit (or the X in the upper right corner) closes that window and terminates the program.
  • Both the Job Monitor window and the TSO Commands window restore the last-used host when they are reopened.
  • The Starting Core Services progress bar displays the progress as the percentage of completion: 0 - 25 - 50 - 75 - 100%.
Job Monitor
  • Host job return codes are shown correctly as either Sxxx (hex) or Unnnn (decimal).
  • User-defined filters are saved and restored when the Job Monitor window is closed and reopened.
  • SYSOUT file-size limit is saved and restored when the Job Monitor window is closed and reopened.
  • The position of the split-bar is saved and restored when the Job Monitor window is closed and reopened.
  • Delete filter is now on the menu bar and the Filter pop-up menu.
  • Filtering by job name now works correctly.
  • In the Submit JCL dialog, the active system is preselected.
  • When you change filter properties and then click Save, the job list is automatically refreshed.
TSO Commands After entering a command, pressing Enter will submit it.

Changes in Version 3.0.3

VisualAge COBOL component Change
Foreign File System (FFS) FFS performance has been improved for systems with a large number of data sets and members.
IBM Distributed Debugger Using the "examine exception and resume" function, the debugger can continue program execution and debugging after detecting (and optionally allowing you to correct) severe or critical errors. For additional details, see DEBUG.HTM.
Job Monitor The reliability of the job monitor server has been improved.

Changes in Version 3.0.2

Miscellaneous fixes for the following components:

Changes in Version 3.0.1

VisualAge COBOL now runs on and is supported on Windows 2000.

Changes to prerequisites in Version 3.0.7

Using JES2 and viewing the spool data sets of a running job using Job Monitor requires the following OS/390 Version 2 Release 10 APARs: OW49317 and OW49373. (Viewing the spool data sets of a running job is not supported prior to OS/390 Version 2 Release 10.)

Changes to prerequisites in Version 3.0.6

The TSO command server no longer requires the host COBOL or PL/I product.

Changes to prerequisites in Version 3.0.5

There are no changes to prerequisites in Version 3.0.5.

Changes to prerequisites in Version 3.0.4

The following table summarizes the additional or changed requirements for the use of remote edit-compile-debug in Version 3.0.4.

Prerequisite product or component Requirement or change
OS/390 OS/390 Version 2 Release 5 is no longer supported. Version 2 Release 6 or higher is now required.
IBM COBOL for OS/390 & VM Version 2 Release 2 The PTF for APAR PQ21350
Foreign File System server PTF IP22436 supersedes all previous FFS PTFs.

With Version 3.0.2 and before, FFS required that the environment variable FFSPATH be added to the .envvars file of the HTTP server. With Version 3.0.3 and later, this requirement is removed.

Job Monitor The job monitor now supports JES3. This support requires the JES3 PTF for OW36022 and ++APAR for OW45210.

Known problems and limitations

There are known problems and limitations for the following components: foreign file system (FFS), MVS connections manager, debugger, program editor, project environment, COBOL projects, SOM compiler, and Information Center.

Foreign file system (FFS)

Problem or limitation Solution (if applicable)
You might need more information if you encounter problems while trying to access MVS files. For additional information about a problem, view the ffsuser.log file in WINNT\Profiles\userid\Application Data\IBM\FFS, where userid is your Windows user ID.
During system startup, an error might occur when your system tries to restore a network connection to the FFS server. Click OK and connect to the FFS server after system startup has finished.

MVS connections manager

Problem or limitation Solution (if applicable)
If you are using a version of Netscape earlier than 4.7 and you have opened the Information Center, and you attempt to open the Information Center again from the MVS connections manager, the following error could occur: Smart Browsing was unable to match your request. Click the X button at the far right of the title bar to close the second browser window, and use the first browser window instead. Or, you can download and install Netscape 4.7 to avoid the problem.
In the Japanese version, the "Host code page" and "Local code page" column headings in the MVS Connections Manager window might be truncated. Do one of the following to view the complete column headings:
  • Resize the individual column headers.
  • Resize the MVS Connections Manager window.

