Cobol Editor For Windows

With all of the talk about editors lately, I was wondering who has
really nice stand-alone Cobol editors.  Is there something for Windows
that offers Cobol syntax highlighting, ftp open/save, copybook
awareness, etc that makes editing Cobol source a pleasure?

I sometimes use StarBases CodeWright instead of ISPF Edit.  Both are
fine, but not great.

Anyone have some great editor suggestions?

Joe Zitzelberger wrote:
> With all of the talk about editors lately, I was wondering who has
> really nice stand-alone Cobol editors.  Is there something for Windows
> that offers Cobol syntax highlighting, ftp open/save, copybook
> awareness, etc that makes editing Cobol source a pleasure?
>
> I sometimes use StarBases CodeWright instead of ISPF Edit.  Both are
> fine, but not great.
>
> Anyone have some great editor suggestions?

If your compiler comes with an editor they probably work together (jump to
next error, etc.).

If so, a third-party editor would have to be REALLY good to beat the editor
supplied.

Joe Zitzelberger wrote:

> With all of the talk about editors lately, I was wondering who
> has really nice stand-alone Cobol editors.

Take a look at the Zeus for Windows programmers editor:

http://www.zeusedit.com/lookmain.html

> Is there something for Windows that offers Cobol syntax
> highlighting,

Zeus offers Cobol syntax highlighting.

Zeus also has a class browser built around Exuberant Ctags, and
as this tagger has support for Cobol, this should mean the class
browser and intellisensing should work with Cobol.

To test this you need to create a workspace and add the source
files to the Zeus workspace.

> ftp open/save,

Zeus has FTP with support for UNIX, MVS, VM an Windows FTP severs.

Zeus also has SFTP supporting the SSH, SSL/TLS secure FTP protocols.

> copybook awareness, etc that makes editing Cobol source a pleasure?

Not being a Cobol developer I am not sure what this means.

> I sometimes use StarBases CodeWright instead of ISPF Edit.  Both are
> fine, but not great.

If run into any problems with Zeus feel free to post a comment on
the Zeus forum:

http://www.zeusedit.com/forum/index.html

Jussi Jumppanen
Home Page: http://www.zeusedit.com

On Fri, 10 Sep 2004 03:53:23 +1000, Jussi Jumppanen
<jussij@zeusedit.com> wrote:

>Joe Zitzelberger wrote:
> 
>
>Take a look at the Zeus for Windows programmers editor:
>
>   http://www.zeusedit.com/lookmain.html
> 
>
>Zeus offers Cobol syntax highlighting.
>
>Zeus also has a class browser built around Exuberant Ctags, and
>as this tagger has support for Cobol, this should mean the class
>browser and intellisensing should work with Cobol.
>
>To test this you need to create a workspace and add the source
>files to the Zeus workspace.
> 
>
>Zeus has FTP with support for UNIX, MVS, VM an Windows FTP severs.
>
>Zeus also has SFTP supporting the SSH, SSL/TLS secure FTP protocols.
> 
>
>Not being a Cobol developer I am not sure what this means.
Most editors will treat ANY text as either language keywords or text.
A COBOL copybook aware program will open the file mentioned on a copy
command.

e.g.
copy "mycopybook"

a good COBOL editor would alow the user to click the file mycopybook
automatically.

I have just seen that your recent version does allow this. It treats
is as an include file, wo the answer to the OP is yes Zeus is copybook
aware.
It does require the file to be on the search path though. It will not
open it if it is on the same folder of the COBOL program unless it is
also on the search path. Could be improved.

> 
>
>If run into any problems with Zeus feel free to post a comment on
>the Zeus forum:
>
>   http://www.zeusedit.com/forum/index.html
>
>Jussi Jumppanen
>Home Page: http://www.zeusedit.com



Frederico Fonseca
ema il: frederico_fonseca at syssoft-int.com

Joe Zitzelberger wrote:
> With all of the talk about editors lately, I was wondering who has
> really nice stand-alone Cobol editors.  Is there something for Windows
> that offers Cobol syntax highlighting, ftp open/save, copybook
> awareness, etc that makes editing Cobol source a pleasure?
>
> I sometimes use StarBases CodeWright instead of ISPF Edit.  Both are
> fine, but not great.
>
> Anyone have some great editor suggestions?

