Micro Focus Delivers 32-bit COBOL Workbench.PALO ALTO Palo Alto, city, California Palo Alto (păl`ō ăl`tō), city (1990 pop. 55,900), Santa Clara co., W Calif.; inc. 1894. Although primarily residential, Palo Alto has aerospace, electronics, and advanced research industries. , Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 8, 1996--Micro Focus today began shipping Micro Focus COBOL Workbench See Micro Focus. v4.0 for Windows, Windows NT (Windows New Technology) A 32-bit operating system from Microsoft for Intel x86 CPUs. NT is the core technology in Windows 2000 and Windows XP (see Windows). Available in separate client and server versions, it includes built-in networking and preemptive multitasking. , Windows 95 and OS/2. Workbench is a comprehensive, integrated suite of programmer productivity tools designed to facilitate the development and maintenance of high-quality, industrial-strength enterprise applications. Workbench now delivers a true 32-bit programming environment, providing a 32-bit compiler that supports both traditional mainframe COBOL COBOL: see programming language. COBOL in full Common Business-Oriented Language. High-level computer programming language, one of the first widely used languages and for many years the most popular language in the business community. dialects and object-oriented COBOL. Additionally, Micro Focus announced new 32-bit versions of several Workbench tools including Micro Focus CICS (Customer Information Control System) A TP monitor from IBM that was originally developed to provide transaction processing for IBM mainframes. It controls the interaction between applications and users and lets programmers develop screen displays without Option v4.0, Micro Focus Transaction System v4.0 and Micro Focus Operating System operating system (OS) Software that controls the operation of a computer, directs the input and output of data, keeps track of files, and controls the processing of computer programs. Extensions (OSX See Mac OS X. ) v4.0. Robust 32-bit Development Environment A wide range of Workbench tools is now enabled to fully exploit the power of 32-bit operating systems Operating systems can be categorized by technology, ownership, licensing, working state, usage, and by many other characteristics. In practice, many of these groupings may overlap. , providing a powerful environment for developing and maintaining mainframe or workstation-based applications. Key benefits of the 32-bit environment include improved memory management, increased performance and multitasking multitasking Mode of computer operation in which the computer works on multiple tasks at the same time. A task is a computer program (or part of a program) that can be run as a separate entity. capabilities. The 32-bit environment allows programmers to maintain rehosted applications that previously would have been too large for a workstation because of the number of programs within the application, the size of data or linkage sections, or pointer manipulation problems. Programmers will now realize significant performance improvements, particularly with computation or CALL-intensive applications. Additionally, it is easier to access other languages from COBOL such as C for interoperability with GUI (Graphical User Interface) A graphics-based user interface that incorporates movable windows, icons and a mouse. The ability to resize application windows and change style and size of fonts are the significant advantages of a GUI vs. a character-based interface. environments and third-party tools or PL/1 for enhanced mainframe emulation. Workbench v4.0 Workbench integrates the industry-standard COBOL compiler, and now Micro Focus Object COBOL, with development and testing tools that promote programmer productivity and quality system development. It features powerful editing, debugging and communications facilities as well as graphical data tools within an easy-to-use development environment. Additional performance enhancements designed to extend the capabilities of this development environment include a new Source Code Management Facility (SCMF SCMF Self Consistent Mean Field SCMF Saceurs Conceptual Military Framework SCMF Semicompelled Multifrequency SCMF Single Contact Metal Flange ), Advanced Organizer for imaging workflows and an enhanced version of the programmerUs interface. Product installation has been unified so that it is easier for users to install the products which comprise their solution. Workbench 4.0 continues to provide extensive support for traditional COBOL systems. Object COBOL Compiler Micro Focus Object COBOL, the first true 32-bit object-oriented COBOL compiler, is now available as part of COBOL Workbench. The object-oriented compiler is now fully integrated with WorkbenchUs procedural COBOL compiler. This integration provides a robust environment for migrating existing, and developing new, COBOL applications that take full advantage of the power of today's high-performance PCs and operating systems, and the latest programming methodologies. Integrated Source Management Facility The Source Code Management Facility (SCMF) is a feature-rich source code control system that helps programmers manage their work and control changes made to source code. Support for simultaneous check-out and automatic collision detection See CSMA/CD and collision avoidance system. (networking) collision detection - A class