HP 3000 Manuals HP 3000 Manuals
Component List
The following is an alphabetical list of all of the major components of
COBOL Toolbox.
Most of these can be accessed from within COBOL Toolbox's integrated
environment, but a few can be run only from the operating system prompt.
Analyzer
Analyzer monitors the frequency of execution of COBOL statements; this
enables you to perform a coverage analysis. Analyzer can run either when
you are using Advanced Animator (where the execution counts are displayed
upon your screen) or when your program is running at full speed (where it
produces a report of statement execution).
See also the entry for the GNT Analyzer.
Animator
The Animator is a testing tool. It displays your source code on the
screen and allows you to step through your program or execute it at a
controlled speed. It highlights each statement as it is executed. You
can start and stop execution, reset the position in the program, set
breakpoints, query and change data items, monitor several data items at
once, enter COBOL statements to execute, and interact with your program
in many different ways.
The version included with Toolbox is called Advanced Animator, and has
the additional features provided by Structure Animator and Analyzer. You
can switch these off if you want, thus getting Animator as in Micro Focus
COBOL.
It also gives access to COBOL Source Information to give you extensive
information about your source code and the ability to navigate your
program efficiently.
See also the entry for Base Animator.
Application Configuration System
The Application Configuration System allows programs to make use of a
standard configuration technique to control their behavior. This program
is extensively used by COBOL Toolbox itself and enables you to configure
many of the tools described here.
Base Animator
The Base Animator is for use when you do not have enough memory to use
the full Animator. It has all the same basic facilities, but some are
restricted; for example, you can monitor only one data item at a time,
and information such as the values of data items is displayed on the
bottom line of the screen instead of in windows.
See also the entry for Animator.
Callable File Handler
The Callable File Handler is an interface to the File Handler enabling
you to call it from your program using CALL statements (see the entry for
the File Handler).
This gives you low-level control over files of all COBOL organizations,
so you can write sophisticated file and database handling programs. You
can also use it to access COBOL format files from other languages, such
as C or Assembler.
Callable Sort Module
The Callable Sort Module is a stand-alone sort routine which enables you
to sort and reorder data files. It is faster than the default COBOL sort
mechanism. The CALL interface provides greater flexibility in sorting
data and enables you to substitute alternative sort modules.
Co-Writer
Co-Writer provides access to COBOL data files without the need to write
programs to read and format the data. It can quickly and flexibly
produce varied reports from any set of indexed files. The component
includes flexible reporting on data files and databases, including file
sorting. There is a full screen interface for screen painting. Report
features include the ability to generate totals, summaries, headers,
footers, and page numbering. A data dictionary provides the interface
between Co-Writer and the files.
Co-Writer has three parts:
* Co-Writer Builder is the component that you use to construct the
data dictionary.
* Co-Writer Designer enables you to design reports for your
application users based on the data dictionary constructed by
Co-Writer Builder. Reports are output immediately, with no
compilation step, to the screen, file, or printer.
* Co-Writer Reporter enables your users to output the reports that
you have designed to a file or printer. Co-Writer Reporter is
activated from the command line or from an application program.
cob command
The cob command invokes all stages of compiling, generating and linking a
COBOL application, including COBOL programs, C routines, assembler
routines, and system libraries.
COBOL Editor
The COBOL Editor is an editor designed for the COBOL programmer. It is
tailored for the creation of COBOL source programs, but can also be used
for creating documentation and other text files.
You can invoke the Compiler and Animator from within the COBOL Editor, so
it is an integrated environment for processing source code. You also
have access to COBOL Source Information for more information about your
programs, and the On-line Reference for more information about the COBOL
language and system.
COBOL Source Information
The COBOL Source Information (CSI) functions let you perform a static
analysis of your program source. The information provided includes
extensive information about data items, COPY-files, sections and
paragraphs in your program. These functions allow you to find your way
around your source very quickly and are particularly useful for
maintenance of existing programs. This information is available from
within the COBOL Editor and Animator.
cobrun command
As an alternative to linking, you can have the Compiler produce your
object code in a .gnt or .int file. You run this file using the cobrun
command, which loads run-time support modules as necessary.
COBOL System Library Routines
The COBOL system library routines can be called directly from your
program, providing many operations not available in the COBOL language
itself.
COBOL Toolbox has additional routines over those supplied in Micro Focus
COBOL. The extra routines provide features needed for cross-system
compatibility, such as generic screen attributes.
Common Communications Interface
The Common Communications Interface (CCI) provides a standard mechanism
for communicating over networks using a variety of protocols. A program
written to work with CCI will work with any of the protocols supported by
CCI, simply by interchanging modules.
Communications Module
The Communications Module, also known as the Message Control System, is
the logical interface between a COBOL program and the consoles to be
controlled by the program.
Compiler
The Compiler checks that your program is valid COBOL and converts it into
intermediate code in an.int file to be interpreted by Animator or the
Run-time System.
DCE Support
Support for the Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) is included for
certain UNIX environments; see your on-disk documentation for details.
To use the support you must have DCE already on your system.
DCE simplifies the development of seamless distributed applications in a
heterogeneous environment such as a network including machines using
different operating systems. It is a set of tools and services that have
been defined by the Open Software Foundation (OSF).
The Micro Focus DCE support provides:
* Tools to automate the development of DCE client/server
applicaitons written in COBOL
* Support for Remote Procedure Call (RPC) for COBOL applications
* A simple interface for COBOL programs to call the DCE RPC and
Security APIs
* An additional Micro Focus API which groups together several of the
DCE API functions, thus making it easier to write DCE applications
in COBOL
Device Handling and Terminfo Support
Device Handling and Terminfo Support enables you to use UNIX devices with
the run-time system and the run-time support modules.
Dialect Compatibility Tools
The Dialect Compatibility Tools are file conversion programs and
documentation to help you convert source programs and files from other
COBOL systems to work on this system. They cover Microsoft COBOL V2.2,
RM/COBOL, DG Interactive COBOL, and Micro Focus COBOL for DOS prior to
Micro Focus COBOL/2. They are documented in the Compatibility Guide.
Directory Facility
The Directory Facility is used by COBOL Toolbox whenever you are prompted
for a filename. It provides directory lists, listings of library files
and file contents, deletion and renaming functions. You can call it
directly from your program using CALL statements.
EBCDIC Support
The COBOL Toolbox system provides support for EBCDIC data on UNIX
systems, making the behavior of applications on your computer highly
compatible with that on IBM mainframes. When you use this option, the
program stores all data in EBCDIC, and operations such as comparisons and
sorts use the EBCDIC collating sequence.
External File-name Mapping Support
File-name mapping enables you to alter the physical file-name accessed by
your program at run time, assign files to UNIX pipes, assign the index
and data files of indexed files to different directories, and assign a
file to a printer.
File Handler
The File Handler is a module providing run-time support for COBOL files.
File Handler Utilities
The File Handler Utilities provide various functions for supporting COBOL
files. There are utilities to: convert a file to a different type;
inspect a file for consistency; build an empty indexed file; add or
delete indexes; access file and index information; reindex a corrupt
file; and reorganize an indexed file.
Fileshare Version 2
Fileshare V2 provides rapid network I/O by compressing I/O requests into
packets and sending them across network lines, so that the file
processing is done on the server that contains the files. It can also
link several files together into a logical database. You can set up a
recovery log when accessing that database, providing a high level of data
integrity.
Fileshare V2 has transaction logging which allows your user to delay
writing changes to files until all the information is complete. You can
secure these changes with a COMMIT or cancel them with a ROLLBACK.
Fileshare View and Administration Tool
The Fileshare View and Administration Tool is a remote Fileshare monitor
with password-protected supervisor options. With it you can, as
supervisor, watch and control the operation of Fileshare Version 2 on a
network.
It gives you usage statistics, and you can diagnose error conditions,
display the reference file, close the log file, close data files and
shutdown the server.
This component has a graphical user interface.
This tool is not available on all UNIX environments. See your on-disk
Release Notes to see whether it is available on your system.
Forms-2
The Forms-2 utility enables you to design, create and edit interactive
screen layouts for use with application programs that use Enhanced
ACCEPT/DISPLAY syntax.
Generator
The Generator produces optimized native machine code from the
intermediate code created when your program is compiled.
GNT Analyzer
The GNT Analyzer produces statistics about your application. It differs
from the Analyzer in that it can work on .gnt and .obj code as well as
.int code. It is not interactive, but the output from it can be viewed
from within Animator.
See also the entry for the Analyzer.
Header-to-copy
The Header-to-copy utility translates C-language header files into their
equivalent COBOL copyfiles. Its main use is to simplify COBOL
programming when using system libraries whose basic definitions are
provided only for C programs. Examples are interfaces to OS/2
Presentation Manager, Windows API, UNIX TP systems and various relational
databases on UNIX.
