The following compiler options are recommended as a starting point when migrating from IBM or other legacy COBOL dialects to isCOBOL:

-apost -b -cax -cp -cudc -cv -cva -dcmi -di -dv=0 -dz -pt2

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 on Linux/UNIX or -sp=path1;path2;path3 on Windows to specify paths to your copybooks.

For example, if you have .FD files in a subdirectory named FD and .SL files in a subdirectory named SL then use -sp=FD:SL or -sp=FD;SL.

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%

The following runtime property is recommended:

iscobol.checkdiv=1

Consider the following options if they are necessary:

-coe
-cpanv
-sa
-smat


Consider the following runtime property if necessary:

iscobol.file.strip_trailing_spaces=true

The following is a mapping of some commonly used Micro Focus directives to isCOBOL options:

  ANIM                        -d
  APOST                       -apost
  ARITHMETIC(OSVS)            -cva
  ASSIGN(EXTERNAL)            -cax
NOBOUND                       -cp
  COPYEXT(cpy)                -ce=cpy
  DEFAULTBYTE(00)             -dv=0
  HOSTARITHMETIC              -cva
  HOST-NUMCOMPARE             -cudc
  HOST-NUMMOVE                -cudc
  IBMCOMP                     -dcmi
  PERFORM-TYPE(OSVS)          -pt2
  REMOVE(NULL)                -rw=NULL
NOTRUNC                       -dz

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
-cv       allows IBM COBOL syntax and intrinsic functions
-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.

1. Does isCOBOL support EBCDIC? How?