Distributed Debugger

Problem or limitation Solution (if applicable)
When you remotely debug an OS/390 COBOL program that contains graphic variables, an error might occur when you try to change the value of the variable in the Program Monitor. To change the value of a graphic variable for debugging, do the following:
  1. Double-click the graphic variable in the Source pane. Right-click the variable and select Add to Program Monitor.
  2. Double-click the value in the Monitors pane.
  3. Remove the old value completely and then enter the new one.
  4. Add a G in front of the first single quote (for example, G'X Y Z ') to indicate that this is a graphic value. Press Enter.
You might see some unexpected behavior if your program contains unprintable data. An unprintable character appears in the debugger as a box. Here are some examples of unexpected behavior:
  • If a statement in the program contains a literal string with unprintable characters, you might not be able to highlight variables in that statement.
  • If you try to edit the value of a variable that contains unprintable data, the boxes are replaced by the tilde character.
  • You might not be able to see the end of a long string.
None
The Distributed Debugger shipped with VisualAge COBOL does not support debugging AS/400 applications. None
When you install products (such as VisualAge COBOL) that install the Distributed Debugger on your workstation, and then you uninstall those products, the Distributed Debugger does not uninstall. Check your workstation registry to ensure that no products that use the Distributed Debugger are installed. Next, change the RefCount number in your workstation registry to 1. Finally, uninstall the Distributed Debugger.

To check your workstation registry to ensure that no parent products are installed, do these steps:

  1. Click Start -> Run, type regedit, and click OK. The Registry Editor opens.
  2. Double-click the following folders:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
    SOFTWARE
    IBM
    IBM Distributed Debugger
    CurrentVersion
    install
    ParentProducts
  3. Check for parent products. If no parent product is installed, proceed to the next step. If a parent product is installed, do not uninstall the Distributed Debugger.

To decrement the RefCount number in the workstation registry, do these steps:

  1. Double-click the install folder again.
  2. Right-click RefCount and select Modify.
  3. Change the number to 1 and click OK.

To uninstall the Distributed Debugger, do these steps:

  1. Click Start -> Settings -> Control Panel.
  2. Click the Add/Remove Programs icon.
  3. On the Install/Uninstall page, click IBM Distributed Debugger in the list of installed products, then click OK.
  4. Shut down and reboot your workstation.

Program editor

Problem or limitation Solution (if applicable)
You might need more information if you encounter problems while using the program editor (LPEX). For additional information about a problem, view the editor's macro log. To get to the macro log, click Windows -> Macro log.
If you use Notepad and Wordpad to edit an MVS file, the file is not locked during the edit session. Similarly, if you invoke the program editor (LPEX) from the start menu, or in any way other than selecting MVS Edit from a project, the file is not locked during the edit session. To lock (ISPF style) an MVS file during an edit session, right-click the file in the project window and then select MVS edit.
If you installed VisualAge COBOL as a client connected to a network server, you might not be able to change key behavior in the program editor. To correct this problem, do these steps:
  1. Right-click the My Computer icon and select Properties.
  2. Click the Environment tab.
  3. In the User Variables section, add the variable COBLPATH4 and give it a value that includes the client's MACROS directory for VisualAge COBOL. For example, if the VisualAge COBOL client portion is installed in c:\Ibmcobw, then the value of the new COBLPATH4 variable would be C:\IBMCOBW\MACROS;%COBLPATH4%.

    Or, if you have administrator authority on the client workstation, you can add the client's MACROS directory path in front of the existing value for the COBLPATH4 variable in the System Variables section.

  4. Click Apply and then click OK.
If you installed VisualAge COBOL as a client connected to a network server, F1 help will not be available in the program editor. None
If you have VisualAge CICS installed on your workstation and you edit an MVS file using LPEX, LPEX might lock up when you add a new line to the file. The cause of this problem is a down-level version of REXX that is included in VisualAge CICS. To correct this problem, do these steps:
  1. Right-click the My Computer icon, and then click Properties.
  2. Go to the Environment page. (If you use Windows 2000, go to the Advanced page and then click Environment Variables....)
  3. In the System Variables section, modify the PATH variable so that all the VisualAge CICS directories (usually under C:\CNT310) are at the end of the PATH. For example, if the value of the PATH variable is this:
    %SystemRoot%;C:\UTILITIES;
    C:\CNT310\RUNTIME;C:\CNT310\TOOLS\UTIL;
    C:\Program Files\IBM\VACOBOL\BIN;. . .

    then change it to this:

    %SystemRoot%;C:\UTILITIES;
    C:\Program Files\IBM\VACOBOL\BIN;. . .;
    C:\CNT310\RUNTIME;C:\CNT310\TOOLS\UTIL;
  4. Reboot your system.

