[COBOL400-L] RE: Regarding Cobol CopyBook

[qsrvbas@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Tom Liotta)]

Also be aware that the REPLACING phrase of the COPY statement can act as a kind 
of 'macro' function. The replaced string in the copy-book is potentially dummy 
text with no meaning other than to act as a placeholder.

Tom Liotta

cobol400-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

>   1. Re:  Regarding Cobol CopyBook (MichaelQuigley)
>
>
>   A copybook can be any source code: working-storage, environment division,
>   procedure division, . . . .  If there is source code in a COBOL program
>   which will be used in multiple programs, it is often put in a copybook.
>    Then any program can include this source by using the copy statement.
>
>   As far as converting copybooks to other formats, I don't think that's what
>   you really mean.  Perhaps the function of the copybook can be moved to a
>   dynamic program call or static procedure call, but the a copybook is just
>   a portion of COBOL source.
>   I hope that helps.
>
>   Original message:
>   --------------------------------------------------
>
>   I am a java programmer. I am working on converting
>   Cobol copybooks to other formats. I went through a
>   couple of Cobol tutorials but could not find any
>   reference to copybook in them.
>
>   - Is copybook a way of representing the Working
>   Storage section in a file just like "include files" in
>   C/C++ or is it more than that ? Or is it like a data
>   format definition like an XSD ?
>
>   - Is there any standard specification for copybook
>   which I can reference. Searching on google only
>   yielded examples of copybooks rather than the spec
>   itself.

-- 
Tom Liotta
The PowerTech Group, Inc.
19426 68th Avenue South
Kent, WA 98032
Phone  253-872-7788 x313
Fax    253-872-7904
http://www.powertech.com


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