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October 2023 documentation refresh for Enterprise COBOL for z/OS 6.4

  

Enterprise COBOL for z/OS 6.4 documentation is refreshed today to include the following enhancements:

Enhancements in COBOL 6.4 with PTFs installed: (For a complete list of Enterprise COBOL PTFs, check https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/604539):

  • PH57297: Added support for using UTF-8 (PIC U) data items as the arguments to the STRING and UNSTRING statement. (STRING statement and UNSTRING statement)
    Note: COBOL Runtime LE APAR PH57264 (for AMODE 31) or APAR PH57265 (for AMODE 64) must also be applied on all systems where programs that make use of this new feature are linked or run.

  • PH57397: Added support for function prototypes, with which you can define the function name, parameters, and returning value of a user-defined function or other non-COBOL external functions such as C functions and invoke these functions. This is part of the 2014 COBOL Standard. (Using function prototypes)

  • PH57398: Added the ENCODING phrase to the JSON GENERATE and JSON PARSE statements to specify the encoding of the JSON document. (JSON GENERATE statement and JSON PARSE statement)
    Note: COBOL Runtime LE APAR PH57152 must also be applied on all systems where programs that make use of this new feature are linked or run.

  • PH57400: Added support for using dynamic-length and UTF-8 (PIC U) data items as the arguments to the JSON GENERATE and JSON PARSE statements. (JSON GENERATE statement and JSON PARSE statement)
    Note: COBOL Runtime LE APAR PH57152 must also be applied on all systems where programs that make use of this new feature are linked or run.

Documentation fixes in COBOL 6.4:

- In Language Reference:

  • Corrected the counting of character length from "encoding unit" to "code point" for data used in the JSON GENERATE statement. (JSON GENERATE statement)

  • Updated the example that illustrates the use of ALLOCATE and FREE statements to manage the allocation and resizing of an unbounded table. (Example: ALLOCATE and FREE storage for UNBOUNDED tables)

  • Included references to the UTF-8 support in the INITIALIZE statement. (INITIALIZE statement)

  • Added an example for the “LENGTH OF” special register to return length of a data item. (LENGTH OF)

- In Migration Guide:

The English PDF files are also refreshed to include the updates above. You can find the latest English PDF files from the Enterprise COBOL for z/OS library page at https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/611415.

If you have any comments regarding COBOL docs, please send them to compinfo@cn.ibm.com.