HP 3000 Manuals HP 3000 Manuals
Documentation
The extensive documentation provided with this product ensures that users
with special or advanced requirements can find the information they need.
For normal use of the product you need read only a small part of the
documentation. This section describes the structure of the documentation
and where to look for what you want.
There are books of several types:
* Getting Started - this is all you need to start using the product.
It guides you through installing the system, and through producing
and running a program.
* User Guide - contains advice on certain components and topics to
enable you to get the best from the system.
* Reference - contains a chapter for each tool or major feature in
the system. Each chapter covers its topic in detail.
There is on-line documentation of several types:
* On-line Reference - an on-line quick reference guide containing
essential information about syntax and formats.
* On-line Help - screens giving brief information about the function
keys available at the point in the software where you are.
* On-disk Documents - text files which supplement the information in
the books
The books for the two products COBOL and Toolbox together form the
complete documentation set for COBOL Toolbox.
In general, each component has its own chapter in the COBOL System
Reference or the Toolbox Operating Guide; the chapters are in
alphabetical order. Which book a component is described in depends on
whether it is part of COBOL or Toolbox. See the chapter Introduction in
your Toolbox Operating Guide for a list of which components are
documented in which book.
See also the section On-disk Documents.
Descriptions of Books
The books supplied with COBOL Toolbox are as follows:
* This Getting Started with Toolbox introduces the system, briefly
explains its features and leads you through installing it.
* The COBOL User Guide describes the COBOL development cycle and
creation of linked applications. Efficiency and many other
aspects of using this system are also covered.
* The COBOL System Reference contains complete operating information
for each component of the Micro Focus COBOL system. It contains
one chapter for each component.
* The Pocket Guide is a pocket-sized quick reference guide, listing
directives, COBOL syntax and other information about the system.
* The Language Reference gives a detailed description of the basic
COBOL language supported by the system, including Micro Focus
COBOL, ANSI'74, ANSI'85, X/Open, IBM OS/VS COBOL, IBM VS COBOL II,
IBM DOS/VS COBOL and other extensions.
* The Language Reference - Additional Topics gives a detailed
description of the more advanced features of the COBOL language
supported by the system.
* The Error Messages lists and explains the error messages you might
receive when compiling, generating, and running a program. It
suggests possible causes and how to correct them.
* The Compatibility Guide gives information helpful in converting
applications from certain other COBOL dialects. It describes the
file conversion programs supplied, gives details of COBOL language
that you may need to alter, and lists differences between versions
of products.
* TheToolbox Operating Guide describes use of the Toolbox
Development Environment and gives complete operating information
for each component of Toolbox and of the OSX.
*
The Master Index and Glossary combines all the book indexes to
provide a single index to all the books.
* The On-line Reference is a quick reference guide which is viewed
on your screen. It contains directives, COBOL syntax, and other
information about the system. The software that displays it uses
hypertext technology which allows you to follow your own route
through a hierarchy of topics and to follow cross-references
across the hierarchy. You can access this information from the
operating system command line and from within certain components
such as the COBOL Editor.
Generic Books
Several of these books are generic, that is, they are the same on both
the UNIX version of this COBOL system and the version for DOS, Windows
and OS/2. They are:
* Language Reference
* Language Reference - Additional Topics
* Error Messages
* Compatibility Guide
These books can be used with the Micro Focus COBOL system on all
supported environments.
In addition, some books contain some chapters that are generic. These
chapters are indicated in the introduction to each book. In a generic
chapter, any information that is specific to a particular environment is
indicated by a side-heading.
This will be helpful when you are designing cross-platform applications,
as you can see at once which features can be used on all environments and
which cannot.
The chapter Configuring Development Tools in this Getting Started book is
an example of a generic chapter.
Notation
A standard notation for representing the syntax of commands is defined in
the prefaces to the books, in a section that is generic to the books for
DOS, Windows and OS/2 and those for UNIX. Wherever possible the books use
this notation. Where special requirements make it necessary to use a
different notation, the notation is explained in the place where it is
used.
You may wish to look at the Preface to this book now to familiarize
yourself with the standard notation.
The Glossary
In the books, it is not always possible to define a term when it is first
used, as readers may skip that passage in going straight to the passage
containing the information they are looking for. Definitions of most
terms have been collected in the Glossary in the Master Index and
Glossary book.
On-disk Documents
Information about COBOL Toolbox that became available too late to go in
the printed books is presented in on-disk documents. These documents are
plain ASCII text files, and can be accessed using a text editor or
operating system commands.
There are two kinds of on-disk documents: release notes and on-disk
supplements (ODSs). A release note contains individual entries giving
technical or administrative information. An on-disk supplement is a
complete chapter, or section for a chapter, forming the main
documentation for a component.
The most important release notes are:
* Main Release Notes - gives details of any known restrictions in
the software; this document is often called simply the Release
Notes
* Documentation Update Notes - gives changes to the documentation
These files are in the docs subdirectory of your COBOL system directory.
Release Notes also document where the version of COBOL Toolbox as
supplied differs from the books.
To find your way around the on-disk documents, start at the Main Release
Notes, which lists all their titles and file-names. Its file-name is
main.1.