From Newsgroup: comp.lang.cobol

pete dashwood wrote:

... to run older versions of COBOL on modern Windows platforms, without getting any problems. (the keyword here is "virtually"; more in a
minute...)

We have been getting clients who are bitterly disappointed when they try
and port their old Micro Focus NetExpress or Fujitsu NetCOBOL COBOL
compilers to Windows 10. I had similar experiences myself.

NetCOBOL version 6 (and 7) does NOT implement well in Windows 10. This
is really fair enough, because GTS provide a COBOL compiler that DOES
work fine in that environment.(Version 10)

I see the following options:

1. Move away from these compilers (GNU COBOL - unfortunately doesn't
provide what is needed for us: COM support and OO COBOL)

2. Upgrade to the latest COBOL compilers from either of these vendors. (Expensive...)

3. Move on from COBOL altogether and download free compilers for C#
and/or VB.NET. Instead of spending significant money, you invest
significant time in going round the learning curve for a new language,
but EVERYTHING (including immediate online support and tuition) is FREE!
In my opinion, it is very well worth the time, and the rewards far
exceed staying with COBOL. This is what I did. Never regretted it (You
don't "unlearn" COBOL when you learn C#, but you do have to adjust some attitudes...)

4. If you don't want to make more heavy investment into COBOL (both
Micro Focus and Fujitsu products, although excellent, are expensive...),
and you feel you are too old a dog to learn new tricks, then give what
you have what it needs; provide an XP Windows environment to run COBOL.

I STRONGLY RECOMMEND using a virtual XP machine to run your Windows
COBOL on, IF you are using older versions of the compilers.

OK, so there are no regular updates anymore and you will need a good anti-virus if you expose your VM to the Internet, but I've been running
just such a VM for over 5 years now and had NO problems.

The VM software we use at PRIMA is Oracle's Virtual Box. Over the years
it has become better and better and it is free... The current version is truly excellent and we have never had a fail caused by the Virtual Machine(s).

Seems to me that this is just kicking the problem farther down the (time) line. Eventually whatever backlevel version of OS, or even VM tool, that you use will become unsupported and/or no longer understood by new
staff, and you'll be back where you started, but with an even higher curb
to climb in migrating your applications. That would leave three viable (if painful) options, in order of pain level: :-) 1) Migrate to a different
dialect of COBOL, 2) Migrate to an entirely different language, or 3)
migrate to an entirely different platform.

You may be a bit intimidated by the idea (I was...) but it really is
very easy and simple, and today they have streamlined everything to make
it a no-brainer. You can do all your COBOL on the virtual machine (VM)
and everything runs fine. Copy your output results to whatever machine
you want it running on. (I have automated this for PRIMA and we use WMI scripting to automate remote COBOL access from any machine on the LAN,
but you don't need to go that far; you can easily manually copy/move
compiled code to wherever you want it.)

Each VM, although it may be hosted on a single laptop or computer,
appears on your LAN as a separate machine, just as you would expect, and
it is easy to forget that these "machines" are not "real"...

Set it up once then you can "virtually" forget about it... :-)

Pete.

--
JLT
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