=========================================================================
M I C R O F O C U S
V4.1.10
Running Under The DG/UX
Operating System Version R4.11MU03
On The AViiON
=========================================================================
NEW FEATURES
============
TABLE OF CONTENTS
=================
INTRODUCTION
NEW FEATURES
INTRODUCTION
============
This document summarizes features in V4.1 of the COBOL system that are
new since the base release of V4.0, and all early release features in
V4.1. Early Release features are normally documented in on-disk
documents; other features are normally documented in the books.
If a feature added in a maintenance release needs further description, it
is documented in either the Documentation Update Notes, a separate
on-disk supplement, or the On-line Reference.
This document is updated at each maintenance release. Subsection headings
show the releases when the entries were first included. Within each
subsection, entries are grouped by component, but there can be more than
one group of entries for the same component.
NEW FEATURES
============
This section shows new and Early Release features.
V4.1.10
=======
Animator Version 2 - Errors Fixed
---------------------- V4.1.10 --
o Animator V2 enables you to link to COBOL modules you have written
in order to provide editing functionality not provided by
Animator V2. You can bind such a module to a toolbar or button bar
button, so the user can't tell that it's a user module not a standard
Animator V2 function.
For full details, see the on-disk document a2usrmod.txt.
o Animator V2 includes a new command, DateSet, that enables you to
change the current date used by an application. By default, the
command is mapped to the new Current-date button, although you
could add it to the toolbar if you wanted.
For details, see the document "Supplementary Information".
o Highlighting of "tagged" lines (either through the Tag, Error, Find
or Breakpoint operations) now supports short tags. The highlight
attribute is painted in columns 1-6, with the rest of the line using
the default syntax attributes. To enable this, add ShortTagHilite=ON
to the [anim2-16-cfg] and [anim2-32-cfg] tags.
o The behavior of the Seq Numbers and Tag Marks view options has been
changed as follows:
a) if the source file is COBOL, sequence numbers are displayed
in columns 1-6 if the View->Include->SeqNos option is on (checked),
regardless of whether the file has been checked or not and is open
for execution or not. If the option is unchecked, columns 1-6 are
not overlaid with sequence numbers.
b) Tag marks are only displayed (for all files, regardless of type)
if the View->Include->Tag marks option is checked.
o A Query History function has been implemented, similar to the Query
List function in character-mode Animator. It enables you to build up
a set of values for data items and cycle through assignments. A new
function, DumpQryHistory, creates of .ILS file containing the query
histories that will be reloaded next time Animator V2 loads the
program.
o Syntax highlighting has changed so that COBOL special registers (for
example, RETURN-CODE) are flagged as "data items", not reserved
words. This means double-click actions on such items query rather
than perform a find operation.
o If you start Animator V2 with the directive NOIDYSEARCHPATH, then
when looking for the source code, it now ignores the path stored in
the .idy file, and looks for the source file in the current directory
and the directories pointed to by the COBIDY environment variable.
o On 32-bit Windows platforms, there is an additional Break button on
the Run dialog box, which you can use to break into your code when
running .int code from within Animator 2, without setting a
breakpoint beforehand. This button is only available if you do not
have the cobanim_2 environment variable set. (OS/2 users can press
Ctrl+Break to do this.)
o On 32-bit Windows platforms, there is a new Word At Cursor button
on the Find dialog box which you can use to put the word under the
cursor into the find entry field.
o If you open a file in a directory that is not the current directory,
Animator V2 now remembers that directory, and the next time you try
to open a file it automatically presents you with that directory, so
you don't have to type it again.
o A Suggest button has been added to the Advanced Breakpoint and
Execute Do dialog boxes.
o The Replace checkbox is now automatically cleared when you close
the Text Find dialog box.
o The Step All dialog box has been moved to the bottom left-hand corner
of the Animator V2 window where it is less likely to cover the code
you are stepping over and any monitored data items.
o The Backtrack dialog box has been moved to the top right-hand corner
of the Animator V2 window where it is less likely to cover the code
you are stepping over.
o You can now specify the maximum number of items on the Suggest Word
list from the General Options dialog box.
Object-oriented Programming
---------------- V4.1.10 --
o Support for Object-oriented programming is now permanently enabled.
You no longer need to switch between object and procedural modes.
Consequently the proc2oo and oo2proc scripts (and various support
files) are no longer included.