of methods for sharing a data transmission medium in which hosts transmit as soon as they have data to send and then check to see whether their transmission has suffered a collision with make it possible for a team of programmers to work on the same project. Reporting options allow programmers to see what changes have been made to a program and by whom. Dependency generation features help the programmer identify where a file is common among several programs. SCMF can integrate with mainframe systems, enabling programmers to move source code to and from the host-based source code control system, providing a high degree of flexibility. It can also integrate with Advanced Organizer, enabling actions that check source in and out of SCMF to be presented on the same pop-up menus as Edit, Check, Debug To correct a problem in hardware or software. Debugging software means locating the errors in the source code (the program logic). Debugging hardware means finding errors in the circuit design (logical circuits) or in the physical interconnections of the circuits. and other actions. This allows programmers to stay within the same development environment to perform source control functions as well as normal application maintenance and development, significantly increasing productivity. Advanced Organizer Advanced Organizer is the GUI interface that developers use to manage their work within Workbench. With Advanced Organizer, application objects which contain information about the components that make up an application (i.e. source code, batch files, documentation, tests and data files) can be created on the desktop. For example, when a COBOL program source is selected, the actions Edit, Check and Debug are presented, allowing the programmer to focus on the work to be completed, rather than sorting through lists of tools to find the correct option. 32-bit Enabled Tools Micro Focus is now also shipping new 32-bit versions of several core Workbench productivity tools including Micro Focus CICS Option, Micro Focus Transaction System and Micro Focus OSX. Micro Focus is also shipping new, 32-bit versions of several mainframe add-ons to Workbench for the mainframe offloading environment, including Micro Focus IMS (1) See IP Multimedia Subsystem. (2) (Information Management System) An early IBM hierarchical DBMS for IBM mainframes. IMS was widely implemented throughout the 1970s under MVS and continues to be used under z/OS. Option v4.0, Micro Focus 370/Assembler (Production System) and Micro Focus PROXMVS v4.0. Micro Focus CICS Option v4.0 Micro Focus CICS Option v4.0 is a comprehensive 32-bit transaction processing development environment for mainframe and network-based CICS applications. It provides a flexible, integrated environment for application development, testing and debugging and includes Micro Focus Transaction System for full CICS execution emulation. In addition to support for 32-bit operating systems, version 4.0 provides a host of performance and useability enhancements including multi-processor support, an advanced screen painter and extensive debugging facilities. Micro Focus Transaction System v4.0 Micro Focus Transaction System v4.0 is a complete CICS application program execution environment for Windows, OS/2, AIX (Advanced Interactive eXecutive) IBM's Unix-based operating system which runs on its Intellistation workstations and pSeries, p5, iSeries and i5 server families. and UNIX-based systems. It provides for both local and remote distributed online transaction processing See transaction processing and OLCP. (OLTP (OnLine Transaction Processing) See transaction processing and OLCP. OLTP - On-Line Transaction Processing ) with the integrity, security and throughput inherent in an industrial-strength production environment. Version 4.0 now supports Windows 95, Windows NT, OS/2 32-bit thin clients and 3270 type devices. Micro Focus Operating System Extensions (OSX) v4.0 Micro Focus Operating System Extensions (OSX) v4.0 is a client/server run-time facility that allows Micro Focus COBOL applications to be easily distributed across a wide range of platforms without modifying the original code. OSX Client functions include portable execution layers for communications, graphical user interface graphical user interface (GUI) Computer display format that allows the user to select commands, call up files, start programs, and do other routine tasks by using a mouse to point to pictorial symbols (icons) or lists of menu choices on the screen as opposed to having to (GUI) management, data access and file handling. OSX Server functions include Micro Focus Fileshare which supports robust high-performance data file servers for multi-user network applications. Key benefits in this new version include the ability to handle very large applications in terms of code, data and number of active modules; and performance improvements in the range of 2-5 times faster for large or calculation-intensive applications. Pricing and Availability Micro Focus COBOL Workbench v4.0 is available immediately list priced at $2500 (US) and the series of 32-bit-enabled 4.0 tools will become available over the next few weeks. Micro Focus is located at 2465 East Bayshore Road, Palo Alto, Calif. 94303. Telephone: 415/856-4161. CONTACT: A&R Partners Lisa Auslen, 415/363-0982 x20 lisa_auslen@arpartners.com |
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