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):
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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)
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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.
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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:
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Corrected the counting of character length from "encoding unit" to "code point" for data used in the JSON GENERATE statement. (JSON GENERATE statement)
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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)
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Included references to the UTF-8 support in the INITIALIZE statement. (INITIALIZE statement)
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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.