What compile options and properties do you recommend for migrations?


Each COBOL dialect has specific recommendations for compile options as well as other variables, copybook, data, routines, etc. in their own transitioning guide.
These guides are found in the Transitioning to isCOBOL documentation available at www.veryant.com.
For instance, here are some general guidelines:

Use the -cX option, where X is specific to your current COBOL vendor, to include multiple adjustments to isCOBOL to be compatible with your current applications without making code changes.

Use -ce=cpy to specify .cpy as the default file extension for copybooks.

Use -rw=word1,word2,word3 to remove reserved words. For example, -rw=PRINTER,HIGHLIGHT will remove PRINTER and HIGHLIGHT as reserved words.

Use -sp=path1;path2;path3 to specify paths to your copybooks.

If you have an environment variable such as COBCPY that contains a list of directories containing copybooks, you can add -sp=$COBCPY or -sp=%COBCPY%

If you have mixed source files in Fixed and Terminal formats, the -smat option might be necessary.

In addition to the above list we recommend -b -cp -cv -di -m1 for the following reasons:
-b improves performance in applications that do not require Unicode
-cp allows full support of USAGE POINTER, ADDRESS OF and pointer arithmetic, also allows negative subscripting
-di initializes working-storage items (that do not have a VALUE clause) according to their type, alphanumeric items to the value specified with -dv, numeric items to ZEROES, and table indexes to 1
-m1 puts all WORKING-STORAGE into a contiguous block of memory

Contact Veryant Support for help determining the correct compile options and properties to use for your project.



Article ID: 137
Created: July 20, 2010
Last Updated: May 5, 2023
Author: Support KB Author

Online URL: https://support.veryant.com/phpkb/article.php?id=137