Visual COBOL R3 from Micro Focus makes Cloud Deployment of COBOL Apps Easy

Micro Focus has released Visual COBOL R3 which is the next generation of the COBOL development tools. Since it allows the developers to work in either Visual Studio 2010 or Eclipse, it gives them the freedom to choose the platform best suited for their organization. The same code can be used to deploy on .NET, JAVA or Azure cloud.

Visual COBOL R3 for Visual Studio helps the programmer to attain high productivity by deploying the visual studio tools, which can be used to build modern applications. Also with the enhanced syntax and usability of .Net services it is easier for the .Net programmers to work with COBOL. SQL Server Stored Procedures can also be deployed.

Using the Eclipse the developers can integrate the object oriented and Java classes into COBOL. The Eclipse editor includes a visual indication of COBOL margins, COBOL comment structures, column block marking and more. Also the background parsing ensures the clean parsing of the code. Migration of extend application to Visual COBOL is also easy.

To deploy the COBOL applications for cloud, a Azure package is included which helps in creating cloud based applications. Also existing applications can be moved to the cloud, saving the investment and existing IT assets. Before deploying the applications, it provides a testing environment called Azure Compute Emulator. Visual COBOL for Azure is available only on request from Micro Focus.

The Development Hub saves the time and enhances the productivity of the developers by providing them a centralized environment where they can compile and debug. The source code, test data and other components are present on the Unix or Linux server while Eclipse provide the development environment on developer's machine.

Features which are specific to COBOL like data types, mathematical operations, data file handling are not solely supported by the operating system. For that COBOL Runtime 2010 is provided, which acts as a layer between COBOL applications and operating system, making COBOL file handling more reliable.

Click here for more information on Micro Focus Visual COBOL R3.

Shumpy Saini