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HP OpenVMS Systems Documentation
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HP COBOL
User Manual

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Appendix B
HP COBOL on Four Platforms: Compatibility and Migration

HP COBOL on its Alpha platforms (OpenVMS Alpha and Tru64 UNIX) and on its Itanium® platform (OpenVMS I64) is based on and is highly compatible with HP COBOL for OpenVMS VAX. However, there are differences, which are summarized in this appendix.1 Knowing the differences can help you develop COBOL applications that are compatible with other platforms, and can help you migrate your HP COBOL for OpenVMS VAX applications to HP COBOL on an Alpha or I64 platform.

Note

1 Because this appendix is comparative and full of system-specific information, the diamond (<>) that elsewhere in the manual signals the end of system-specific sections is not used here except once, at the end of the appendix.

B.1 Compatibility Matrix

Table B-1 shows the current (as of the date of publication of this manual) state of compatibility for numerous features in HP COBOL on its three platforms. Always check the Release Notes for the latest developments if there is a question about the availability of a given feature. 


Legend
 X       = Supported
 N       = Not supported
 P       = Partially supported

Table B-1 Cross-Platform Compatibility of COBOL Features
  OpenVMS VAX OpenVMS Alpha OpenVMS I64 Tru64 UNIX
/CHECK=DECIMAL N X X X
/CHECK=(PERFORM,BOUNDS) X X X X
/STANDARD=V3 X P P P
18-digit intermediates X X X X
31-digit user items N X X X
32-digit intermediates N X X X
64-bit pointers N P P X
ACCEPT/DISPLAY BLINK X X X X
ACCEPT/DISPLAY WITH CONVERSION X X X X
ACCEPT/DISPLAY, extended X X X X
ACCEPT support for four-digit years X X X X
Alignment: Alpha natural, and padding N X X X
Alignment: VAX compatible X X X X
ANSI-74 FILE STATUS support X X X X
ANSI-85 REPORT WRITER X X X X
ANSI-85/-89/-93 HIGH X X X X
Arithmetic, standard N P P P
CALL USING BY DESCRIPTOR X X X N
Floating point: "E" literal X X X X
Floating point: F,D floating X X X N
Floating point: G floating N X X N
Floating point: IEEE S,T floating N X X X
FUNCTION ARGCOUNT X X X N
Internationalization (PIC N, etc.) X X X X
Invalid decimal data checking P P P P
ISAM key checking X X X X
ISAM keys, segmented X X X X
ISAM READ PRIOR/START LESS N X X X
Little-endian COMP data X X X X
Locking: UCX/NFS support (nolocking) N N N X
Locking: file sharing and record locking X X X X
Oracle CDD/DML support X X X N
Reformat X X X X
RMS special registers X X X N
Symbolic debugger support X X X X
SYS$CURRENCY X X X N
Table sort N X X X
Tape handling X X X X
Terminal source format X X X X
Tools:        
DECset PCA, LSE/SCA support X X X N
DECset PDF support X N N N
FUSE support N N N X
Transarc Encina (-tps) support N N N X
VFC, print control files with X X X N
VFC, print control files without N X X X
X/Open N P P P
ASSIGN TO N X X X
Command line N X X X
COMP-5/COMP-X N X X X
DISPLAY ON EXCEPTION N X X X
Environment variables N X X X
File sharing / record locking N X X X
LINE SEQUENTIAL N X X X
RETURN-CODE N X X X
SCREEN SECTION N X X X
Y2K intrinsic functions X X X X
         

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