John, you are after a general API to allow "something" to have a meaningful
impact on code-generation by the (Enterprise COBOL) compiler?
I think we've had a "non-denial denial" (or similar) that there is a single API
for EXEC. Even if similar (who knows?) they are different. Each interacts
directly with its target sub-system (CICS, DB2, IMS).
I think they are "asking what your sub-system can do for you"-type, rather than
"this is what you can do with the compiler if you set this, that and the
other". Use of a DB2 API, rather than being an API to the COBOL compiler (I can
be very wrong there).
If they were intended to be open to ISV use, they'd be documented as a "Vendor
Interface". If they were so exposed, then there'd be "constraints" on what
could be changed in the compiler ("you can't do that, it'll break XYQ product").
There is, of course, nothing which stops anyone writing a "pre-processor". It
can also be "integrated", such that it does not require a separate step, using
an "input exit". Any processing which may be analogous to the integrated
processors would be done in the exit, and the "already COBOL-ified" code is
what would be presented to the compiler.
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