COBOL/370 Newsletter Issue 1 IBM , Santa Teresa Laboratory Jan 1994 IBM COBOL Newsletter Created ____________________________ IBM is kicking off its first COBOL newsletter this month. The purpose will be to keep you informed of new developments in the IBM COBOL offerings. We will have interesting articles written by the IBM COBOL team. This includes our developers, service experts, publication writers as well as marketing and sales information. You will find articles that cover: Technical issues Performance Tuning Service Levels & PTF Information Marketing bulletins It is our intent to publish this newsletter on a quarterly basis. We have included a section at the end of the newsletter for your comments and for your name, address and fax information. In order to receive future copies of the newsletter, this information must be filled in and faxed to (408) 463-2425. COBOL is Alive! _______________ Are you evaluating Client/Server for the future? Are you wondering what language to use? Are you considering right-sizing your mainframe? Are you concerned about protecting your COBOL investment, programmer productivity, and advanced technology? These are all good questions, so let's start with Client/Server. Client/Server is the environment of the future with mainframes and workstations. The new MVS Open Edition POSIX support is coming out in mid-1994, including the distributed Computing Environment (DCE) is written in C-language. But what about COBOL? Well, we have listened to your requests for a common development environment and a common runtime environment. The old COBOL monolithic tower compilers came with a compiler, debugger, and runtime library for OS/VS COBOL and VS COBOL II. These COBOL compilers didn't talk very well with the other languages like PL/I and C. But we now have compilers: COBOL/370, PL/I form MVS and VM, and C/370; a common runtime environment: Language Environment/370 (LE/370); and a common debugger: CoOperative Development Environment/370 (CODE/370). OS/VS COBOL service withdrawal is June 1994. VS COBOL II V1R4 (GA=3/93) is the LAST release of this product. COBOL/370 is the strategic COBOL compiler with LE/370 as the runtime library and CODE/370 as the debugger. LE/370 runtime library also contains the OS/VS COBOL and VS COBOL II runtime libraries. But if you want to access your legacy code in the new client/server environment, you need to upgrade you COBOL technology to COBOL/370. The runtime library (LE/370) technology enhancements include InterLanguage Communication (ILC) which allows COBOL, PL/I and C compilers to talk to each other; common service routines, such as a routine that interprets your 2-digit year to as a 4-digit year; common dump format; condition handler; and more. And what about your new college graduate hires who learned C-Language? Well, they can be made more productive by having them write C front-end applications that call your legacy COBOL code. The client/server environment also creates a new and different development environment for your programmers using workstations to improve their productivity. Client/Server with COBOL? Well, it may sound strange but yes, it's here today with existing products. "Which products?"...the new runtime library for COBOL, PL/I, and C is Language Environment/370 (LE/370); the new debugger for COBOL and C today with PL/I coming later in 1994 is CoOperative Development Environment/370 (CODE/370); the new LE-COBOL is COBOL/370; the new LE-PL/I is PL/I for MVS&VM; the new LE-C is AD/Cycle C/370; and for your workstation environment, run CICS for OS/2 and Micro Focus COBOL Workbench for creating OS/2 server applications. The old COBOL code (OS/VS COBOL) is ANSI 74 or ANSI 68 standard. VS COBOL II and COBOL/370 are ANSI 85 standard which introduced structured programming. If you're spending a lot of time in maintenance, then think about how the code is written/documented. Programmers spend a lot of time trying to maintain unstructured code. So when upgrading your COBOL technology, whether it be from OS/VS COBOL to COBOL/370 or OS/VS COBOL to VS COBOL II, use the COBOL and CICS Command Level Conversion Aid (CCCA) to convert your source to ANSI 85 standard and then use COBOL Structuring Facility (COBOL/SF) to restructure your source. In addition, COBOL/SF allows you to customize for your shops standards. This will help cut down your maintenance backlog. We have an IBM COBOL Languages Strategy video tape available for you by calling 1-800-IBM-3333 ext. STAR703. If you need further information about the products mentioned, please contact your local IBM representative or call 1-800-IBM-3333 ext STAR703. Operating on Reducing Storage _____________________________ If you want to reduce the amount of storage used by LE-COBOL; one of the most significant things you can do is related to the default installation options. The following listing relates to the changes you can make to these settings that will enable you to realize significant, approximately (250K) reductions in storage utilization. Change the following defaults to the corresponding new values. Default New STACK initial size 128K STACK increment size 128K LIBSTACK initial size 16K LIBSTACK increment size 8K HEAP initial size 32K HEAP increment size 32K ANYHEAP initial size 16K ANYHEAP increment size 8K BELOWHEAP initial size 8K BELOWHEAP increment size 4K Where do I go for information? _____________________________ There are several publications and technical papers available to you to aid you in your migration activities. In addition, Skill Dynamics offers courses in COBOL/370 and LE/370 for its' customers. A complete listing of documents and contacts follows. See your marketing representative for ordering information: Educational Training: For classes offered by Skill Dynamics please call 1-800-IBM-TEACH. To discuss customized COBOL training or on-site classes, please call 214-406-7320-Skill Dynamics. Publications: COBOL/370 (5688-197) GC26-3036 COBOL Migration Fact Sheet GC26-4762 General Information GC26-4764 Migration Guide SC26-4766 Planning for Installation and Customization. LE/370 (5688-198) GC26-4785 Fact Sheet GC26-4786 General Information COBOL & CICS/VS Conversion Aid (CCCA) (5785-ABJ) SB11-632 Program Description and Opera- tion Manual COBOL Structuring Facility (C/SF) (5688-045) GC26-3024 Fact Sheet GC34-4087 Presentation Guide SC26-3078 Users Guide and Reference CODE/370 (5688-194) GC26-4661 General Information G520-8054 Fact Sheet PL/I MVS & VM (5688-235) SC26-3118 Migration Guide GC26-3112 Fact Sheet Performance Tuning Guide Two technical reports are available from your IBM marketing representative on the IBM marketing tools disk: Performance Tuning for AD/CYCLE COBOL/370 (COBPERF Package) Performance Considerations for AD/CYCLE COBOL/370. (COBOLTIA Package) Survey and Address Information: We'd like to hear back from you regarding whether or not you felt this newsletter was helpful. We also welcome articles from customers for future newsletters. We have allowed space for your comments and address information. This information must be filled in and faxed to IBM at 408 463-2425 in order for future releases of the newsletter to be mailed to you. We hope you have found this useful and we look forward to tailoring this document to your needs in the future. 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