MX COBOL can work in MS Windows but it is DOS oriented
It means that it can work with names of directories (path)
and files in according to DOS conventions only.
They have to be short names (max 8+3 length)
and without spaces and diacritical marks.
This limitation is valid in general for compilation and for executing
of developed programs too. But if developed programs work in batch-mode
with files in actual directory only -
then can be used only file-names alone and path is not important
but for file-names mentioned limitation remains.
For work with source files in Notepad the size of types 14 is recommended.
Why is MX COBOL like it is
or its story within Czech tradition of COBOL programming
The first attempts with computer research and development started in former
Czechoslovakia at the end of the 50th years last century.
Unfortunately, the communist regime meant in those times that
"cybernetics is burgeois anachronism and pseudo-science" and put down these attempts.
Only in era of "PragueSpring 1968" the contacts with west technologies were allowed
for a short time. Except several imported IBM, ICL and DATASAAB computers,
the license for 2.5 generation mainframe computer production was gained from BULL.
From beginning these TESLA 200 named computers
(in total sum more than two hundred
installations) were supplied only with magnetic tapes but worked already with
byte-structured memory and except Assembler there was COBOL 60
compiler. (By the way - with the last one in 1970 began his career as programmer
author of this text - some proceedings from 1975-2004 in Czech are
here ).
See too one of the first works about
Structured Programming Experiences in former Czechoslovakia - with exmples in
COBOL Tesla 200 - publicated in 1976 (!).
In the next years then were produced copies of IBM/360 mainframes (named EC 1021
to EC 1027) where COBOL was basic programming language.
Thanks to this home production ("iron courtain" still existing) all big and
intermediate enterprises had their own computing centers with batch processing
of the economic data programmed mostly in COBOL. See
30 Years of Programming & SW Conference 1975-2004 - (in Czech).
Operating systems for these last computers were not copies of that of IBM but first
of all virtual DOS-3/JS (1980) was modern brand new development made by Computer
Research Institute Prague (VUMS in Czech).
The COBOL compiler as its part was developed in KS Brno by group
of experts - Petr Bilek, Josef Brlica, Petr Dvoracek, Jiri Smerk and Vladimir Verosta. This system inclusive COBOL were very successful and therefore were used
not only in Czechoslovakia but also in East Germany and by means of which
thousands of programmers worked many years.
In the end of 80th the COBOL compiler was by experts mentioned above under name
MX COBOL reengineered to PC platform as compiler from COBOL to C-language.
After the fall of "iron courtain" in year 1989
the overall situation has changed, new products became available and interest
of COBOL has decreased. KS Brno did not continue MX COBOL development any more
and in 1994 all the rights were sold to
Vlastimil Cevela - specialized on COBOL programming support.
For DOS on PCs were then sold several tens MX COBOL + Borland TC 2.0 installations
and with help of Vladimir Verosta was improved some functions (1996). By the
author personally
was by means of MX COBOL developed reengineering some mainframes projects of a big
company from mainframe to Novell/PC net,
HTML database which contains Programming Conference proceedings from 1975 to 2004 with more than six thousand scanned texts (generated from XML contents with more than ten thousand mutual links),
and many tools for text-files manipulaton and HTML, CSS and JavaScript generating.
In the several last years stayed MX COBOL compiler "as it is" and no development
continued. But not long ago in connection with discovery of the "Borland TC 2.01"
as "free antique software" on web
came the idea to offer MX COBOL as free compiler
in the same way.
This compiler it's true is not the Windows GUI oriented product but
in tandem with Borland TC it can work without problems in the Windows CMD mode
very well. See
What's MX like and
above .
There are some limitations for MX COBOL from the reasons time of come into being
and interrupt of development and support. But with acceptance of them as necessary
facts remains very interesting free tool for small tasks and training of basic
COBOL programming skills. See
What's MX for .
In general is MX COBOL based on COBOL-74 but it contains interesting system library
routines called, some qualities from COBOL-85
as initialize statement, end-if, end-perform delimiters and even from COBOL-02 - screen section.
The other end-delimiters, nested programming, reference modifications and
evaluate, continue, set .. true statements are not implemented.
Beside it is source text in MX COBOL limited by number of
700 to 900 lines. The reason for it is memory concept in DOS used.
In connection with interrupt development there are some qualities "not functional".
So as not to make problems for users
all formats and language qualities was careful checked before
release of their new
brief description in English
and finded limitations was mentioned in detail.
But because all it is "one man's project" and new documentation
is derived from manual
which in original contains over 1000 pages in Czech language,
author
will be very grateful for all remarks, experiences and notices to those problems !
The same is valid for the English translation of compiler's messages and listings.
All known limitations of this sort are listed in FAQ and How to ...