Compatibility
Can OS/VS COBOL and VS COBOL II programs call Enterprise COBOL programs?
On non-CICS, calls between OS/VS COBOL and Enterprise COBOL are not supported. On CICS®, OS/VS COBOL programs cannot run at all.
On non-CICS, calls between VS COBOL II NORES programs (that is, programs compiled with the NORES compiler option) and Enterprise COBOL are not supported. On CICS, VS COBOL II NORES programs cannot run at all.
On non-CICS calls and on CICS, any calls between VS COBOL II RES programs and Enterprise COBOL programs are supported. For additional details, see the Enterprise COBOL for z/OS® Programming Guide.
For a complete list of calls between COBOL and assembler (including whether they are supported or not when running with Language Environment®), see Runtime support for assembler COBOL calls under CICS .
Can you convert programs selectively to Enterprise COBOL?
Yes, unless an application contains any OS/VS COBOL programs. When you convert applications containing OS/VS COBOL programs, you must convert all of the OS/VS COBOL programs in the run unit to Enterprise COBOL.
We have had errors when running COBOL programs where an output DD was misspelled and a temporary file was created. This causes problems when it occurs with a large file for a one-time program run. Is this still a concern with Enterprise COBOL?
No, for QSAM you can turn off automatic file creation with the Language Environment CBLQDA(OFF) runtime option.
When should you use the CMPR2 option?
The CMPR2/NOCMPR2 option is not available in Enterprise COBOL. Enterprise COBOL behaves as if NOCMPR2 were in effect at all times. Any programs that were compiled with CMPR2 with a previous compiler must be upgraded to the 85 COBOL standard to compile with Enterprise COBOL.
For more details, see Migrating from the CMPR2 compiler option to NOCMPR2.
Is the signature area of Enterprise COBOL programs the same as for OS/VS COBOL and VS COBOL II?
No, but maps of the signature area can be used to find out what compiler options were used to compile the module, when it was compiled, release level, and so on. For details, see Reading LIST output in the Enterprise COBOL for z/OS Programming Guide.