• **Hardware/OS**: Ensure your Gentoo system has the ZED environment (a COBOL-compatible runtime) installed.
• **Dependencies**: Install required libraries:

  sudo emerge -av ncurses zlib

• **Portage Installation**:

  sudo emerge -av dev-lang/open-cobol

• **Verify Installation**:

  cobc --version

• **Set Environment Variables**:

  export COBPATH=/usr/share/cobol  # Path to copybooks
  export PATH=$PATH:/usr/bin       # Include OpenCobol binaries

• **Create a Project Directory**:

  mkdir ~/cobol_project && cd ~/cobol_project

• **Example Program (`hello.cob`)**:

  IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
  PROGRAM-ID. HELLO.

  ENVIRONMENT DIVISION.
  CONFIGURATION SECTION.
  SOURCE-SYSTEM. Gentoo.

  DATA DIVISION.
  WORKING-STORAGE SECTION.

  PROCEDURE DIVISION.
      DISPLAY "Hello, OpenCobol on ZED!".
      STOP RUN.

• **Compile with `cobc`**:

  cobc -x hello.cob  # Generates `hello` executable

• **Link Against ZED Libraries**:

  cobc -l zed -o hello hello.cob

• **Test Execution**: