Significant Changes in Behavior or Usage

This section describes significant changes in behavior or usage in the current and past releases of Visual COBOL for Visual Studio 2017. These changes could potentially affect the behavior of existing applications or impact the way the tools are used.

Note: This list does not include the changes in behavior introduced by any of the HotFix releases. Refer to the HotFix readmes for information about such changes.

Changes in Behavior in This Release

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For an up-to-date list of these changes for release 3.0, see this product's Release Notes available from the Product Documentation section of the Micro Focus SupportLine Web site.

The numbers that follow each issue are the Support Incident Numbers followed by the Reported Problem Incident (RPI) number (in parentheses).

Compatibility AddPack for Visual COBOL

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Compatibility AddPack for Visual COBOL is now deprecated and will not be available with release 3.0 and later.

The Dialog System GUI and run-time components and Dialog System Character Mode (on Windows and UNIX) which were part of the AddPack are now installed as part of Visual COBOL for Visual Studio. The run-time components are installed as part of COBOL Server. These are only included for backward compatibility and Micro Focus does not recommend that you use them for new development.

The other components which were part of the AddPack, the Character-Based Data File Editor, CSBIND and Screens, will be available upon request from Micro Focus SupportLine.

OpenESQL

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The new OpenESQL OPTIMIZECURSORS SQL compiler directive option is turned on by default for both ADO.NET (DBMAN=ADO) and ODBC (DBMAN=ODBC). For ADO.NET, this reduces cursor memory consumption thereby providing optimal performance. This also ensures that, for ODBC, embedded SQL cursors that use WITH HOLD and FOR UPDATE clauses have the same data integrity across all databases.

If your applications require the OpenESQL preprocessor to use the behavior provided in an earlier release, compile them using OPTIMIZECURSORS=NO.

Reserved words

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  • There have been a number of new reserved words added to the COBOL language; these are all in effect under MFLEVEL"19", which is the default level when running under the MF dialect. Any of the following words are now not allowed under default conditions, and you will need to remove/rename them, or specifically configure your environment to allow them:
    • ALLOCATE
    • FREE
    • JSON
    • END-JSON

    See Reserved Words Table at the end of this topic for more information.

Changes in Behavior in Release 2.3 Update 2

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This section describes significant changes in behavior or usage. These changes could potentially affect the behavior of existing applications or impact the way the tools are used.

The numbers that follow each issue are the Support Incident Numbers followed by the Reported Problem Incident (RPI) number (in parentheses).

Compiler

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  • The ILPINVOKE directive is now allowed only in an initial $SET. This is in line with similar directives like ILREF and ILTARGET. Previously, the ILPINVOKE directive was allowed in other positions in the source code which could cause issues with insufficient memory.

    2860347 (1104422)

  • In previous product releases, the scoping rules for nested programs (as defined in ANS85 COBOL), were not enforced in managed COBOL (.NET and JVM). This meant that, in cases where program A contained programs B1 and B2, and programs B1 and B2 contained C1 and C2, respectively, it was possible to call program C2 from C1, for example. The lack of scoping rules also meant that it was not possible for B1 and B2 both to contain a program with the same name.

    This product release enforces the correct ANS85 scoping rules for nested programs, including COMMON programs, and makes it possible to have multiple programs with the same name at different levels of the nesting hierarchy. In this way, the behavior in managed COBOL is now compatible with the behavior of native COBOL programs.

  • Replacing a partial token no longer causes the second part of the token to appear on a new line. This could happen if the new text was larger than the text being replaced.

    2869185 (1105763)

  • There is no longer a problem opening an RM/COBOL indexed file when the program has a RECORD CONTAINS n CHARACTERS clause and there are record descriptions with lengths less than n. This situation previously caused a 39 error on the OPEN (other than OPEN OUTPUT) because there was a mismatch in the minimum record length.

Enterprise Server

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  • Previously, it was possible to install groups that should not have been installed. If a group name, as defined in the Startup List, did not exist in the list of Groups then the next Group in the alphabetical order would be loaded instead. Now, if a Group is not defined in the list of Groups, a warning that the Group could not be loaded is issued.

    2869848 (619107)

Micro Focus Directory Server

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  • The "-n" option for the mfds command now supports hostnames as the network addresses in addition to IPv4 addresses.

    2816871 (1099564)

Monitoring and Management

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  • Messages that are written to the console log by applications that perform "display upon console" now contain a standard message ID (CASMG0001I).

    2854207 (1103659)

Run-Time System

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  • The command_line_linkage tunable has been deprecated; equivalent functionality can be achieved by using the COMMAND-LINE-LINKAGE Compiler directive instead.

    2838118 (1101539)

Changes in Behavior in Release 2.3 Update 1

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This section describes significant changes in behavior or usage. These changes could potentially affect the behavior of existing applications or impact the way the tools are used.

