I don't really know it, but I believe that the C compiler is part of z/OS. At least its versioning is the same as the z/OS versioning.
But maybe it still needs a separate license. I don't know, because we have it (and need it) for at least 20 years now (maybe more). The C preprocessor is in fact so restricted, that it can be used for other tasks as well. When I worked at another site in my former life, they used it there to build several variants of OS/2's CONFIG.SYS file before doing the OS/2 clients' automatic startup from the network (the PCs first booted a DOS opsys, then modified the CONFIG.SYS using the C preprocessor of some DOS based C compiler, then booted OS/2). I believe, you could also modify COBOL sources using the C preprocessor, but then you would have to code #include "xxx" instead of COPY XXX and: the macro facility using #define and #ifdef etc. is very limited. Of course, you could also use the PL/1 preprocessor, which can also be run without the compiler, but probably you don't have it. There it is %INCLUDE XXX; I would like to check out, if it is possible (and if would make sense) to combine the power of the PL/1 preprozessor with the COBOL language. But at the moment we are a pure PL/1 shop, so I'm not able to do this. Kind regards Bernd Am 04.06.2013 21:11, schrieb John McKown:
COBOL does not seem to have anything like the PL/1 preprocessor. Or even the <shudder/> C preprocessor. Hum, I guess it would be possible to use the C preprocessor despite not having a C license. I don't know if it will run or not. In any case, this sort of preprocessor is not what I would really _love_. I would _love_ to get hold of the internal parse tree and be able to modify _that_. But I get quite strange at times.
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