isCOBOL Evolve

isCOBOL Profiler

A new Profiler has been implemented to allow performance analysis of applications, allowing developers to optimize their COBOL code for performance. The Profiler gathers performance information as the program runs, and displays gathered data in a clean HTML output, on which COBOL developers can base their tuning efforts. The Profiler feature can be accessed from the Eclipse-based isCOBOL IDE, in which new specific views are provided, or from the command line.

Upgraded isCOBOL IDE

This release provides an enhanced IDE, which provides a new View for the Profiler feature, and specific run configuration settings to enable and configure Profiler analysis. The isCOBOL Screen Painter now supports manual editing of Working Storage, Linkage Section, and FD sections, in addition to the graphical editor.

New and upgraded GUI controls

A new "Hamburger" menu style is now available to arrange menu items in a tree-view style. The menu is accessed by clicking an "hamburger" icon, a trend commonly followed in mobile and web designs. It can prove useful when designing resposive layouts, replacing a standard menu bar with a more compact replacement, to adapt to a resized surface area.

The W$BITMAP library routine can now render glyph font characters as images that can be use in any control that can handle bitmaps. Glyph fonts are vector fonts that contain icons instead of characters, and are widely used in web applications. They are valuable in retaining image quality on high-DPI displays.

The Grid control has been enhanced to better manage different filter types for each column. The provided search panel has been improved to allow case-insensitive searches and all buttons now have an icon.

The tree-view control allows selection of multiple elements on the same level, using a new selection-mode property value. Multiple items can be selected using the standard Control and Alt key combinations.

Message boxes have been revamped with a more modern look and feel, and can now be centerd in the monitor, regardless of the parent window position. Message boxes can be customized by providing a custom COBOL implementation.

Compiler and debugger improvements

Massive compilations are now faster than before, and a new EasyLinkage feature has been implemented to easily convert C calls into pure Java libraries. Additional syntax is supported to increase compatibility with other COBOL dialects.

isCOBOL Debbuger has been enhanced and can now debug programs without having access to souce files. The isCOBOL compiler has options to embed an encrypted copy of source files in the compiled .class files, which can then be fully debugged anywhere. The Debugger can still load source files from disk if the .class programs are compiled with a previous compiler release for backward compatibility.

The Debugger now has a new specific Console View in the isCOBOL IDE, which allows to attach and detach the standard sysout and syserr in its view.

Apache Ant build integration

isCOBOL Compiler can now be integrated in Apache Ant builds. Ant is a software tool for automating software build processes implemented using Java and is well integrated in software for automation servers like Jenkins. These automation servers help automate the parts of software development related to building, testing, and deploying. Products like Jenkins and Ant are often used together to facilitate continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD).