The end of service dates for IBM Enterprise COBOL for z/OS v4 and v5 were recently announced . Clients who are currently using these versions of the compiler are encouraged to plan and start their migration to COBOL v6 as soon as possible. There are 29 months to complete the migration before COBOL v4 goes out of service in September 2021. Plan your migration by attending a free COBOL Migration and Performance workshop - register  here . If the dates currently available do not work for you, bookmark the registration page and check back later for... [More]

Starting with the IBM Automatic Binary Optimizer for z/OS (ABO) V1.3 continuous delivery PTF,  released Jan 27, 2019 , you can now use ABO to optimize modules built with the CMPR2 compiler option.  The CMPR2 compiler option was available in COBOL compilers VS COBOL II V3 up to COBOL for OS/390®  V2 and allowed COBOL code conforming to the 74 COBOL standard to be successfully compiled.  Enterprise COBOL does not support this option and requires that code is migrated to the 85 COBOL standard.  Clients with programs compiled with the CMPR2 option... [More]

Feb 21st at 1pm CT: Lamar Woods from IBM will share " The 6 W's of The Automatic Binary Optimizer " (Give COBOL a Kick in the Binaries) Register for the webinar  here  

On Feb 5, 2019, IBM announced the end of service dates  ( revised announcement here ) for Enterprise COBOL v4.2, Enterprise COBOL v5.1, Enterprise COBOL v5.2 and ABO v1.2.    Products to be withdrawn from service on April 30, 2020: IBM Enterprise COBOL for z/OS                                 5.1.x    5655-W32 IBM Enterprise COBOL Developer Trial for z/OS        5.1.x    5655-TRY IBM Enterprise COBOL for z/OS                                 5.2.0    5655-W32 IBM Enterprise COBOL Developer Trial for z/OS        5.2.0    5655-TRY IBM Enterprise... [More]

The IBM Automatic Binary Optimizer for z/OS, V1.3 Knowledge Center got refreshed in January 2019. Updates mainly include: Adds support for COBOL modules that are built with the CMPR2 compiler option. (See COBOL language feature and compiler option support ) Adds information on alternate ABO invocations. (See Invoking ABO from TSO, REXX and assembler code ) Adds information on required record format for OPTLOG and OPTERR, and the data sets specified by the LOG option. (See LOG and JCL sample ) Clarifies the IEFOPZ configuration activation steps.... [More]

Tags:  doc_refresh abo

The  COBOL for AIX, V5.1.0.7 Fix Pack (December 2018)  is now available at the following links and on  Fix Central : CO B O L  f o r  A I X, V5 . 1 .0 .7  F i x   P a c k  (December  2 01 8 ) CO B O L Runtime  f o r  A I X, V5 . 1 .0 .7  F i x   P a c k  (December  2 01 8 ) F i x   l i s t   f o r   C O B O L   f o r   A I X Fixed APARs are listed on the 'Fix list' page, along with links to all COBOL for AIX Fix Packs.  Please... [More]

  Question: After upgrading from a COBOL for AIX version prior to V4.1.1, the COBOL COBRTOPT command no longer parses an  entire EBCDIC input file. Why does it parse only the first record and just end as if it only has one record?  This used to work with the older compiler version such as V4.1.0.   Answer: The reason why the test case only reads 1 record, is because of a design change in COBOL for AIX, V4.1.1 (and later) when the FILESYS(RSD) file-system is specified.     Each record would be read by... [More]

Enterprise COBOL for z/OS, V6.2, V6.1, V5.2, and V5.1.1 documentation are refreshed today, to include the following enhancements:   Enhancements for V6.2 with PTFs installed (For a complete list of Enterprise COBOL PTFs, check http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27041164 ): In Enterprise COBOL V6.2 with PTF for APAR PH04369 installed, RULES(NOEVENPACK) will not issue messages for even-digit PACKED-DECIMAL data items whose names start with DFH, DSN, EYU or SQL, that is, data items generated for/by CICS and Db2. For details, see:... [More]

Tags:  kc_refresh doc_refresh cobol-for-zos

  Problem: Clients are facing issues when trying to use the Watch Breakpoint functionality of the IBM Debugger while debugging a COBOL for AIX program. The issue is that the Watch Breakpoint never triggers when it is supposed too.   Description: Let me begin by briefly describing what Watch Breakpoints are: Watch breakpoints are breakpoints that users can set in the IBM Debugger to monitor changes in the data  at a specific memory address. Watch Breakpoints are triggered when execution changes data in that specific memory address... [More]

Watch this demo to know how to use IBM Doc Buddy V2.2 to find COBOL messages, search COBOL documentation in IBM Knowledge Center, read COBOL whitepapers and presentations, as well as reading COBOL influencer (Tom Ross)'s blogs. Refer to the timestamps below to navigate to specific topics. 0:10 Find messages and solutions 0:37 Get red alerts 1:07 Find product documentation in IBM KC 1:50 Find the latest technical sessions and download whitepapers 2:25 Read blogs and watch videos  

Tags:  doc_buddy

Enterprise COBOL for z/OS, V6.2, V6.1, V5.2, and V5.1.1 documentation are refreshed today, to include the following enhancements:   Enhancements for V6.2 with PTFs installed (For a complete list of Enterprise COBOL PTFs, check http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27041164 ) : In Enterprise COBOL V6.2 with PTF for APAR PH02183 installed: The following intrinsic functions are added as IBM extensions: BIT-TO-CHAR HEX-TO-CHAR The following intrinsic functions are added as IBM extensions: ABS BYTE-LENGTH EXP EXP10 NUMVAL-F SIGN... [More]

Tags:  kc_refresh doc_refresh cobol-for-zos

The IBM Automatic Binary Optimizer for z/OS, V1.3 Knowledge Center got refreshed in September. Updates mainly include: Adds a new optimizer option, LOG, to allow generating additional member-level log files into a particular data set. (See LOG ) Adds a binder APAR, OA55985, to the list of PTFs that are required on the systems where ABO is running. (See Supported operating systems ) Adds the severity indicator (I, W, E, S, or U) to each ABO message. (See Messages ) Adds messages BOZ4120S and BOZ4121S, and updates messages BOZ1409S, BOZ1446U.... [More]

Tags:  abo doc_refresh

Find COBOL and ABO information with IBM Doc Buddy V2.2 IBM Doc Buddy V2.2 now lets you easily find all latest COBOL/ABO information at anytime anywhere. No matter you want to search the COBOL/ABO messages in an offline scenario or you want to find the latest COBOL/ABO information published in the IBM Knowledge Center, IBM Doc Buddy is your best choice!    Watch this demo at  https://ibm.box.com/s/pd6h46abognaev158bai3e2tm93zouag to know more about how to use IBM Doc Buddy V2.2 to find COBOL messages, search COBOL documentation in... [More]

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Enterprise COBOL for z/OS, V6.2, V6.1, V5.2, and V5.1 documentation are refreshed today, to include the following enhancements:   Enhancements for V6.2 and V6.1 with PTFs installed (For a complete list of Enterprise COBOL PTFs, check http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27041164 ) : In Enterprise COBOL V6.2 with PTF for APAR PI99703 installed: The following intrinsic functions are added as IBM extensions: BIT-OF ( https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SS6SG3_6.2.0/com.ibm.cobol62.ent.doc/PGandLR/ref/rlinfbit.html ) HEX-OF (... [More]

Tags:  kc_refresh doc_refresh