Various GnuCOBOL utility programs packaged for easy compiling and running using Visual Studio Code.
These instructions will get you a copy of the project up and running on your local Windows machine for development and testing purposes.
- GnuCOBOL
- Your favorite IDE (mine is the free Visual Studio Code)
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Download GnuCOBOL: See the options at https://www.arnoldtrembley.com/GnuCOBOL.htm. For Windows 64 bit, a real easy way to go is https://www.arnoldtrembley.com/GC30B-64bit-rename-7z-to-exe.7z, and the following instructions assume this.
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Rename the '.7z' to '.exe' and run it, or use 7-Zip to extract all folders/files to C:\GnuCOBOL (or your desired location). A Windows install is not required. Your folder structure should look like this:
GnuCOBOL
bin
etc
include
lib
share
x86_64-w64-mingw32
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If you do not already have VS Code, download and install it from here: https://code.visualstudio.com/download.
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Download the GC-Utilities project, e.g. to C:\GC-Utilities. Your folder structure should look something like this:
GC-Utilities
.vscode
Bin
CopyBooks
Data
Listings
Utilities
- Run VS Code and select File/Open Folder..., and open the above GC-Utilities folder to get started. It is important to do the Open Folder instead of opening individual files!
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BITWISE: This subroutine performs bitwise operations (AND, OR and XOR) on the specified inputs.
To compile it from VS Code, click on BITWISE.cob and select Terminal/Run Task.../Compile Selected Subroutine. That will create BITWISE.dll in the BIN folder.
The Utilities folder contains C# program CobolBitwiseGen that generates the copybook BITWISEW used by the BITWISE program.
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BITWISET: This program tests the BITWISE subroutine.
To compile and run it from VS Code, click on BITWISET.cob and select Terminal/Run Task.../Compile and Run Selected Main Program.
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CRC32: This subroutine calculates the CRC-32 checksum of the bytes in the input buffer.
To compile it from VS Code, click on CRC32.cob and select Terminal/Run Task.../Compile Selected Subroutine. That will create CRC32.dll in the BIN folder.
The Utilities folder contains C# program CobolBitwiseGen that generates the copybook CRC32W used by the CRC32 program.
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CRC32T: This program tests the CRC32 subroutine.
To compile and run it from VS Code, click on CRC32T.cob and select Terminal/Run Task.../Compile and Run Selected Main Program.
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HEXDUMP: This subroutine converts the bytes in the input buffer to their hexadecimal representation in the output buffer.
To compile it from VS Code, click on HEXDUMP.cob and select Terminal/Run Task.../Compile Selected Subroutine. That will create HEXDUMP.dll in the BIN folder.
The Utilities folder contains C# program CobolBitwiseGen that generates the copybook HEXDUMPW used by the HEXDUMP program.
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TRNSLAT: This subroutine converts the bytes in the input buffer to their hexadecimal representation in the output buffer.
To compile it from VS Code, click on TRNSLAT.cob and select Terminal/Run Task.../Compile Selected Subroutine. That will create TRNSLAT.dll in the BIN folder.
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TRNSLATT: This program uses subroutine TRNSLAT to convert a file from ASCII to EBCDIC.
To compile and run it from VS Code, click on TRNSLATT.cob and select Terminal/Run Task.../Compile and Run Selected Main Program.
The utilities folder contains C# program CobolTranslateGen that generates translation table copybooks to be used by a program like TRNSLATT. The programs support single byte character sets only.
- Brian D Pead - Initial work
This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE.md file for details
Many thanks to the following:
- Arnold Trembley for the GnuCOBOL builds and instructions - see https://www.arnoldtrembley.com/.
- The many developers of GnuCOBOL and its predecessors - see https://sourceforge.net/projects/open-cobol/.