====================================================================== Microsoft(R) Product Support Services Application Note (Text File) BC0623: GENERAL QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ====================================================================== Revision Date: 4/93 No Disk The following information applies to Microsoft COBOL Professional Development System, version 5.0. -------------------------------------------------------------------- | INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THIS DOCUMENT AND ANY SOFTWARE THAT MAY | | ACCOMPANY THIS DOCUMENT (collectively referred to as an | | Application Note) IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY | | KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO | | THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND/OR FITNESS FOR A | | PARTICULAR PURPOSE. The user assumes the entire risk as to the | | accuracy and the use of this Application Note. This Application | | Note may be copied and distributed subject to the following | | conditions: 1) All text must be copied without modification and | | all pages must be included; 2) If software is included, all files | | on the disk(s) must be copied without modification [the MS-DOS(R) | | utility DISKCOPY is appropriate for this purpose]; 3) All | | components of this Application Note must be distributed together; | | and 4) This Application Note may not be distributed for profit. | | | | Copyright 1993 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved. | | Microsoft and MS-DOS are registered trademarks and Windows | | is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. | -------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Q. What should I do when I receive a "Load failure 170" error on ADIS.EXE or EXTFH.EXE? A. Determine which version of LINK.EXE you are using by typing LINK at the MS-DOS command prompt. When Microsoft LINK displays its banner message, note the linker version number. To develop an application with Microsoft COBOL version 5.0, use LINK version 5.31. If you have installed LINK 5.31 and a version of LINK earlier than version 5.31 displays its banner message, check the directories listed in your MS-DOS PATH environment variable for another file named LINK.EXE, and rename the earlier version of the linker. If you are using the correct linker version and the error occurs, perhaps a required run- time support module cannot be found in the current directory or in a directory listed in the MS-DOS PATH. To determine the run- time support modules that are necessary to successfully execute an application, refer to the chapter titled "Linking and Library Management" in the Microsoft COBOL "System Reference for COBOL" manual for version 5.0 or the "COBOL Operating Guide" manual for version 4.5. For more information, please refer to article Q84596 in the article library section of the Languages FastTips system, or query on Q84596 in the Microsoft Knowledge Base on CompuServe(R). 2. Q. What should I do when I receive a "Cannot invoke ISAM.EXE" error message when I run an application developed with COBOL version 2.0 with MS-DOS version 5.0? A. Use SETVER.EXE to change the behavior of MS-DOS when ISAM.EXE and NISAM.EXE run. SETVER creates a version table that lists the name of an older executable program and the corresponding version of MS-DOS that the program was designed to run with. The syntax to invoke the SETVER utility is as follows: SETVER For example, if you previously used MS-DOS version 3.3, enter the following command lines at the MS-DOS command prompt: SETVER ISAM.EXE 3.30 SETVER NISAM.EXE 3.30 After you reboot your machine, ISAM.EXE and NISAM.EXE should yield correct results. For more information, please refer to article Q78204 in the article library of the Languages FastTips system, or query on Q78204 in the Microsoft Knowledge Base on CompuServe. 3. Q. How do I pass parameters from an application developed in Microsoft Visual Basic(TM) to a dynamic-link library (DLL) developed in COBOL? A. COBOL version 5.0 includes a complete sample program to demonstrate this technique. By default, the sample program is installed in the SAMPLES\VBDEMO directory. The VBCOBDLL batch file contains all the commands needed to build the application. 4. Q. What are the major differences between COBOL version 4.5 and COBOL version 5.0? A. The major differences between COBOL version 4.5 and version 5.0 are as follows: - Improved support for Microsoft Windows versions 3.0 and 3.1: COBOL 5.0 supports a shared run-time system (COBLIB) with Windows 3.0 and 3.1. The run-time system is provided as COBLIB.DLW. - Animator improvements: The Animator can monitor many data items simultaneously. Each item is displayed in its own window on the screen. - PANELS character-window tool: PANELS enables an application to create multiple windows on a character-mode screen. PANELS also supports sending ACCEPT/DISPLAY statements to the different windows. These features ease developing pull-down menus, pop-up windows, and so forth, on a character-mode screen. - Extfh/Btrieve Interface: COBOL 5.0 provides new modules to allow an application that uses standard COBOL file-handling syntax to access Btrieve(R) files. Another module allows an application that makes calls to Btrieve to access indexed- sequential files created using the standard COBOL file handler (EXTFH). - Mainframe compatibility enhancements: COBOL 5.0 supports the DOS/VS COBOL dialect. - Supports Western National Language Standards (NLS): COBOL 5.0 provides the NLS compiler directive to indicate that a program should use a specified language, territory, and code page. Given this information, the program uses the appropriate collating sequence for comparisons, and the appropriate characters for currency signs, decimal separators, and thousands separators. 5. Q. How can I correct the LINK errors and warnings I receive when I rebuild an overlaid application originally built with COBOL version 4.5? A. Specify the /OLDOVERLAY option on the LINK command line. By default, LINK version 5.31 does not support static overlays in an application. In Programmer's WorkBench (PWB), when the Segmented Program option is selected, PWB automatically adds the /OLDOVERLAY option to the LINK command line. 6. Q. Why do I receive the message "That key has no meaning here" when I press a function key in a COBOL application? A. The error occurs when the function keys have been disabled, which is the default. To change this behavior, use the ADISCF utility to update the ADISCTRL configuration file. If the problem persists, verify that the application can load the ADISCTRL file. ADISCTRL must be in the same directory as the program, or the MS-DOS COBDIR environment variable must point to the directory where the file is located. For more information, please refer to article Q35832 in the article library of the Languages FastTips system, or query on Q35832 in the Microsoft Knowledge Base on CompuServe.