Notes on COBOL6
by Neil Jennings, TRANTOR Ltd


INSTALLATION

       Copy UNARJ.EXE and COBOL6.ARJ to the current directory and
       use
          UNARJ e COBOL6
       to extract the files. Then refer to READ.ME.
       There is a further archive (COBOL6-2.ZIP) which contains sample
       COBOL source. It can be expanded by using PKUNZIP (not supplied)

PREPARING THE SOURCE

       This is a useful COBOL compiler for learners and for small
       programs, and works well.

       However, it has a number of minor restrictions, for example

          It does not accept the noise word THEN, as in IF-THEN-ELSE

          Each 01 level is limited to 4095 bytes

          The number of occurrences of an array element is restricted


       The compiler occasionally has difficulty in recognising
       the end of a source file. Symptoms include the appearance of
       garbage or duplicated code at the end of the compiler
       listing, and/or errors about invalid characters in column 7
       etc.

       This can be overcome by using a HEX editor to place one or
       more hex '1a' characters at the end of the text. You may also
       be able to get the same effect by using holding down ALT and
       pressing 0 2 6 on the NUMERIC keypad (NOT the top line of the
       keyboard), if your text editor allows this method of entry of
       non-keyboard characters.

       Note that when COBFORM creates a reformatted source, it
       automatically inserts a line containing this character at
       the end of the source file, so there should be no problem
       unless you subsequently edit that file.

COMPILING

       The compiler only gives you 25 compiles, then you have to
       reinstall. This can be overcome by copying the file COBOL.LIC
       to a backup, and restoring before each compile.
       (COBOL650 does not have this restriction)

       It also expects to find its files on drive A, so you must
       use ASSIGN A C (assuming that is is on C:) before compiling.

       Note that ASSIGN seems to have been deleted from MS-DOS 6

       Try using the DPATH utility supplied with COBOL650 instead?

LINKING

       COBOL6 only produces OBJ files - you need a linker to link them
       and create an executable (EXE) file.

       Example:

          LINK  a+b+c;

       will link a.obj, b.obj and c.obj giving a.exe

       LINK has many more parameters, refer to a manual for details. it
       may need to be given the name of the COBOL library to include
       library modules.