Compiler (Syntax Check Phase)
------------------ V4.1.10 --
o Early Release feature. A new directive, MOVE-LEN-CHECK, makes the
compiler check the source and target lengths for alphanumeric MOVES
and issue a warning if they are different.
V4.1.06
=======
Common Communications Interface
-------------------- V4.1.06 --
o CCITCP has now been upgraded to version 3, and therefore you can now
use the CCI-TIMEOUT command to specify the timeout period,
overriding the default of about 120 seconds. See your Programmer's
Guide to Communications.
(CCINAMPU remains at version 2 with a fixed timeout period of about
120 seconds.)
Compiler (Directives)
---------- V4.1.06 --
o New Early-Release Compiler directives have been added:
- INTDATE(ANSI/LILIAN); used to select the starting date for
integer format dates used with date intrinsic functions.
- MOVE-LEN-CHECK; causes the compiler to check source and target
lengths for an alphanumeric MOVE statement
- LANGLVL; controls certain features of OSVS emulation in the same
manner as the mainframe directive of the same name.
DAIS
-- V4.1.06 --
o Early Release feature. The COBOL/DAIS Developer's Kit provides
support for the COBOL language when using ICL's DAIS product to
create distributed applications. DAIS implements Object Request
Broker (ORB) Technology. See the on-disk document dais.txt.
DBCS Transparency
------ V4.1.06 --
DBCS Transparency is a level of DBCS support that supports creating
native language applications using DBCS code sets. You can use it under
system locales such as, for example, Traditional Chinese, Simplified
Chinese, and Korean provided you have them on your system. It enables you
to use single- and double-byte character strings using tools such as
Animator, Editor and Screens to create and maintain application programs
that support your native language.
File Handler
-- V4.1.06 --
o Early Release feature. Files up to 200 Gbytes can now be handled.
See the on-disk document callfh.txt.
Object-oriented Programming
---------------- V4.1.06 --
o You can use this COBOL system to migrate to the new world of
object-oriented programming at your own pace. The same compiler is
used for both traditional and object oriented programming.
o The Object COBOL language is based on the proposed ANSI standard
for object-oriented COBOL syntax. Object COBOL supports all the
key features of any OO programming system:
- Objects
An encapsulation of data and the procedures which operate on the
data. The data is known as the object's attributes, and the
procedures are known as the object's methods. Encapsulation means
that the only way to change or interrogate attributes is through
the methods provided.
- Classes
Templates for creating many objects of the same type; each object
is said to be an instance of a class.
- Inheritance
Create new classes by specializing from existing classes. A new
class inherits all the behavior of the class from which it
inherits.
- Messaging
The way you request an objects to execute methods. In Object
COBOL, all messages are dynamically bound; the receiver of a
message is determined at run-time.
- Polymorphism
The same message sent to different kinds of objects can invoke
different methods. Each object implements the behavior for a
given message which is appropriate to itself. For example, an
invoice object and a customer object might both respond to the
"printDetails" message, but would print different information.
- Vocabularies
You can define the syntax for an object's interface, so, for
example, to add money to an account you could code:
Deposit an amount into an account.
rather than:
Invoke anAccount "deposit" using AnAmount
o Early Release feature. The FileDictionary class is a prototype which
provides the same sort of functionality as the standard dictionary
class, but using a COBOL indexed file to store the object data. It
uses the same public interface as the Dictionary class, so an
application which uses the existing Dictionary class can be converted
to use a FileDictionary with relatively little effort. See the
on-disk document filedict.txt for details.
o Early Release feature. The System Object Model (SOM) is IBM's
Object-oriented programming technology for building, packaging, and
manipulating binary class libraries. Micro Focus's SOM Object COBOL
Developer's kit enables you to use Object COBOL to implement and use
SOM classes. See the document som.txt for details.
You must install the SOM Object COBOL Developers Kit into a
subdirectory of its own. This is to avoid possible filename clashes
between demonstration programs for the SOM Object COBOL Developers
Kit and Object COBOL.
o Early Release feature. The persistence feature means the Object COBOL
run-time system can remember the state of all objects in the system
between runs. Although early release, this feature is documented in
the books.
COBOL Language
--- V4.1.06 --
o New intrinsic functions have been added and the ACCEPT/DISPLAY syntax
extended to handle Year 2000.
V4.0.16
=======
COBOL Editor
- V4.0.16 --
o The COBOL Editor now uses the directory specified by the $COBMSG
environment variable as the default location when looking for
message (.msg) files produced by the Checker.
File Handler
- V4.0.16 --
o Operation code 0006 now returns the file handle of any subsequent
open of the file that the operation code 0006 is performed on.
Indexed File Maintenance Tool
------------------ V4.0.16 --
o The Rebuild utility's /d option now outputs any recovered records to
a variable length sequential file called rebuild.err. This enables
you to check that the recovery has worked correctly.
SQL
-- V4.0.16 --
o Early Release feature. Support for DB2 v2 has been added. See the
on-disk document db2v2.txt for details.
V4.0.07
=======
Animator
-- V4.0.07 --
o Animator remains active after a Trap violation in your application.
This enables you to investigate the cause of the trap, using Animator
to examine the values of data items.
o There is a new Animator directive (NO)IDYSEARCHPATH. Specifying
NOIDYSEARCHPATH tells Animator not to look for the source file in the
path stored in the IDY file. The default is IDYSEARCHPATH, which
gives the old behavior.
Compiler (Syntax Check Phase)
------------------ V4.0.07 --
o The COPYEXT compiler directive has been enhanced to allow up to
to eight file-name extensions to be specified.
File Handler
-- V4.0.07 --
o Heap files are now supported in EXTFH. Set directive FILETYPE(14) to
use this new filetype. This filetype is compatible with all file
organizations. Files are temporary, and once a file is closed all
data will be lost, so use them for temporary storage only.
Fileshare Version 2
-------- V4.0.07 --
o When recovering files and creating a continuation log file, you can
now specify the name of the next recovery log file.
o If a recovery is attempted and the log file cannot be opened, a
message is now displayed giving the name of the log file. If the
the database reference file cannot be opened a message is displayed
giving the name of the database reference file.
o You can now use the 16-bit CCI module names when configuring
communications for Fileshare. Thus you can use the same configuration
files on UNIX as on DOS, Windows and OS/2. For example, you can use
the CCI name CCITCP on both.
o You can now activate CCI trace from Fileshare V2. See the
Documentation Update Notes.
o The environment variable XFHKEYCHECK can now be set at the Fileshare
client. When set, it prevents the Fileshare System checking key
definition structures when files are opened.
o Trace messages displayed by the Fileshare Server are now
time-stamped. This is to aid diagnostics and correlation with other
software that displays trace/time information.
o If the Fileshare server is started to use CCINETB and the requester
service is not started, error FS082 is now displayed and Fileshare
does not start.
o When using the CCITCP or CCINAMPU protocol, you can now restart the
Fileshare server with the same name even if it has previously
terminated abnormally.
Fileshare will use the same server name, but will display a warning
message to indicate that any Fileshare server already using that name
that is still active will not allow any new connections. The more
recently started Fileshare server will have control of the server
name.
Integration
-- V4.0.07 --
o The ANIM directive now enables the GANIM directive, thus enabling
native code animation.
Panels
------
o (This will affect you only on platforms where you can change the
screen size.)
Panels now checks whether the screen size has changed each time you
call function 2 (Screen Refresh), and changes its internal screen
size accordingly.
Adis calls function 2 whenever the user has changed screen size, so
that Adis on Panels and COBOL windowing syntax work with this. When
working directly with Panels, you must call function 2 yourself after
the screen size changes.
SQL Support - Early Release component
V4.0.07 --
o COBSQL provides an integrated interface from Micro Focus COBOL to a
precompiler. It causes the Animator, when animating a program
containing EXEC SQL statements, to display your original source code
instead of the code produced by the precompiler.
Windowing Syntax
----- V4.0.07 --
o The Windowing preprocessor is now fully stackable, and so can work
with other preprocessors. (This enhancement does not include support
for the CP preprocessor features.)
=========================================================================
Micro Focus and Animator are registered trademarks of Micro Focus
Limited.
Object COBOL is a trademark of Micro Focus Limited.
UNIX is a registered trademark of X/Open Company Limited.
SCO is a trademark of The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc.
AIX is a registered trademark of International Business Machines
Corporation.
=========================================================================
@(#)Vrn/features.1/////07/25Apr97/nrV
Copyright (C) 1992-97 Micro Focus Limited