IBM Cobol is still going strong. As both a Mainframe developer and PC Developer I can honestly say that many solutions we design, usually favor a Cobol design of over a Java or VB design.
Mainly as 1. Cobol solutions are few magnitudes easier to maintain in the long run, and that 2. Java left out native structures making it a pain to use in most cases. We do use some VB here and there. IBM Cobol 2.2 added the ability to package many small callable functions inside a single .DLL program, and reference them directly on a Call from a main program, each with their own callable parameters, and 32 character module names. (PDSE load lib's recommended for using DLL's) Cobol is still changing as well with the times. IBM Cobol 3 (enterprise Cobol) implements a built in XML Parser, and moves the OOCobol from the system object model to the Java Object Model context. IBM Cobol 4 (still in development far as I know) Will bring Cobol up to the 64 bit architecture, with the corresponding new Binary and Floating point types that will support. There may be other new features here I haven't discovered yet. All good changes so far. However, IMHO, to be effective in the long term, Cobol still needs to move into PC-GUI support directly from the Mainframe, without the need of any middleware, 3rd party solutions, Microfocus, Java, or VB front ends. Darren -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Clark Morris Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2007 10:34 AM To: [email protected] Subject: IS IBM COBOL dead or just not being upgraded for z9? Re: z9 Hardware update On 18 Apr 2007 00:37:29 -0700, in bit.listserv.ibm-main you wrote: >http://tinyurl.com/32lgs6 > >Its not dead yet Is the COBOL group in IBM on life support? There are announcements for both XML an hardware decimal floating point yet no hint of COBOL support > >For May availability > >Birger Heede >IBM Denmark > >---------------------------------------------------------------------- >For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, >send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO >Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