Visual SlickEdit.  http://www.slickedit.com

Too many features even to mention - syntax highlighting, custom keyword
lists (useful for database names and such), copybook tagging, etc.

--
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~   /   \  /         ~        Live from Montgomery, AL!       ~
~  /     \/       o  ~                                        ~
~ /      /\   -   |  ~          LXi0007@Netscape.net          ~
~ _____ /  \      |  ~ http://www.knology.net/~mopsmom/daniel ~
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
~         I do not read e-mail at the above address           ~
~    Please see website if you wish to contact me privately   ~
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
~ GEEKCODE 3.12 GCS/IT d s-:+ a C++ L++ E--- W++ N++ o? K- w$ ~
~ !O M-- V PS+ PE++ Y? !PGP t+ 5? X+ R* tv b+ DI++ D+ G- e    ~
~ h---- r+++ z++++                                            ~
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"JerryMouse" <nospam@bisusa.com> wrote

> If your compiler comes with an editor they probably work together (jump to
> next error, etc.).
>
> If so, a third-party editor would have to be REALLY good to beat the edito
r
> supplied.

Personally I find that it is not difficult to beat the editor supplied
by Fujitsu, but that may just be me.

On Thu, 09 Sep 2004 06:07:35 -0400, Joe Zitzelberger
<joe_zitzelberger@nospam.com> wrote:

>With all of the talk about editors lately, I was wondering who has
>really nice stand-alone Cobol editors.  Is there something for Windows
>that offers Cobol syntax highlighting, ftp open/save, copybook
>awareness, etc that makes editing Cobol source a pleasure?
>
>I sometimes use StarBases CodeWright instead of ISPF Edit.  Both are
>fine, but not great.
>
>Anyone have some great editor suggestions?

Ultra Edit has FTP, global search, hex editing, can edit files >1G in
size. It comes configured with syntax highlighting for other languages
but not Cobol. With a little work, you could probably make it
understand Cobol (then post the config file here). It was named best
editor for 2004 by PC Magazine.

It is now commercial ($35, free trial). The freeware version can still
be found on the Web.

Joe Zitzelberger wrote:
> With all of the talk about editors lately, I was wondering who has
> really nice stand-alone Cobol editors.  Is there something for Windows
> that offers Cobol syntax highlighting, ftp open/save, copybook
> awareness, etc that makes editing Cobol source a pleasure?
>
> I sometimes use StarBases CodeWright instead of ISPF Edit.  Both are
> fine, but not great.
>
> Anyone have some great editor suggestions?

If your compiler comes with an editor they probably work together (jump to
next error, etc.).

If so, a third-party editor would have to be REALLY good to beat the editor
supplied.

Frederico Fonseca wrote:

> I have just seen that your recent version does allow this. It treats
> is as an include file, wo the answer to the OP is yes Zeus is
> copybook aware.

That is good news :)

> It does require the file to be on the search path though. It will not
> open it if it is on the same folder of the COBOL program unless it is
> also on the search path. Could be improved.

This does sounds like a bug :(

In any case a Zeus macro like the one found here:

http://www.zeusedit.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=26

would probably fix this problem.

Jussi Jumppanen
Home Page: http://www.zeusedit.com

..    Am  09.09.04
schrieb  robert@wagner.net.yourmammaharvests (Robert Wagner)
auf  /COMP/LANG/COBOL
in  89t0k0lj26p167vric35hpkoama74tpejn@4ax.com
ueber  Re: Cobol Editor For Windows

on Ultraedit:

RW>  With a little work, you could probably make it
RW> understand Cobol (then post the config file here).

There is a file on the Ultraedit website for COBOL syntax
highlighting.

ftp://ultraedit.com/wf/cobol.txt

Overview of all additional language files:

http://www.ultraedit.com/downloads/additional.html


Yours,
Lüko Willms                                     http://www.mlwerke.de
/--------- L.WILLMS@jpberlin.de -- Alle Rechte vorbehalten --

"Kein Land kann seine Probleme in dieser globalisierten Welt allein
auf sich gestellt lösen. Entweder wir retten uns alle zusammen oder
wir gehen zusammen unter. Heute mehr denn je gilt das Wort von José
Martí: Das Vaterland ist die ganze Menschheit."
- Fidel Castro, Caracas (Veneuzuela), 3. Februar 1999