DOS/VS COBOL Support

This Micro Focus COBOL system provides limited support for DOS/VS COBOL syntax. This COBOL system provides no distinction for the VS COBOL II dialect as it is implemented on VSE/ESA as opposed to MVS and CMS.

A directive, DOSVS, is supplied to enable all DOS/VS COBOL reserved words. The Compiler directive FLAG"DOSVS" will flag any syntax that is not part of DOS/VS COBOL.

DOS/VS COBOL is identical to OS/VS COBOL, apart from the differences below:

If the ASSIGN (EXTERNAL) Compiler directive has been set, the variable to be defined in the SET command is either:

  1. all of the text following the last hyphen, if it is not one of P, R, S, SR or AS, or;
  2. that part of the name preceding the first hyphen.

In the Special Registers table (see the section Special Registers), an entry should be made for DOS/VS COBOL as follows:

Special Register:

COM-REG

Implicit Data Description Picture:

PIC X(11)

Usage:

In DOS/VS COBOL, this field corresponds to bytes 12 through 22 of the DOS Communication Region. In the Micro Focus COBOL system, however, the data area is simply allocated, is initialized, and has no special meaning attached to any data that is placed in it by the program.