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On Fri, Jun 13, 2025 at 1:48 PM Frank Swarbrick <[email protected]> wrote: > I know most readers of this group are systems programmers, but for those > of us who are interested... > > > https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/cobol-zos/6.5.0?topic=whats-new-in-enterprise-cobol-zos-65 > > Interesting (to me) enhancements are: > > * > Support for user defined types (UDT). This includes TYPEDEF to define a > type and TYPE to create a data item of that previously defined type. > * > High-Low qualification support. This allows one to specify, for example > MY-GROUP::MY-FIELD instead of MY-FIELD OF MY-GROUP. This is useful when > using user defined types where you have more than one data item of the same > type, and that data item is a group data item. If you want to refer to a > field within one of those groups it must be qualified (since the name of > the field is implicitly defined in multiple places. The new method is, in > my mind, much easier to read and understand. > * > VSAMDB support. We don't use VSAMDB (though it looks interesting) > because, if I am understanding correctly, it requires VSAM RLS (record > level sharing), which we are not using. But this seems like a good > enhancement for those who can take advantage of it. > * > OMITTED class test and OPTIONAL parameters changes. This fulfils a > request I made! Prior to this, Enterprise COBOL supported the OMITTED > pseudo-parameter in place of a real parameter, as long as it is a > "reference" parameter. In the activated program one determined that the > parameter was "omitted" by to checking the address of the parameter for a > value of NULL. This was not part of the official COBOL standard. With > this new feature, which is part of the COBOL ISO standard, the activated > (called) program would specify the parameter as being OPTIONAL, and then > use the new "IS [NOT] OMITTED" class test (instead of checking the address > for NULL). It also allows for implicitly omitted trailing parameters > (where the "trailing" parameters are actually omitted, even when invoked > without the OMITTED keyword). > > Frank > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
