HP 3000 Manuals HP 3000 Manuals
Chapter 1 Introduction
The COBOL Language
COBOL (COmmon Business Oriented Language) is the programming language
most widely and extensively used in commercial and administrative data
processing.
This COBOL implementation is a superset of ANSI COBOL
1974 and ANSI COBOL 1985 as specified in American National Standard
Programming Language COBOL: ANSI X3.23-1974 and ANSI X3.23-1985.
Language extensions include:
* Most of the more commonly used extensions of IBM OS/VS COBOL
(Release 2.3 and later).
* Most of the language constructs of IBM VS COBOL
II (all releases), IBM DOS/VS COBOL and COBOL/370.
* X/Open conforming extensions.
* Extensions specific to this system.
Combinations of these extensions are permissible in program source. In
addition a "flagging" option to identify the various language extensions
in COBOL source programs ensures that programs can be verified as being
valid for any given one of the language specifications.
Note: This manual documents the COBOL language as
supported by this product. This language was known
as VS COBOL in some earlier versions of the
product. Where the word COBOL is used without
qualification or the term VS COBOL is used in this
manual or any associated manuals, they each refer
to the language supported by this product. Where
other versions of COBOL are referenced they will
always be qualified: for example, VS COBOL II or
ANSI'85 COBOL.
The ANSI COBOL 1974 and 1985 modules that are fully
implemented are:
* Nucleus
* Table Handling (In the Nucleus as of the ANSI'85 Standard)
* Sequential I/O
* Relative I/O
* Indexed I/O
* Sort-Merge
* Segmentation
* Library/Source Text Manipulation
* Inter-Program Communication
* Debug
* Report Writer
* Communications (Full ANSI'74 support and ANSI'85 syntax support.)
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|(ANS85) |
| |
| |
| * Intrinsic Functions |
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This COBOL system meets the certification requirements for the above
modules of The COBOL Compiler Validation System (CCVS) of the U.S.
Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology.
A number of additional enhancements to the COBOL language are also
present:
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|(MF) |
| |
| |
| * A screen-handling module, comprising a Screen Section and |
| additional formats of ACCEPT and DISPLAY statements, which |
| enable the user to specify exact location of fields on a |
| screen, accept data entered at specified positions, display |
| literal text at specified positions, define screen attributes, |
| and control console features. |
| |
| * Enhanced file I/O with an additional Organization to handle |
| text-files efficiently; optional definition of file-names |
| either within a program source (data variable or literal) or at|
| run-time from operating system environment variables; multiuser|
| file-sharing facilities. |
| |
| * Systems programming extension which enhances interlanguage |
| calls and supports recursive COBOL programs. |
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