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COBOL sp2

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Multi-platform GUI creator for COBOL, originally a traditional screen painter that output COBOL code for text mode interfaces but in 1990 became a bona fide GUI creator, by the mid 90s versions of the tool supported DOS, OS/2 32 bit and MS Windows alongside various DEC VMS and UNIX platforms in addition to AT&T/SCO UNIX and followed IBM CUA guidelines down to a tee, currently the company supports modern Windows implementations, VAX, Linux (on x86 and IBM System Z only) and a few "Big" propriety Unices with only Solaris being a notable absence. While CUA is still supported to a degree the emphasis is more on MS Windows like behaviour.

Flexus Thin Client

Add on for the product that supports thin client capabilities, generating a lightweight GUI code that puts less stress on networked environments, only a MS Windows client and a limited number of server platforms and compilers are supported.

Version

  • Originally introduced in 1986 as screenplay, and supported text mode interfaces only, relaunched as "COBOL spII" the year after but product completely unchanged.
Cobol spII
  • 2 (1990) supported proper graphics mode GUI creation for the first time
  • 3 (1993) the first version to support 32-bit OS/2 and dynamic windows generation, updates to the 3.x branch add multimedia capabilities and fixes primarily. Compilers supported by COBOL spII v3.x include:
ACUCOBOL-85
DEC VAX COBOL
IBM COBOL/2
mbp Visual COBOL
Micro Focus COBOL/2
Microsoft COBOL
CA-Realia COBOL
Ryan McFarland COBOL 85
COBOL sp2
  • 3.2 - last version that runs under OS/2

Version 3.2, multimedia updates and changes the way the product is spelled slightly, from "COBOL spII" to "COBOL sp2".

  • 3.5 last version that runs under WinOS2
  • 4 - drops most "legacy platforms"

Links