Palo Alto, CA, May 18, 1992 -- Micro Focus is shipping version 3.0 of Micro
Focus COBOL, the industry-leading PC COBOL compiler and code debugger. A
complete compiler product for developers, Micro Focus COBOL 3.0 provides
access to all PC functions and interfaces, including Presentation Manager
and Microsoft Windows, from a high-level business application language. It
contains critical elements for enterprise computing such as network file
handling, cross systems support and the highest level ANSI standard
syntax. In addition, Micro Focus COBOL 3.0 understands SQL syntax and
supports DOS/VS COBOL, VS COBOL II and OS/VS COBOL dialects, among others.
Micro Focus COBOL 3.0 also includes Animator, Micro Focus' comprehensive
visual debugging tool.

This latest release of Micro Focus COBOL delivers enhancements in all areas
that improve the performance and portability of the compiled code and the
usability of the tools. Major highlights are the multi-platform
development of the technology, many Animator enhancements, Btrieve file
interfaces, faster object code and faster compiles.

Multi-Platform Technology 

Micro Focus COBOL 3.0 is being developed simultaneously for use on five
leading development environments: DOS, Microsoft Windows, OS/2, SCO UNIX
386 and RS/6000 AIX. Support for DOS, Windows and OS/2 are being delivered
May 29,1992 in one product, with SCO UNIX 386 and RS/6000 AIX versions
shipped as separate products in the coming months.

"This release of Micro Focus COBOL reflects our commitment to the UNIX
environment in general, as well as to creating and maintaining a common
technology across multiple operating systems," said Doug Brown, Divisional
Products Manager, Micro Focus. "In the past, our DOS and OS/2 technology
has had a significant lead over our UNIX technology; with this release, we
have brought the same level of technology to the UNIX environment,
releasing products for our five lead platforms almost simultaneously. As
technology advances, we strive to continue providing our customers with
new features. This led us to create the intermediate code level which
allows users to categorize the level of technology they have on each
environment. Once a developer knows the technology level of his target
environments, he can code applications accordingly, and we provide a guide
to help him."

Micro Focus offers intermediate code compatibility, with intermediate code
level (INTLEVEL) defined for all Micro Focus products. Higher INTLEVEL
products are capable of producing lower level INTLEVEL code.
Cross-platform developers can select the appropriate INTLEVEL for their
code and are assured of function support and compatibility across multiple
environments. In addition, an INTLEVEL guide is provided to aid developers
in selecting features for a particular INTLEVEL. Micro Focus is already
shipping INTLEVEL support for many platforms. Source code compatibility is
provided across Micro Focus Compilers, which are available on all leading
UNIX platforms.

Animator 

Animator is an advanced source code debugging tool, containing all the
features required to locate program bugs and fix them quickly. By
presenting the code and data to programmers in a highly visual manner,
Animator helps them gain a better understanding of the code. With the
release of Micro Focus COBOL 3.0, Animator has been enhanced to aid
debugging productivity. Features which have been added include mouse
functionality, the ability to monitor multiple data items, each displayed
in on-screen windows that can be sized, hidden and automatically arranged,
and the ability to watch the program executing at controllable speeds
displaying values of data items before and after each statement is
executed. In addition, execution can be interrupted when a particular data
item changes (breakpoints on data items) and users can enter several lines
of COBOL code to be attached and executed before a particular line is
executed.

Enhanced Btrieve File Interfaces 

Micro Focus COBOL 3.0 supports Btrieve in two significant ways. First, with
Micro Focus COBOL, programmers can write regular COBOL syntax which can
access Btrieve files. Micro Focus COBOL contains an interface module which
can direct COBOL I/O to Novell's Btrieve, which can be configured on a
per-file, per-program or per-application level. Second, Micro Focus
provides a module which can intercept CALLs to Btrieve and direct them to
the Micro Focus filehandler, transparent to the user. Applications which
currently use Btrieve for their file support can convert to using the
Micro Focus file system and gain the benefits of features such as
Fileshare V2, Micro Focus' network transaction-based file handling
product. Also included is the REBUILD utility which can convert Btrieve
format to Micro Focus format.

Faster, Smaller Object Code 

Many areas of object code have been optimized resulting in program
performance improvements varying from 5 to 40%, depending on the program.
Areas which will see the greatest improvements are CALLs to particular
sub-programs, computational operations and subscripting of large data.
Size of object code has been reduced by about 5% with further savings at
run time of around 900 bytes per file opened.

Faster Compiles 

Time to compile programs for Animation (the most common type of compile)
has been reduced by 25%, bringing the compile speed on a 486 machine to
around 70,000 lines per minute.

32-bit Architecture 

Micro Focus continues to support 32-bit architecture even for programs
running on 16-bit operating systems. This means that items such as
records, tables, elementary data items and procedure codes are not bound
by 64K limits. The COBOL system takes care of the segment boundaries on
the 16-bit operating systems in a way that is totally transparent to the
programmer.

SQL Syntax Support 

The Micro Focus COBOL Compiler understands SQL syntax, which means that
programmers working with OS/2 Database Manager or Microsoft SQL Server
don't need to precompile their COBOL code. In addition, Micro Focus COBOL
3.0 works with the following databases: Gupta, Netware SQL, Oracle and
XDB. SQL products supported in the UNIX environments include Informix,
Ingres, Oracle, Progress, Unify and Sybase.

Pricing and Availability 

List prices from $750 for the DOS, OS/2 and Windows version, Micro Focus
COBOL 3.0 is available immediately. A free upgrade is available to
existing users who subscribe to Micro Focus' Maintenance and Priority
Support program and is available for $100 to users not on maintenance.
Micro Focus COBOL is IBM's AD/Cycle COBOL for the workstation platform and
is the basis for Microsoft COBOL. Micro Focus COBOL is available on all
leading UNIX platforms and is the choice of more than 70% of the PC COBOL
business community.

Micro Focus is the leading developer of COBOL compilers and programmer
productivity tools for business application development. Micro Focus
products are available on micro, mini and mainframe computer systems and
support many standard and proprietary operating systems. The company
developed the first National Bureau of Standards-certified ANSI'85 COBOL
compiler. Micro Focus COBOL also conforms to the IBM Systems Applications
Architecture (SAA) standard, the X/Open standard, and is FIPS PUB 21-2
compliant. Micro Focus is a member of the IBM International Alliance for
AD/Cycle. 

Micro Focus Inc. 2465 East Bayshore Rd, Palo Alto, CA 94303
(415) 856-4161    Fax: (415) 856-6134

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