Help
Help provides information about the function keys on the menu you are
using. It is present as F1=help on every menu.
Help (graphical)
Help provides information about the functions available on the screen you
are using. You access it from the command line or by using the Help
pulldown available in the Fileshare View and Administration Tool.
Integrated Preprocessor Support
The Integrated Preprocessor is an extension to the Compiler. It allows
the Compiler to invoke a user-defined language processor to convert
non-COBOL syntax to COBOL syntax.
When using Animator you see the original source, as it is before
statements are altered by the preprocessor.
Library
Library is a utility that groups individual files into one file, making
them easier to administer.
Linein
The Linein program provides a simple mechanism that you can add to your
programs or menus, for entering any text string. Many components of
COBOL Toolbox use it.
Menu Handler
The Menu Handler displays and processes menus. The menus of COBOL
Toolbox itself were created using it, and you can use its facilities to
configure the menus of COBOL Toolbox. It can also be called by your
programs to enable you to present a sophisticated menu system with a
minimal amount of programming.
National Language Support
National Language Support (NLS) enables your program to adapt itself
automatically at run time to the character set, currency symbol, and
editing symbols appropriate to your user's country. It also ensures
correct collation and folding of national (for example, accented)
characters, and provides library routines to fetch messages in the
appropriate national language from a message file.
This facility depends on operating system support.
On-line Reference
The On-line Reference (OLR) is a quick reference guide that you can
display on your screen. It contains quick-reference information such as
directives and COBOL syntax, extracted from the printed books for COBOL
Toolbox.
The On-line Help System used to display the On-line Reference enables you
to find information directly or via context menus, and to browse through
the information or follow cross-references.
You can access the On-line Reference from the operating system prompt,
and also from within the COBOL Editor and the Animator.
Panels
Panels is a set of routines that your application can call to use
windowing on a character-mode screen. It allows overlapping windows,
separate or synchronized updating of text and attributes, scrolling of
text in a window, and the creation of popup or pulldown menus.
See also the entry for Panels Version 2.
Panels Version 2
Panels Version 2, like Panels, is a set of routines that your application
can call to use windowing. However, it is much more sophisticated than
Panels. It provides a complete graphical user interface which is generic
across supported environments; these include Windows, Presentation
Manager on OS/2, and Motif on UNIX. Panels V2 has a wide range of
functions to control screen display and recognizes a wide range of
events.
See also the entry for Panels.
This tool is not available on all UNIX environments. See your on-disk
Release Notes to see whether it is available on your system.
Profiler
The Profiler gives you detailed statistics on the run-time performance of
a COBOL program.
Run-time Configuration Support
Run-time Configuration Support consists of environment variables and
tunables in a run-time configuration file, whihc you can configure to
affect certain run-time behavior.
Sample Programs
Many sample programs are provided to supplement the documentation of
certain components and to demonstrate features in COBOL Toolbox.
Screen and Keyboard Configuration Tools
The screen and keyboard configuration tools are utilities you can use to
configure screen and keyboard handling to your own environment and
requirements, or to be compatible with other COBOL systems.
Screen and Keyboard Handler
The Screen and Keyboard Handler, often known as Adis, is a module that
provides run-time support for the enhanced (full screen) ACCEPT/DISPLAY
verbs and Screen Section features available with this system.
Screen Painting Utility
With Screens you can specify the layout of a form for displaying on the
screen, by typing (often called "painting") it just as it will appear.
Screens generates COBOL source code descriptions for you to include in
the Screen Section of your program. Optionally it can create a complete
program, called the Index Program, which you use to handle data via your
forms.
Session Recorder
The Session Recorder enables you to record all keystrokes and screen
images during the execution of your COBOL program. These screen images
and keystrokes can later be replayed for demonstration use or compared
with previous sets for use in the regression testing of interactive
applications.
The Session Recorder provided with Toolbox can only be used for character
mode sessions.
Structure Animator
The Structure Animator is accessed from within the Animator. It displays
the structure of the program as a block diagram in place of Animator's
display of the source. Stepping through the program executes the program
one block at a time, and Animator's debugging facilities are generally
available but operating on blocks rather than individual statements.
Toolbox Development Environment
The Toolbox Development Environment is the name given to the set of menus
through which you invoke the main components of COBOL Toolbox.
Windowing Support
Windowing Support consists of COBOL syntax which enables you to draw
lines and boxes on the screen and create virtual windows on a physical
screen. The syntax also allows underlying displays to be kept and
restored.