COBOL2 and COBOL3 translator options

In CICS® Transaction Server for z/OS®, Version 5 Release 4 , you can choose between the COBOL2 and COBOL3 CICS translator options for COBOL programs.

Modules compiled in earlier CICS releases with the OOCOBOL translator option cannot execute in CICS Transaction Server. The OOCOBOL translator option was used for the older SOM-based (System Object Manager-based) OO COBOL, and runtime support for this form of OO COBOL was withdrawn in z/OS V1.2. The newer Java-based OO COBOL, which is used in Enterprise COBOL, is not supported by the CICS translator.

The COBOL2 option is the default. COBOL2 instructs the translator to translate as COBOL3, but in addition to include declarations of temporary variables for use in EXEC CICS and EXEC DLI requests.

Choose the COBOL2 option if you are re-translating old programs which were written in such a way that they require the use of temporary variables. In particular, note that the use of temporary variables might circumvent errors that would normally occur when an argument value in a program is incorrectly defined.

If you are confident that your programs do not need the translator's temporary variables, you may use COBOL3, which results in smaller working storage. The COBOL3 option includes all features of the older COBOL2 and ANSI85 translator options, except for declarations of temporary variables.

Note: COBOL2 and COBOL3 are mutually exclusive. If you specify both options by different methods, the COBOL3 option is always used, regardless of where the two options have been specified. If this happens, the translator issues a warning message.

For general information about translating your program and preparing it for execution, see Translation and compilation.