William M. Klein wrote:
> The Fujitsu V3 compiler was NOT for commercial use either.
>
> Well, actually, when it was first provided (in 1996 or so) it could
> be used for anything, but for the last decade or so it was explicitly
> posted with 'restrictions' saying that it was not for commercial use.

The COBOL Compiler-Windows Micro Focus Net Express On Windows, use the cobol command to compile the COBOL code generated by the preprocessor. Then use the cblnames command to extract all public symbols into a cbllds.obj file for the linker, and the link utility to bind the objects into an executable. OpenCobolIDE is a simple cobol IDE based on the GnuCobol compiler. This program has a native cobol syntax highlighting, and code completion features. Also, it has a navigable tree view of division, sections, paragraphs etc., which are fully synchronized with the code folding panel. Raincode COBOL compiler is a legacy compiler for Windows users. It supports precisely the mainframe COBOL syntax, data types and behavior. Applications can be migrated seamlessly, and the Visual Studio plug-in provides a comfortable and productive development environment.

I received it (for free..) in 1996, as you noted. I developed a commercial
system with it using PowerCOBOL and it is running to this day.

(This, as Bill noted, did not violate the license at the time.)

Originally, Fujitsu marketed it into the vacuum created by the withdrawal of
support for Micro Focus Visoc, and I was one of the Micro Focus customers
who changed to Fujitsu at that time.

I found the product to be excellent and took out maintenance and updated as
new versions became available.

By the time version 5 arrived, it was a pretty good development environment,
although the IDE has always been 'primitive' compared to Eclipse or Visual
Studio.

It was in version 6 that everything turned to custard. Fujitsu (USA), later
to become Alchemy, decided that piracy was a major concern (I remain
unconvinced to this day; I was talking to a number of Fujitsu customers and
I never met one who was making illegal copies for supply to someone else;
for the most part, their user base was honest COBOL developers for whom not
having a backup put their businesses at risk..) and implemented an insane
system of registration using Casper on a remote server. Although this was
supposed to be helpful for users, inasmuch as the system would allow you 30
days to download and use a copy of the software if your main implementation
went down, the process involved was really unwieldy. For users outside the
continental USA where time differences matter and you can't just dial an
0800 number, it was frightening. What if the Casper server was down or
wouldn't recognise your registration? Added to that, the procedure for
transferring a licence to a different machine was just plain silly. (It
required a floppy disk..how long since you saw one of those..? :-))

There was unrest amongst the troops and I recall a heated debate in this
forum about the the new licensing. Fujitsu remained unmoved and impervious
and some of us, who actually loved the products and had been fiercely loyal
to them, started thinking about alternatives. (The ironic thng is that,
despite all the complicated rigmarole with Casper Registration, the whole
process is NOT secure, and copies of the software can be easily made by
determined and informed people. Alchemy should really revise this
registration system and make it fair and reasonable for rveryone concerned.
Modern technology and software innovation has overtaken the Neanderthal
mindset that dreamed up Casper.)

For me, nails started being hammered into the coffin when they revamped
their support and fired guys like Lee Unterreiner (who was one of the most
outstanding support people I have ever seen anywhere), as a cost-cutting
measure.

The final nails went in when I found myself on a customer site to whom I
had recommended the products, and there were undocumented errors in the
software (PowerCOBOL), incoherent dialogs produced in pidgin English, and
the support was imbecilic. The process of getting support was pathetic and
unnecessarily convoluted, and when you finally got attended to, the person
was incompetent. They finally offered to go back to Japan on it and it would
take three weeks. As the client system needed to be operational in 5 days,
this was unacceptable. I worked day and night with the local team, under
extreme pressure, and we rewrote thousands of lines of PowerCOBOL into
NetCOBOL COM components and managed to achieve the target date, but I NEVER
want to be in that situation again. I felt betrayed and embarrassed because
I had recommended them. As a result, I cancelled my maintenance. (The
actual support was a joke and, by then I think we were on version 6 and the
upgrades weren't implementing anything noticeable.. it was like they ran
out of ideas.)

The interment came when I tried to buy their COBOL for .NET compiler and was
treated with rudeness and shabbiness. The attitude was'You're a small time
COBOL developer so you're not going anywhere. You have no options and we'll
deal with you when it suits us, on terms that suit us.' I don't know many
people for whom that would sit well, and for me it just meant an immediate
free download of C# and Visual Studio.

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It also indirectly led to the development of the PRIMA Migration Toolset
which is designed to help others get out from under, just as I did.

Every cloud has a silver lining .. :-).

I was hopeful that when Alchemy was announced it would be a new start and
things would be better.

Instead, I have heard from several sources that maintenance is still
dreadful (OK, hearsay is not evidence..) and now we find that all free and
Academic versions of the compiler have been pulled. (My search was fuitless
just like everybody else's and the Downloads section of the Alchemy site
requires prior registration (perfectly fair and reasonable), but there is no
indication that even if you do this you can get the free V3 compiler.

To be fair, the current Alchemy focus is on COBOL for .NET and the tools
designed to entice mainframe sites onto .NET, (like the appallingly named,
but apparently very useful, NEO-KICKS :-)) so I guess it is understandable
that they don't want to be supporting or dealing with enquiries on obsolete
versions of the NetCOBOL compiler. Nevertheless, they could have left
version 3 with a disclaimer and let people use it for experimentation or
even just having a look at COBOL. Maybe they figure the Open Source COBOL
movement has that covered..

It looks to me like a COBOL company that has no commitment to COBOL (except
maybe .NET COBOL)

If that is the case, then long term, I think the strategy is flawed.

Once people move to a platform like .NET (no matter which vehicle they
arrive in), they very soon start to realise the advantages of this approach.
Before too long it becomes apparent that COBOL and COBOL approaches are not
the best way to do things in this environment (even though you CAN use it),
and they simply move to more facile .NET languages.

It is also important to remember that neither Fujitsu nor Alchemy are
OBLIGED to offer a free compiler. Fujitsu did it to try and penetrate a
market that was dominated by Micro Focus. There was never any guarantee that
they would CONTINUE doing it.

Micro Focus offer a free version because they are a company committed to
COBOL and they realise that by making access to COBOL easy, it is good for
the long term future of their business. I admire them, but I don't think
that is where the future is.

Download The Compiler Of Cobol Tutorial

I guess time will tell.. In the meantime there is a lesson here for all of
us: If a vendor offers something free it is probably worth getting hold of
it. Certainly, it is unlikely to leave you any worse off.. Don't just
assume it will always be there..

(I see this in the same way as the free C#/VB.Net/C++/VS express downloads
from Microsoft.. get it while you can; you don't know how long it will be
available for.. a change of management policy or an analyst decides the
marketing objective has been achieved and it could be pulled overnight..)

>
> Having said that, I couldn't find it anymore on the web either. I am
> watching this thread to see if anyone can still find it.
>

Cobol Compiler Windows

I located a number of links to it but none of them worked. Alchemy is not
showing it or ANY free download that I could find..

Free Cobol Compiler Windows 10

Pete.
--
'I used to write COBOL..now I can do anything.'

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