The numbers that follow each issue are the Support Incident Numbers followed by the Reported Problem Incident (RPI) number (in parentheses).

Data Tools

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  • When filtering a data file, if there is no valid temporary directory set, you are prompted to set one using the option in the Preferences dialog box.
  • The editor no longer allows you to open a file if the file size (without header size) is not a multiple of the record size on disk; an error is produced instead.
  • The level numbers displayed in a record layout correspond to the levels used in the .idy file that was used when the structure file was created.

Dialog System

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  • Versions of the Micro Focus Compatibility AddPack released with version 2.3 of Enterprise Developer or Visual COBOL 2.3 or with earlier versions supported the use of the "MFOLECL_NO_THREAD_INIT" environment variable. Using this variable, you could disable the default OLE Class Library COM threading initialization. This helped avoid issues that could manifest as hangs and crashes, especially on Microsoft's Windows 8.x or 10 and with applications that are a hybrid between Dialog System, OLE class library and .NET elements - see http://community.microfocus.com/microfocus/cobol/visual_cobol/w/knowledge_base/20715.exception-occurs-when-native-dialog-system-program-calls-managed-winform.aspx.

    In the version of the Micro Focus Compatibility AddPack released with Enterprise Developer 2.3.1 or Visual COBOL 2.3.1, this environment variable is now enabled by default and no longer needs to be set exclusively. To restore the previous behavior, use a new environment variable, MFOLECL_THREAD_INIT, and set it to Yes.

    2848875 (1102920)

Editor Writing Assistance

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  • IntelliSense (Visual Studio) or Content Assist (Eclipse) suggestions are no longer offered if you start typing numbers and automatic triggering of suggestions is enabled.
  • Pressing TAB in the Visual Studio editor now always inserts the highlighted item in the IntelliSense list of suggestions.

Run-Time System

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  • The Audit Manager contains a new TIMEOUT option. When a client sends an audit event using the ‘CBL_AUDIT_EVENT’ API, the event gets placed in the next available slot in a shared memory block. If shared memory is full (i.e. no slots are available), the event is re-tried until a slot becomes available.

    If no Audit Manager is running, no events are removed from shared memory, and no slots will ever become available. Therefore, use the new TIMEOUT option so that a client will only retry sending until the TIMEOUT duration is reached; after which, it will stop sending audit events. If Audit Manager is recycled, events will start to be sent again.

    To set the TIMEOUT for all Audit Manager clients, specify the following line in the Audit Manager configuration file: 
    mfaudit.timeout = n
    Where n is the timeout value in milliseconds.

    To set the TIMEOUT for an individual Audit Manager client, use the ‘CBL_AUDIT_CONFIG_PROPERTY_SET’ API. It takes an integer property-value, which should be the timeout value in milliseconds.

    If TIMEOUT is set using both methods, the client property TIMEOUT takes precedence, unless this property is set to zero; in such cases, the TIMEOUT in the configuration file is used. If you use the ‘CBL_AUDIT_CONFIG_PROPERTY_GET’ API on the ‘TIMEOUT’ property, it only returns the TIMEOUT value for the client property; it does not return the value set in the configuration file.

    2838689 (1101685)

  • Several changes have been made to the implementation of IS DBCS, IS KANJI and IS JAPANESE class condition tests:
    • IS [NOT] DBCS

      When CHARSET"EBCDIC" is in effect, the IS DBCS test returns true when each character in the string is deemed to be a valid DBCS character. A valid character has its first byte in the range 0x41 through 0xFE, and the second byte in the range 0x41 through 0xFE, or the character is an EBCDIC space (0x4040). When CHARSET"ASCII" is in effect, the DBCS test uses an OS call to determine if the string contains only valid double-byte character, and returns true if valid.

    • IS [NOT] KANJI

      When CHARSET"EBCDIC" is in effect, the IS KANJI test returns true when each character in the string is deemed to be a valid Kanji character. A valid character has its first byte in the range 0x41 through 0x7F, and the second byte in the range 0x41 through 0xFE, or the character is an EBCDIC space (0x4040). When CHARSET"ASCII" is in effect, the IS KANJI test uses an OS call to determine if the string contains only valid Kanji character, and returns true if valid.

    • IS [NOT] JAPANESE

      When CHARSET"EBCDIC" is in effect, the IS JAPANESE test is not supported, and will generate a COBCH1806 Feature not supported in selected charset message on compilation.

      When CHARSET"ASCII" is in effect, the IS JAPANESE test returns true when the string contains only double-byte Japanese characters or single-byte Japanese Katakana characters, and returns true if valid. When NSYMBOL"NATIONAL" is in effect, these class tests are not supported, and will generate a COBCH0303 Operand has wrong data-type message on compilation.