Project environment

Problem or limitation Solution (if applicable)
When you add a new tool using Actions --> Tools Setup in the IBM VisualAge COBOL Projects window, you cannot specify the ToolGroup to which the new tool belongs.  Tool groups are useful when you want to make a tool available only to certain types of projects.  For example, the Recall command is available only to MVS projects. You don't need to use tool groups to set up customized tools in the Project environment, but if you want to use them, you must edit the Workframe Settings (IWS) file manually, as described in the Solutions column. To specify a ToolGroup for a newly added tool (making the tool available to a project), look in the project's definition file for the ToolGroup that is associated with the project. Add that ToolGroup to the tool definition in the solution configuration file. For detailed instructions, follow these steps:
  1. Click Start -> Programs -> IBM VisualAge COBOL -> IBM VisualAge COBOL Projects.
  2. In the list of projects, find the project that you want to make the new tool available to. Write down the entire directory path, followed by the project name, followed by .iwp. For example, c:\winnt\profiles\longwell\application data\ibm\vacobol\projects\test.iwp, where test is the project name and test.iwp is the name of the project definition file.
  3. Click Start -> Programs -> IBM VisualAge COBOL -> Tools -> Program Editor. In the Editor window, open the definition file for the project, using the information that you wrote down in the previous step.
  4. In the project definition file, find the +toolGroup= key and its value (for example, +toolGroup=mvs). This value is the name of the ToolGroup to which the new tool must belong if it is to be available to the project.
  5. In the Editor window, open the solution configuration file VACOBV3.IWS, which is typically in the c:\WINNT\Profiles\username\Application Data\IBM\VACOBOL\MainPrj folder.
  6. Make a copy of VACOBV3.IWS to safeguard against errors.
  7. In VACOBV3.IWS, find the definition of the tool that you added (the +title= key will match the name you gave the tool).
  8. Add a line in the body of the tool definition, and enter the +toolGroup= key and the value that you found in step 4 above (for example, +toolGroup=mvs). Save and close the file. If a +toolGroup statement already exists but the value does not match the value you found in step 4 above, you can add your value after the existing value, separating the values with a blank (for example, +toolGroup=ws mvs).
  9. Close the IBM VisualAge COBOL Projects window, if it is still open.

COBOL projects

Problem or limitation Solution (if applicable)
When you click Start -> Programs -> IBM VisualAge COBOL -> IBM VisualAge COBOL Projects, your monitor screen might appear to flicker or lose its vertical synchronization. Change either the color palette or refresh frequency settings for your monitor. To change these settings, do these steps:
  1. Right-click your desktop. Click Properties.
  2. Click the Settings tab.
  3. Decrease the number of colors or the refresh frequency. Click OK.
The COBOL_Projects folder is not automatically created on your desktop when you create a project, contrary to several places in the online help that describe the creation of a COBOL_Projects folder on the desktop as the default behavior. If you prefer, you can access your COBOL projects from your desktop rather than from the Start menu. To do so, follow these steps:
  1. Click Start -> IBM VisualAge COBOL -> IBM VisualAge COBOL Projects.
  2. Click the Create New Project tab.
  3. Enter the information requested until you are prompted to specify the location and name of the folder that will hold your project definition files.
  4. Click the Browse button to the right of the input field.
  5. Click c:\WINNT\Profiles\username\Desktop.
  6. Click the Create a new folder icon in the upper right corner of the Browse for a Project Definition File Folder window.
  7. Enter COBOL_Projects as the name of the new folder and press Enter. Click OK to close the window. Click Yes if prompted to create the folder. Click OK when prompted to accept the new default path.
  8. Click Finish. The COBOL_Projects folder is created on your desktop.

SOM compiler

Problem or limitation Solution (if applicable)
SOM abends if SOMIR specifies a nonexistent directory. Check the path in SOMIR to make sure that it is the correct location of the SOM interface repository.

Information Center

Problem or limitation Solution (if applicable)
Online help for Visual Builder and Data Assistant is not provided in the Information Center. Access the help for these components from the user interface (Help menu and F1) for the components themselves.