Changes in IBM Enterprise COBOL for z/OS®, Version 6 Release 1 with PTFs installed

New, changed, and removed compiler options

• The following compiler options are new:
  • PI68226: INITCHECK
  • PI71625: NUMCHECK
  • PI78089: PARMCHECK
  • PI77981: INLINE
  • PI96231: COPYLOC
• The following compiler options are modified:
  • PI68023 and PI81838: NOSTGOPT: The default behaviour of the NOSTGOPT compiler option has been changed.
  • PI74933: SSRANGE: New suboptions MSG and ABD are added to the SSRANGE compiler option to control how the compiler checks reference modification lengths.
  • PI98996: NUMCHECK(PAC): For packed decimal (COMP-3) data items that have an even number of digits, the unused bits are checked for zeros.
  • PH01251: NUMCHECK(ZON): New suboptions ALPHNUM | NOALPHNUM are added to the NUMCHECK(ZON) option to control whether the compiler will generate code for an implicit numeric class test for zoned decimal data items that are being compared with an alphanumeric data item, alphanumeric literal or alphanumeric figurative constant.
  • PH13943: NUMCHECK(BIN): NUMCHECK(BIN) will check for binary data items (COMP, COMP-4, and USAGE BINARY) even when TRUNC(BIN) is in effect.
  • PH24414: INITCHECK: New suboptions LAX | STRICT are added to the INITCHECK option to control whether the compiler will issue warning messages for data items unless they are initialized on at least one, or on all, logical paths to a statement.
  • Runtime APAR PH20569(V2R2/V2R3/V2R4): The included DWARF diagnostic information when TEST(NOSEPARATE) is effect can be extracted from the LLA/VLF managed programs.
• The following compiler option is removed:
  • PI71625: ZONECHECK is deprecated but is tolerated for compatibility, and it is replaced by NUMCHECK(ZON).

New and changed statements

• PI71621: The JSON GENERATE statement is redesigned and improved.
• PI92944: A new LOC(24|31) phrase is added to the ALLOCATE statement to control the location of dynamic storage that is acquired, which overrides the influence of the DATA compiler option when determining the location of dynamic storage that is acquired.
• PI96231: As the new compiler option COPYLOC is introduced, the COPY statement is updated.
• Runtime APARs PH20569(V2R2) and PH21261(V2R3/V2R4): A new runtime option (IGZCOMPAT) for MERGE statement is introduced to obtain support for DFSORT option NOBLKSET and the conventional merge method for Enterprise COBOL V5 or later versions.

Migration assistance

• Runtime APAR PH25917: A new option QSAMBUFFINITCHAR is added to the IGZUOPT module that allows you to control the initial character used for QSAM buffer initialization. (Controlling initialization of QSAM buffer (IGZ4OPT))

COBOL/JNI interface enhancement