    2812895 (1098401)

SQL: OpenESQL

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  • The DB2 CONCAT function and operator now convert to SQL Server using the HCOSS-supplied dbo.CONCAT for character, numeric and datetime data. If you are using BINARY or VARBINARY data, you must apply the HCOSS-supplied dbo.CONCAT_BINARY function. HCOSS applications deployed with earlier versions of Enterprise Developer are affected, if they use string or binary concatenation. The mainframe dialect DB2 || operator and CONCAT function now call a new SQL Server scalar function dbo.CONCAT(). All existing programs with dialect=mainframe that use DB2 concatenation syntax should be recompiled. All existing SQL Server databases that are accessed by these programs must have dbo.CONCAT installed. To create the new function in your application’s SQL Server database, you can either:
    • Run a DSN bind against the customer database. Or:
    • Execute the %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Micro Focus\Enterprise Developer\hcoss\InstallDigitsFunction.sql script.

    This is a one-time only change to the database.

    2843818 (1102248)

SQL Option for DB2

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  • Spurious errors were sometimes returned while querying using an ALIAS.

    2830383 (1100609)

Changes in Behavior in Release 2.3

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This section describes significant changes in behavior or usage. These changes could potentially affect the behavior of existing applications or impact the way the tools are used.

Where present, the numbers that follow each issue are the Support Incident Numbers followed by the Reported Problem Incident (RPI) number (in parentheses).

Building

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  • Visual COBOL now supports Visual Studio parallel builds for COBOL projects. Parallel builds enable you to build multiple projects faster on multi-CPU machines.

    If, after upgrading to this version of Visual COBOL, you start receiving unexpected build errors when compiling an existing multi-project solution, this may be a result of enabling support for parallel project builds. These are a couple of examples of issues that might be causing these errors:

    • Using file references to project outputs in the same solution. You need to use project-to-project references instead.

      Use Project > Project Dependencies to manage the project dependencies and build order within your solution.

    • A customized build process such as one that is using pre- or post- build events.

    If resolving any of these issues does not help resolve the build errors, consider disabling the parallel build support - click Tools > Options > Projects and Solutions > Build and Run and set maximum number of parallel project builds to 1.

Converting Additional Directives to projects' properties

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  • Starting with this release, an Update Project Properties dialog box might start to appear when you are opening existing COBOL solutions. The dialog box recommends converting some of the directives specified in Additional directives to project's properties. This is to address an issue where you might try to set file properties that differ from the project directives and the directives specified in Additional directives that have a property equivalent take precedence over the file properties. As a result of this you might receive unexpected build issues when building your applications.

    This dialog box helps eliminate the issue by converting the directives specified in Additional directives to project properties.

    If you do not want the IDE to perform this check, click Tools > Options > Micro Focus > General and uncheck Check Additional Directives for project properties.

CAS Security

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  • The Enterprise Server External Security Facility now includes MLDAP ESM Module 2.0, with a new algorithm for identifying the best-matching resource-access rule and ACE for resource-access security checks. This algorithm is faster and matches most customers' expectations. The new algorithm also provides an optional "username substitution" feature. It can be enabled by setting "rule substitutions" to "yes" in the [Operation] section in the Security Manager configuration text area. When this is enabled, the string "${user}" in a resource-rule name will be replaced with the name of the user that makes the request. For example, a DATASET rule named "USERS.${user}.**" would apply to datasets with the requesting user's name as the second qualifier. In rare cases, customers with complex, ambiguous resource-access security rules might see experience changes in behavior as a result of the new algorithm. The old algorithm is still supported and can be enabled by setting "version 1 authentication" to "yes" in the [Operation] section of the Security Manager configuration.

    2807531 (1097783)

CAS XA Switch modules

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  • The XA switch modules now support dynamic registration.

    2682101 (1092325)

  • The XA switch modules now support batch-only operations when multiple XA Resource Managers have been defined.

    2664675 (1091082)

  • In Visual COBOL 2.2 update 2, Micro Focus identified undefined run-time behavior when the following combination of directives was specified: SIGN"EBCDIC", CHARSET"ASCII", and one of the following: HOST-NUMMOVE, HOST-NUMCOMPARE or SIGN-FIXUP. Previously (Visual COBOL 2.2 update 1 and earlier), if this combination was specified, the SIGN”EBCDIC” directive should have been ignored, to avoid a mixture of ASCII and EBCDIC characters; however, SIGN”EBCDIC” was still being honored, resulting in undefined run-time behavior. Therefore, this combination of directives is now invalid for Visual COBOL 2.2 update 2 or later, and if specified, will be rejected at compile time.

    2786397 (1095265)

Compiler

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  • For native COBOL, the size limit of the Data Division now stands at 2GB -1.

    2796076 (1096384)

  • COBDATA has no effect on compilation. The output of the Compiler is the same location regardless of whether COBDATA is set.

    Previously, it was not possible to specify sign(EBCDIC) with sign-fixup, host-num-move or with host-num-compare. This combination is now supported in native COBOL but remains invalid for managed COBOL code. This is applicable to version 2.2 U2 HotFix 10 onwards.

    2824577 (1100823)

Data Tools

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  • DFCONV now returns the correct return-code; previously, it would always return 0.

File Handling

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  • Custom file handlers (using DYNREDIR) are now called for each part of a concatenated file.

    2795077 (1096322)

IDE

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  • The default warning level for new COBOL projects in Visual COBOL for Visual Studio is now "Include recoverable errors (Level E)". This also includes "Severe errors only (Level S)" and unrecoverable (Level U) errors. Micro Focus recommends you set the warning level on the COBOL page in a project's properties to "Include warnings (Level W)" where appropriate to help avoid potential coding problems.

J2EE Connector

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  • This release provides a new command-line argument to Java, mf.ssl.algorithm, which can be set to an appropriate algorithm.

    2799213 (1096684)

MF Server Administrator (GUI)

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  • Passwords that entered through either the MFDS or the ESMAC interface now use the same encoding.

    2792382 (1096011)

Updated Run-Time System

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  • COBOL Server now provides an execution environment capable of running applications that were each built using different development products. A consequence of this is that if your application has a main COBOL executable (.exe) that was built with a version of Visual COBOL prior to version 2.3, you should ensure that the executable is rebuilt and packaged with the new run-time system. You can rebuild from the IDE or the command line.

    Other COBOL subprograms built with previous versions of Visual COBOL are not required to be rebuilt.

Changes in Behavior in Release 2.2 Update 2

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This section describes significant changes in behavior or usage. These changes could potentially affect the behavior of existing applications or impact the way the tools are used.

The numbers that follow each issue are the Support Incident Numbers followed by the Reported Problem Incident (RPI) number (in parentheses).

Compiler

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  • When using the HOSTRW directive with the mainframe dialect, Report Writer will now produce the full range of ASA control characters and will emulate mainframe print files.

    2697615 (1094527)

  • Fixed Binary (p<=7) is now an 8-bit, signed, 2's complement binary integer by default.

Documentation

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  • The default setting for the MFALLOC_PCFILE environment variable has changed; the default is now set to Y, which means that when cataloguing a file that has a DCB attribute of DSORG=PS, a physical file is created for it if one does not exist. Previously, the default was set to N, which meant that a file was not created.

    2697571 (1094370)

Enterprise Server

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  • The Enterprise Server External Security Facility now includes MLDAP ESM Module 2.0, with a new algorithm for identifying the best-matching resource-access rule and ACE for resource-access security checks. This algorithm is faster and matches most customers' expectations.

    The new algorithm also provides an optional "username substitution" feature. It can be enabled by setting "rule substitutions" to "yes" in the [Operation] section in the Security Manager configuration text area. When this is enabled, the string "${user}" in a resource-rule name will be replaced with the name of the user that makes the request. For example, a DATASET rule named "USERS.${user}.**" would apply to datasets with the requesting user's name as the second qualifier. In rare cases, customers with complex, ambiguous resource-access security rules might see experience changes in behavior as a result of the new algorithm. The old algorithm is still supported and can be enabled by setting "version 1 authentication" to "yes" in the [Operation] section of the Security Manager configuration.

    2807531 (1097783)

J2EE Connector

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  • The listSystem.properties file in package com.ibm.ctg.client was missing documentation for some sections.

Changes in Behavior in Release 2.2 Update 1

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This section describes significant changes in behavior or usage. These changes could potentially affect the behavior of existing applications or impact the way the tools are used.

The numbers that follow each issue are the Support Incident Numbers followed by the Reported Problem Incident (RPI) number (in parentheses).

COBSQL

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  • COBSQL now displays appropriate COBOL syntax errors after encountering EXEC SQL statement errors.

    2673619 (1093197)

Compiler

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  • In member reference in managed COBOL syntax, you may now only use parentheses when referencing methods. You can no longer specify parentheses when referencing fields or properties, as this will produce a syntax error. For example: 
    set intLength to testString::Length()
    must change to: 
    set intLength to testString::Length

Changes in Behavior in Release 2.2

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This section describes significant changes in behavior or usage. These changes could potentially affect the behavior of existing applications or impact the way the tools are used.

The numbers that follow each issue are the Support Incident Numbers followed by the Reported Problem Incident (RPI) number (in parentheses).

Common Communications Interface

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  • A new option, use_global_namespace, is available for the CCI.INI file in the Windows %SystemRoot% folder. If use_global_namespace is set, all the ccishared memory objects are created in a system-wide address space, and the applications hosted by different users, including system services, can communicate. To use this facility, edit the CCI.INI file and ensure use_global_namespace is set to "yes". [ccismem-base] # Allow interaction between users on a # single system. Using this option reduces security as # all users will have access to the same name space. use_global_namespace=yes If the value of this option is anything other than "yes", or if the option is missing, no change is made to the existing behavior.

    2195519 (1062800)

Compiler

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  • The use of ILSMARTLINKAGE in sub-programs is now working correctly. In previous versions, if it was specified in a sub-program, a dynamic call of that program from another program could cause execution failure.

    2608825 (1087435)

  • In managed code, the statement DISPLAY UPON SYSERR now behaves as expected. Previously, it was behaving the same as DISPLAY UPON CONSOLE.

    2589053 (1085576)

  • When the PROPERTY keyword is used on a numeric edited field, the SET method now works correctly when the program specifies DECIMAL POINT IS COMMA.

    2588508 (1085560)

  • The default for the NSYMBOL directive under DIALECT(ENTCOBOL) has been changed to NSYMBOL(NATIONAL) to emulate the equivalent IBM default.

    2657471 (1090355)

  • To improve RM/COBOL and ACUCOBOL compatibility, the SIGN clause at a group level is no longer applied to non-DISPLAY usage signed numeric data items within the group, just as it is not applied to unsigned numeric data items and non-numeric data items within the group.

    2549904 (1082171)

  • Previously, even though no code was generated, the Compiler allowed the ON EXCEPTION and NOT ON EXCEPTION phrases in the DISPLAY statement in formats that do not allow these phrases. As a result, if the DISPLAY statement was in the ON EXCEPTION phrase of another statement, the NOT ON EXCEPTION phrase would bind incorrectly with the DISPLAY statement instead of with the intended containing statement - for example, ACCEPT or CALL.

IDE

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  • Performance when loading and building COBOL projects that consist of a large number of files has been improved.

    2657121 (1090316)

  • When building a project outside of the IDE, adding a new file to a project no longer results in a full rebuild of the project.

    2617003 (1089623)

  • You can now change the display format of values on individual rows in the Watch window using modifiers after the names of variables and expressions. To do this, click a row, press F2, and type a modifier after the name of the variable or the expression as follows - type VariableName,h or VariableName,x to always display the variable or the expression in hexadecimal format; type VariableName,d to always display numeric variables in decimal format and strings - as text.

    2614182 (1087959)

  • When you perform a search in the IDE for copybooks that your programs depend upon, the COPYEXT directive you set from the Additional directives field on the COBOL tab in your project's properties is now used in preference to the list of copybook extensions specified in Tools > Options > Text Editor > Micro Focus COBOL > Advanced, and in Copybook extensions. This change does not affect the project build and background parsing that already use COPYEXT.

    2612053 (1087773)

  • Attempting to restart an enterprise server failed if the process took longer than fifteen seconds.

    2607051 (1087259)

  • When you debug native code and query a data item which contains null bytes, the value displayed in the Watch window is no longer truncated at the first null byte.

    2604749 (1087235)

  • A new setting, "Define DEBUG constant", is now available on the COBOL page in the project properties of managed projects for the Debug configuration. You can select it to add "constant"DEBUG(1)"" to the build directives.

    2600567 (1086629)

  • The Output window now displays a notification when the compilation of the IMS files has been successful.

    2600137 (1086667)

  • A problem with the value of "Link with objs" setting being duplicated after you reload the COBOL Link properties page has been resolved.

    2595408 (1086091)

  • IntelliSense now displays data names longer than 32 characters correctly.

    2594901 (1086053)

  • Previously, when you upgraded COBOL projects with signed assemblies from Visual Studio 2003 format to Visual Studio 2010 format, the signed assembly property was lost.

    2585458 (1085258)

  • There is an improvement in the performance of the cursor in the text editor when working with larger files and projects.

    2585450 (1085255)

  • Using linked files in projects has been improved as follows:
    • Folders that only contain linked files no longer disappear from the project when you reload it.
    • The location of linked files is preserved in the project structure when you reload the project.
    • Moving a linked file within a project no longer moves the actual file on the disk but only moves the link inside the project structure.
    • It is no longer possible to copy a linked file into the same project where, previously, this created a copy of the actual file on the disk.

    2574102 (1084208)

  • When you convert Net Express projects that compile to .int or .gnt files to Visual COBOL for Visual Studio, the application environment variables are now imported successfully.

    2569777 (1083953)

  • It is now possible to convert Net Express projects that do not contain any COBOL source files to Visual Studio projects.

    2568638 (1083900)

  • You can now set environment variables used by the native COBOL Run-Time system during initialization from the project properties - click Environment on the Application tab.

    2539447 (1081251)

  • Pressing Enter to create a new line now preserves the indent in the COBOL editor in Smart edit mode.

    2496411 (1077769)

  • Pressing End inside the writing area of the COBOL editor now positions the cursor on the first non-blank character, if columns 12-72 contain any text. If the line is blank, the cursor is positioned on column 73.

    2496351 (1077767)

  • The COBOL editor now supports a "Smart edit mode" (see Tools > Options > Text Editor > Micro Focus COBOL > Margins) which is enabled by default. In Smart edit mode, when you press ENTER in the code (A/B) area the comments move to the next line and stay in the right-hand area.

    2496350 (1077768)

  • You now receive a suitable error message when you try to use "Start Without Debugging" with Mainframe Subsystem Application projects.

    2495298 (1078343)

  • You can now use Solution folders to group projects in your solution.

    2259310 (1065760)

  • If, when you start debugging, the debug target does not exist you now receive an error message that correctly states the missing filename.
  • Any leading or trailing spaces you added to the name specified in the "Output name" field on the Application tab in the properties of a native project are now ignored.
  • Class view no longer contains outdated information from previous background syntax checking after classes have been renamed.
  • Class view no longer contains outdated information from previous background syntax checking when the files defining types have been removed.
  • A problem with navigating to member definitions from the Class View has been resolved.
  • A problem with navigating to member definitions from the Class View has been resolved.
  • An issue where canceling some of the dialogs in Tools > Options resulted in the changes being saved anyway, or the pages not reverting when next loaded, has been resolved.
  • You can now start and stop servers from the Server Explorer when using the local machine's IP address or DNS name.
  • It is now possible to debug a project that has its "Compile for debugging" setting enabled in the project properties for the Release configuration.
  • Selecting a project in Class View now triggers background syntax checking, if it has not been performed for that project yet.
  • If you have .NET Framework v. 4.5 installed, creating a COBOL Web application with Visual Studio 2010 Shell was failing with a Signal 114 error and was causing the IDE to crash. This issue has been resolved for the IDE. To work around the issue when you compile COBOL Web Applications from the command line, you need to manually set the environment variable VisualStudioVersion to 10.0 before compiling.
  • Using the tab character in comments no longer causes issues with the colorization of the code.
  • The Visual Studio IDE no longer crashes if you try to close it while directives scan is in progress.
  • Adding files to a project when directives scan is disabled was taking a long time to complete.
  • Friend assemblies (as identified by the InternalsVisibleToAttribute) are now correctly handled during syntax checking, and types are correctly found within friend assemblies when they are present.
  • An issue with adding new platforms or configurations to a project or solution when the project contains pre- or post-build events has been resolved.
  • A problem with navigating to member definitions from the Class View, when the definitions occurred within copybooks used within partial classes, has been resolved.
  • A problem where trying to navigate to the source of an item from the Class View positioned you on the wrong line, has been resolved.
  • An issue where the Implements smart tag was present for interfaces that were fully implemented (when some of the methods from that interface were implemented explicitly; and in addition to another interface which was not fully implemented) has been fixed.
  • An issue where method signatures were rendered incorrectly if the member had a 78 level item in its local storage has been resolved.

Interface Mapping Toolkit

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  • For program-based Service Interfaces, if the program-id name in the COBOL source is in lowercase and is not surrounded by quotes, its corresponding entry-point name is now forced to uppercase when used in a Service Interface Operation. Previously, the case was preserved. As a result of this change, existing Service Interfaces will become invalidated if you refresh their program's annotations because of the new spelling of the entry-point name. To avoid this, you need to surround the program-id name in the COBOL source with quotes before you refresh the annotations.

MF Directory Server

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  • The mfds command line option for exporting registered Enterprise Server definitions to an XML file now supports the "*" option. This exports all registered servers rather than a specified server. Multiple server definitions are now exported into the target directory and saved into a file with the default name ALLSERVERS.xml. The import option now also supports the import of multiple server definitions from a single XML file.

    2641890 (1088838)

  • mdump now supports a new option, -e, to help you query the Security Manager configuration details. The possible values of the option are: "1" - shows security configuration that applies to any returned enterprise servers; "2" - shows security configuration for MFDS and the default Enterprise Server security configuration. This requires MFDS version 1.15.00 or higher; "3" - returns the properties of all configured external Security Managers.

    2487164 (1081693)

MF Server Administrator (GUI)

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  • When adding a user to an external security manager, you can now include a password expiry time in the Advanced Configuration section of the Add New User wizard in Enterprise Server Administration. The field value is specified using generalized time format (YYYYMMDDHHMMSS.0Z), and can be used by the MLDAP ESM for calculating whether a user's password has expired and requires updating. This value may only be specified using this page when adding a user. You need to use an external directory services configuration tool to edit it.

    2562118 (1083203)

Request Handler

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  • A problem that caused BIS to create log files in a directory named C:\ProgramData\AcuCorp\BIS\LogFiles was fixed. BIS no longer creates log files unless specified and the BIS logging service is now disabled by default. To enable it, you need to use the following global environment variable: BIS_LOG=[ OFF | ON | <directory> ] Where the values are:
    • OFF - disables logging (the same as if BIS_LOG is not specified or is left blank)
    • ON - enables logging and directs the log files into the default location, which must not be read-only.
    • <directory> - enables logging and directs the log files into the specified directory. The user must ensure that the BIS request handler has write rights for this directory. The directory must be an absolute path or network path. If the specified directory does not exist, BIS will attempt to create it. The containing directory must exist.

    The BIS_LOG variable is only examined when the BIS application pool is started or recycled. After setting or changing BIS_LOG, IIS must be restarted in order for the variable to take effect.

Samples Browser

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  • If you have installed the version of this product for both Visual Studio 2010 and Visual Studio 2012, the Samples Browser now provides links for you to open the samples in either one of them.

Changes in Behavior in Release 2.1 Update 1

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This section describes significant changes in behavior or usage. These changes could potentially affect the behavior of existing applications or impact the way the tools are used.

The numbers that follow each issue are the Support Incident Numbers followed by the Reported Problem Incident (RPI) number (in parentheses).

Documentation

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  • To ensure no loss of functionality when accessing Vision and RM/COBOL data files, you should use the appropriate IDXFORMAT Compiler directive setting or file handling option, and not use the CALLFH(ACUFH) Compiler directive. See 'Configuring Access to Vision Files' and 'Configuring Access to RM/COBOL Data Files' for more information.

Enterprise Server

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  • HSF includes the following enhancements:
    • A new record type (JCLF) for JCL files.
    • A Job class has been added to the JCL JOBSTART records.
    • A condition code has been added to the JCL STEP records.
    • Statistics for up to 5 Transient Data Queues per CICS record has been added (same as for exisiting TSQ stats). The HSF files will now be created with the following header: #HSFVer=02 Type,PID,Task,Date,Time,Tran/Job,User/DDName/CC,LU/Step,Prog/DSName,Latent/ReadCount,Resp/WriteCount,API/RewriteCount,SQL/DeleteCount,IMS,DSType,DSAccessType,File1,Count1,Time1,File2,Count2,Time2,File3,Count3,Time3,File4,Count4,Time4,File5,Count5,Time5,TS1,Count1,Time1,TS2,Count2,Time2,TS3,Count3,Time3,TS4,Count4,Time4,TS5,Count5,Time5,TD1,Count1,Time1,TD2,Count2,Time2,TD3,Count3,Time3,TD4,Count4,Time4,TD5,Count5,Time5

    2552658 (1082755)

IDE

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  • There is no longer a crash when adding a reference path to a managed COBOL project.

    2604844 (1087055)

  • When you debug native code and query a data item which contains null bytes, the value displayed in the Watch window is no longer truncated at the first null byte.

    2604749 (1087235)

  • An issue where you could not open copybooks from the context menu in the COBOL editor when the filename was specified with its extension and without surrounding quotes has been resolved.

    2604709 (1087031)

  • A problem with the value of "Link with objs" setting being duplicated after you reload the COBOL Link properties page has been resolved.

    2595408 (1086091)

  • Previously, when you upgraded COBOL projects with signed assemblies from Visual Studio 2003 format to Visual COBOL 2010 format, the signed assembly property was lost.

    2585458 (1085258)

  • There is an improvement in the performance of the cursor in the text editor when working with larger files and projects.

    2585450 (1085255)

  • The Error List window now shows the details about the "Illegal command line" error when it is a result of setting invalid SQL directives.

    2585426 (1085251)

  • Adding files to a project when directives scan is disabled was taking a long time to complete.

    (593378)

OpenESQL

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  • SQLWARN4 flag was not being set when more than one row was returned for a singleton SELECT statement. The OpenESQL run-time now correctly sets SQLWARN flags when a singleton SELECT statement returns multiple rows.

    2593798 (1085945)

Changes in Behavior in Release 2.1

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This section describes significant changes in behavior or usage. These changes could potentially affect the behavior of existing applications or impact the way the tools are used.

The numbers that follow each issue are the Support Incident Numbers followed by the Reported Problem Incident (RPI) number (in parentheses).

Compiler

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  • The use of extended ACCEPT or DISPLAY statements in Windows applications (ilsubsystem"2") now produces error COBCH1634: Extended ACCEPT/DISPLAY not allowed with a Windows GUI executable (ILSUBSYSTEM"2"). Remove the syntax or change the output type of your application to 'Console Application'.

    2575702 (1084365)

IDE

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  • A problem with the item templates in the Add New Items dialog box not available for PL/I projects has been resolved.

    2581187 (1084876)

  • There is now a build summary report for projects that compile to multiple output files.

    2578006 (1084506)

  • Previously, Visual Studio used to always rebuild the entire project after you changed the project properties or added files when there were build error. This has been changed so that during subsequent builds Visual Studio only rebuilds the files that are out-of-date.

