Re: *SRVPGM vs. dynamically CALLed *PGM from ILE COBOL...

On 5/9/07, Jon Paris <Jon.Paris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I agree that COBOL has some restrictions on naming etc but this

>> no support for passing parms to sub routines within a Cobol program.

Isn't one of them. There isn't any such support for RPG either - we use
subprocedures. The equivalent in COBOL is nested programs, and they take
parameters just as RPG subprocedures do.

my cobol lifeline at the shop I was in gave nested programs a thumbs
down, but she did not give a reason. It did seem to be a big
production in terms of all the sections you need in a cobol program.
worth a try though.

Although COBOL limits the exporting of names (for reasons I don't
understand) it is actually more powerful in terms of public/global data etc.
than RPG. Within the context of one program - nested programs can
incorporate other nested programs (i.e. procedures having local procedures)
and can either share data with them or not at their discretion.

the overlaying of data structures seen in the typical COBOL program is
brutal for a programmer to deal with.

The limitiation that I will stand by and that Michael should be aware
of is you effectively cant call into a SRVPGM from COBOL. Basically,
COBOL does not work with ILE. ( COBOL only sees one max 10 char
procedure in the SRVPGM ) The COBOL code I worked with had been
"modernized" from mainframe COBOL to call external programs and use
embedded SQL.

-Steve