Re: [open-cobol-list] Another (other) "Open" COBOL

[David Essex]

Interesting read, and written in typical I*M lingo.

If I understand this correctly, zCOBOL uses JAVA to translate COBOL 
sources into HLASM (High Level assembler) code, which is then translated 
into 'user selectable target' which are defined as follows.

> Quote from the 'zcobol.org:
> The user selectable target language environments supported include 
IBM > HLASM assembler for z9/z10 processors, Java for any J2SE platform, 
C++ > for Microsoft platforms, and HLA/MASM assembler for Intel platforms.

If it can produce Intel binaries for Win32, why is this called 'Portable 
Mainframe COBOL Compiler'.

Interesting to note that if it can generate HLA/MASM assembler, a port 
to HLA/NASM assembler or GNU assembler (GAS) for Intel platforms could 
be possible.

On a final note, a quick search on SF revealed that 'zCOBOL' [1] is 
registered along with 49 other COBOL related projects.


Bill Klein wrote:
> For any of you who might be interested and who didn't see yesterday's 
> announcement regarding zCOBOL, see below.
>  
> FYI,
> Unlike COBOL-IT, this is NOT a "derivative" from OpenCOBOL and 
> actually is targeted at a (basically) different audience than OpenCOBOL.
>  
> If you come from and/or are familiar with the IBM mainframe (especially 
> IBM mainframe assembler) environment, I think you may find the SHARE 
> presentation foils interesting. From the links provided below, see:
>  
> http://www.z390.org/SHARE/SHARE_8194_Austin_090303.pdf
>  
> NOTE:  If you do NOT know the IBM mainframe or assembler environment, 
> you will probably find much of that presentation as "baffling" as I do 
> snippets of C/C++ and UNIX/Linux stuff in OpenCOBOL discussions<G>

1) zCOBOL - Portable Mainframe COBOL Compiler
http://sourceforge.net/projects/zcobol/