The COBOL programming language is very versatile in the MVS environment. There are many practical applications for the use and implementation of solutions using COBOL. The BCS COBOL Development Tool Kit navigates the MVS and ISPF environment so that a point and click solution to many of the perfunctory COBOL tasks.
The toolkit allows the user to:
- Chose the COBOL program to modify, compile and link edit.
- Invoke the ISPF editor (Option 2) for subsequent programming changes.
- Invoke the COBOL compiler and produce output object code and compiler listing.
- View the compiler listing to verify compiler results.
The following listing reveals the clist (command list) to make these functions available.
[codesyntax lang=”text”]
PROC 0 ISPEXEC LMINIT DATAID(DV) DATASET(PDS.COBOL) ISPEXEC LMOPEN DATAID(&DV) ISPEXEC LMMDISP DATAID(&DV) COMMANDS(ANY) ISPEXEC LMCLOSE DATAID(&DV) ISPEXEC EDIT DATASET(PDS.COBOL(&ZLMEMBER)) EX PDS.CLIST(CCOMP) '&ZLMEMBER' WRITE RETURN CODE IS &LASTCC MEMBER * &ZLMEMBER *
[/codesyntax]
Below is a video to show the BCS COBOL Tool Kit in action.
These as well as other tools are available to allieviate some of the drudgery of developing software on the IBM mainframe.
Mr. Arch Brooks, Software Engineer, Brooks Computing Systems, LLC authored this article.