COBOL Corner

At times, there's a heavy burden of responsibility that goes with this job--like today's news on COBOL. And why do I feel a sense of responsibility in talking about COBOL? Well, for one thing, no one else seems to, and with an estimated 200 billion lines of COBOL code in use, it's clearly something right up a lot of programmers' alley. Moreover, as Dr. Dobb's senior contributing editor Al Stevens once said, "I'll never say anything bad about COBOL. It put meals on my family's table for a lot of years." So here's the news about COBOL...

Veryant has rolled out its new isCOBOL Application Suite 2008 that includes a compiler, IDE, debugging tools, and portable GUI that can execute on any device--from mainframes to mobile phones--running a Java Virtual Machine (JVM). Actually, it's kind of cool that the isCOBOL compiler and runtime are written in 100-percent Java, which means that COBOL developers can design one UI and deploy it across many platforms, ranging from AIX, HP-UX, and Solaris, to Linux, Windows, and mainframes. Other isCOBOL features include Web 2.0 components, such as calendar date-entry, gain/lost focus event, keystroke functions, and accordion panel, as well as optimized TCP/IP communications to improve performance and response time when running in isCOBOL Server thin clients.

Then there's long-time COBOL kingpin Micro Focus, which has announced a special relationship with Microsoft to provide more integration between Microsoft and Micro Focus tools. Specifically, Micro Focus will extend its Net Express, SOA Express, and Enterprise Server tools for customers developing managed-code, 64-bit applications that leverage .NET, SQL Server, Team Foundation Server, BizTalk Server, and System Center Operations Manager. No talk of mobile phones or motor scooters there. We're talking big iron at the enterprise.

And with news that's a little easier to swallow, Micro Focus announced that Miller Brewing--you know, the folks who brew beer under the Coors, Hamm's, Keystone, Icehouse, Miller's, and Red Dog labels, among others--has implemented Micro Focus Mainframe Express Enterprise Edition (MFEEE) to reduce its reliance on mainframes. Miller's mainframe currently features 40,000 programs and COBOL applications, which are managed by its proprietary Production Installation Transfer System (PITS)--Miller's process of moving mainframe jobs, programs, and copybooks into production. For business reasons, Miller wanted to transition the company's reliance from mainframes to server-based and workstation environments. Consequently, Miller wrote a .NET application to move programs back and forth from the mainframe, which allowed for 25 percent of Miller's mainframe development to be done using Mainframe Express. To launch the project, Miller first installed MFEEE on its Citrix farm, moving 10,000 APS programs over to Mainframe Express. After generating all programs and converting the APS code to COBOL, Miller compiled and tested a selected set of programs and installed MFEEE into production. Miller's next step is to move testing from the mainframe to Windows, explore the use of SOA, and move the entire system to Windows.

( Jonathan Erickson )