VS COBOL II

From a conversion standpoint, VS COBOL II and Enterprise COBOL Version 5 or Version 6 have the following language differences:
  • Removal of CMPR2 support
  • Behavior of some SEARCH ALL statements
  • New reserved words
  • Simplified TEST compiler option
  • Removal of runtime support for SIMVRD
  • Removal of support for the format 2 declarative syntax: USE...AFTER...LABEL PROCEDURE..., and the syntax: GO TO MORE-LABELS.

A complete list of reserved words, including those reserved for object-oriented COBOL is included in COBOL reserved word comparison.

If upgrading from VS COBOL II Release 3, there are also three minor language differences due to ANSI interpretation changes. Aside from these small differences, you can compile with Enterprise COBOL without change and receive the same results. For details, see Upgrading VS COBOL II source programs.

VS COBOL II Release 2 programs are coded to the 74 COBOL Standard as are VS COBOL II programs compiled with the CMPR2 compiler option. The CMPR2 compiler option is not supported by Enterprise COBOL, requiring source conversion for all VS COBOL II Release 1 or 2 programs as well as any VS COBOL II Release 3 or 4 programs that were compiled with CMPR2. Conversion tools can help you upgrade your source programs to 85 COBOL Standard. Details of language differences between CMPR2 and NOCMPR2 are included in Migrating from the CMPR2 compiler option to NOCMPR2.

For details about the conversion tools available to upgrade source programs, see Conversion tools for source programs.