Micro Focus Widens its Lead as the Best All-Around Development Environment
for the PC and Mainframe

Micro Focus unveils latest version of popular COBOL Workbench

May 9, 1994, Micro Focus User Conference, San Francisco, CA -- Here at its
sixth annual User Conference, Micro Focus announced version 3.2 of the
Micro Focus COBOL Workbench for Windows, OS/2 and DOS. Micro Focus COBOL
Workbench v3.2 is a comprehensive, integrated suite of programmer
productivity tools designed to facilitate the development and maintenance
of high-quality, industrial-strength enterprise applications. Workbench
v3.2 is a true GUI development and maintenance environment. It is ideally
suited for developing cross-platform and client/server applications and
off-loading mainframe development and maintenance. With version 3.2, Micro
Focus has made a number of usability and performance enhancements that
significantly improve ease-of-use. New features include an enhanced source
code debugger (Animator v2), the addition of graphical data tools, native
look and feel under Windows, expanded mixed language support and support
for Micro Focus Object COBOL Option.

Ease-of-Use

The most obvious ease-of-use improvements are in the Animator v2 debugger.
Animator v2 now supports multiple windows, selectable fonts, syntax
colorization and command line control and compiler dialogs for directive
control, making it more intuitive to use. A new "suggest word" feature
uses fuzzy logic to suggest the most likely data-name or paragraph-name
when typing in a COBOL statement. Program understanding and navigation
tools are more accessible within Animator v2 as they provide the ability
to quickly move around a program and identify where procedure and data
names are called and reserved words are used. Coverage analysis tools are
now part of Animator v2 enabling customers to identify all lines of code
executed in their program as well as those that have been skipped for more
thorough debugging and testing.

"Programmers spend about 80% of their time in the develop, debug and test
cycle. With Workbench 3.2, we are streamlining this process by enabling
programmers to access all of the tools they require for developing,
debugging and testing applications from a single window," said Peter Katz,
vice president of marketing for Micro Focus. "We aren't just providing a
new graphical interface to character tools; we are providing a true GUI
development and maintenance environment. In doing so, we help users
achieve greater throughput by reducing the steps required to navigate this
reiterative cycle. It is the only development tool of this kind on the
market."

Integrated Data Management Tools

Unique to Workbench 3.2 are the integrated graphical and character-based
tools for file transfer, file conversion and file maintenance. Data
structures are defined quickly and simply using COBOL copybooks or the
COBOL program. The graphical cataloging facility provides the ability to
store and relate data structures and file information with specific files.
The graphical file filtering tool uses an SQL-like language to help users
select data subsets for creating new files without the need to write a new
COBOL program.

Native Windows and OS/2 Support

The ability to work in a native environment means programmers can work in
an environment with a look and feel with which they are already familiar
and comfortable, reducing the learning curve. Usability feature
enhancements include File Open and other standard dialogs as well as the
ability to customize tool bars and other parts of the user interface.

Enhancements have been made so that the native Windows help system is used
in the Windows environment. Tools are also provided to allow users to
create generic, cross-platform help for their own applications and to
create Windows Help (.HLP) files automatically, allowing existing
applications to use Windows Help without modification to the application
source.

Expanded Mixed Language Support

Users can now develop mixed language applications in Visual C++ and
PowerBuilder that directly interface to COBOL programs. A new version of
the facility which converts C header (.h) files to COBOL copy files
(H2CPY) provides enhanced support for converting macros, function
prototypes, external data definitions and C typedef to COBOL typedef
structures. COBOL applications can also include C header files,
simplifying the task of including C-only examples provided for many
operating system APIs.

Support for Object-Oriented COBOL

With support for Object COBOL syntax, users can now develop fully
object-oriented COBOL applications. Object COBOL Option enables users to
take full advantage of the benefits that object-orientation offers while
still programming in COBOL to provide increased productivity and
reusability along with incremental migration from existing COBOL
applications. Full ObjectOriented COBOL execution support and object
browser are available in the Object COBOL Option for Micro Focus COBOL
Workbench (introductory product), shipping Q2 1994.

Improved Fileshare Handling Across Networks

New features for file handling expand the power and performance of customer
applications. Micro Focus Fileshare, a high-performance application file
server for multi-user applications running on networks, has been enhanced
to increase the throughput in file I/O across networks. "Some of our Beta
customers have realized as much as 2 to 1 gains in throughput using the
new version of Fileshare for OS/2," said Dan Gilliland, workbench product
manager.

On-Line Tutorials for GUI Components

Workbench 3.2 includes on-line tutorials that provide users with a quick
explanation of the tools included in the product and how to use them.
These tutorials are designed to help make programmers more productive with
new tools more quickly. On-line tutorials now exist for GUI Workbench,
Animator v2 and Micro Focus File Transfer.

Pricing and Availability

The entire Micro Focus COBOL Workbench v3.2 package is list priced at $2500
and will be available in late June.

Micro Focus provides state-of-the-art programming tools and technology that
empower application developers while leveraging available resources. Micro
Focus is a leading provider of tools for rightsizing, cross-platform
development and deployment, client/server computing and off-loading
mainframe development and maintenance of mission-critical applications.
Micro Focus is located at 2465 East Bayshore Road, Palo Alto, Calif.
94303. Telephone: 415-8564161.

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