    2576400 (1084393)

  • A new setting has been added to the COBOL tab in the project properties, "Generate listing option", which produces an .lst file in a Listing subfolder in the project directory. The "Generate directives file" setting now generates the directive file in the project output directory.

    2494484 (1077662)

  • Command line arguments are now passed to the program when started via the 'Start without Debugging' option in the Visual Studio IDE.
  • Previously, if you started debugging using CBL_DEUGBREAK and there was a COBOL source file open in the editor, when you stopped debugging its dictionary file (.idy) was not being released. This resulted in any subsequent builds and rebuilds failing. This problem has been resolved.
  • The native COBOL projects in Visual Studio have been enhanced so that you can now build them to multiple executables - each COBOL program in the project producing a separate executable.
  • You no longer receive an error message when adding an event handler to an object in a COBOL WPF project if the .xaml code behind file includes a class that does not have methods in it.
  • The IDE no longer ignores certain Run-Time System errors from the Compiler which previously caused the build to fail without an explanation.
  • Compile extensionless COBOL files with the IDE no longer fails.
  • Using the UI to add COBOL switches or environment variables to a COBOL Web Application (right-click the configuration file in Solution Explorer and select Edit) no longer causes a configuration error when you run the application.

    2558133 (1082871)

Run-Time System

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  • When running a full-screen application inside a terminal emulator on Linux, the actual size of the terminal is read at startup and reread when the terminal is resized. This behaviour is also supported on AIX, HP/UX, and Solaris. The Micro Focus vt220 terminfo entry now correctly describes a 24-line display. A vt220-25 terminfo entry is included for compatibility with the previous behaviour.

    2579335 (1084817)

Vision File System

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  • When you configure your application to return RM/COBOL file status codes, by setting COBFSTATCONV=rmstat, the codes returned are ANSI'85 codes.

    2553438 (1082469)

Changes in Behavior in Release 2.0

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This section describes significant changes in behavior or usage. These changes could potentially affect the behavior of existing applications or impact the way the tools are used.

The numbers that follow each issue are the Support Incident Numbers followed by the Reported Problem Incident (RPI) number (in parentheses).

Compiler

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  • An attempt to serialize a class containing COBOL data such as PIC X or group items could lead to a serialization exception.

    2555177 (1082730)

  • Dependent assemblies (ones that are required by other assemblies) that fail to load now issue a COBCH1581 warning "Could not load dependent assembly AssemblyName". Previously, they generated a COBCH0942 error. If an assembly generates both COBCH0942 and COBCH1581 errors, the error report lists only the COBCH0942 error.

    2507380 (1078845)

  • The scope of the ILUSING Compiler directive when used in a $set command has changed. The scope of the directive is now limited only to the source file it is set in, and not globally. This new behavior may mean that your source files no longer compile. To resolve this, add the required ILUSING statements to the required individual source files, or add the ILUSING directive on the command line. Alternatively, use the IDE to achieve the required behavior: in Visual Studio, use the Namespaces tab; in Eclipse, set the directive in the Additional Directives field.

DB2

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  • The DB2 ECM has been updated to resolve run-time errors returned when compiling against mainframe databases in 64-bit mode.

    2549058 (1082441)

File Handling

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  • When reading a file cataloged as DISP=SHR the file handler now buffers the read for better performance.

    2518330 (1079491)

IDE

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  • Using File > New > Solution From Net Express Project to convert a Net Express project to a Visual COBOL solution on a machine with a language locale other than English or Japanese produced an empty solution.

    2548551 (1082073)

  • The COBOL tab in the project properties of a new WPF Application sometimes was not showing any settings.

    2535705 (1080950)

  • In some menus and dialogs in the IDE copybooks were referred to as copy files. They are now consistently referred to as copybooks.
  • The project properties have been enhanced. The SQL directives are no longer shown in Build Settings on the COBOL page where they sometimes appeared as out-of-date. The SQL directives now appear only on the SQL page.
  • Adding a watch on an item of the form buffer(1:size) caused the IDE to hang when "size" was not initialized.
  • ActiveX components in the Windows Forms of a managed project could cause the programs to crash at run-time. Previously, to work around this problem, you had to check the ActiveX references in the project and set their CopyLocal reference property to True. This is now done automatically when the references are added.

    2536071 (1080978)

  • Adding an existing Windows Form to another project as a linked file did not function correctly. When you reopened the project, the designer and the resx files were missing from all Windows Forms in the project.

    2524313 (1079984)

OpenESQL

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  • OpenESQL did not always return a consistent error message or it returned an incorrect error message when a data conversion exception occurred within the ADO.NET run-time system.

Run-Time System

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  • On Windows 7, building 64-bit native COBOL applications always rebuilt the entire project. This was caused by the Microsoft FileTracker tool, used by the COBOL projects to track dependencies, not working because of Windows 7 security updates. This product now includes a fix to work around this issue.
Parent topic: Upgrading from an Earlier Release