Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!brl-adm!umd5!decuac!dolqci!stein
From: stein@dolqci.UUCP (Mike Stein)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: COBOL compiler for UNIX
Message-ID: <686@dolqci.UUCP>
Date: 9 Dec 87 22:09:30 GMT
References: <1508@motown.UUCP> <4601@eecae.UUCP>
Reply-To: stein@dolqci.UUCP (Mike Stein)
Followup-To: <4601@eecae.UUCP>
Distribution: na
Organization: Dept. of Labor, Unemployment Insurance
Lines: 27
Keywords: COBOL
Summary: There are several


     Normally I'd reply to the original requestor by email (I did for
someone else asking about COBOL environments), but I missed the request
and it's purged here.
     There are three COBOL environments I know about for System V.  The
really portable one is Ryan-McFarland's RM/COBOL.  It is available for a
wide variety of machines and is pretty solid in my experience.  The one
big drawback is that it's pseudocompiled, so there are space limitations
and it's slow.
     I tried Philon COBOL on an ATT Unix PC (7300) (aka 3B1) last year.
We could not get it to link to C language subroutines as documented in
the manual, so we abandoned it.  It is true compiled and fast, but make
sure that all the features you need work (such as C routine linking).
     I did one system in MicroFocus COBOL on a 3B2/400.  It worked
fairly well, had a pseudocompiled and true compile mode, and was fairly
well documented.  We did have some intermittent and not-reliably-reprodu-
cible problems with it; I don't know if they were fixed.  (They may have
been os problems rather than compiler problems.)  Annoyance:  there's a
termcaps-style configuration file that you have to set up for it.
     Hope this helps.

                                         - Mike Stein
                                         uunet!vrdxhq!dolqci!stein 
                                         (202)535-0640

The above represents the absolute truth.  Therefore it could not
possibly have been written or approved by my employer.