COBOL Power Programming

Options and Settings

The processing behaviour of the COBOL compiler (and the applications created with the compiler) can be modified by certain compile- and run-time options. We will present the more important ones and discuss which options to use to reach a specific goal

COBOL Debugging Facilities

The COBOL compiler provides a set of functions and facilities that allow for easier debugging of applications, even in absence of a source-level debug tool. This includes special declaratives sections, but also the debug control statements currently available. The debug facilities of the next COBOL standard will also be presented and their merits (and shortcomings) discussed

Table Processing

Tables (or arrays) are among the most often used facilities in COBOL applications. We will discuss the correct useage of fixed size tables as well as of so-called varying-sized tables. The new facilities to dynamically expand or shrink a table are also discussed

File Processing

We will concentrate on the advanced facilities available for COBOL file processing in this session. We will discuss the file related declarative sections, error recovery, and the processing of files with variable length records

Intrinsic Functions

One of the major additions to the COBOL standard is the support for built-in functions. We will will demonstrate the use of builtin functions and show how user-built functions are implemented in the new COBOL standard

Program Management

One of the most often overlooked features of COBOL is the facility to "nest" COBOL program into other programs. The use of such nested programs, as well as the support of recursive programming techniques, is the main topic of this session. We will also handle topics regarding the initializatiion of Working-Storage at runtime under program and/or option control and the concept of Local-Storage.

Language Environment

While not being an actual part of COBOL the Language Environment (LE) is a valuable tool in the application developer's tool box. It provides for a large amount of callable services that can be invoked independent of the application programming language. We will discuss the general principles of LE, and demonstrate the use of LE functions from a COBOL program

Sort & Merge

The title says it all ... this session is all about sorting data within the COBOL application program. There is no need for a separate sort step in the JCL, and it performs fast as well

Report Writer

While the Report Writer used to be an optional feature of the COBOL compiler, the standard now has made the Report Writer facility a mandatory part of the language. We will demonstrate the ease of use of the Report Writer and the simple way in which certain output layouts can be created