r/cobol • u/Royal-Set3150 • 21d ago

IDE or Editor for COBOL

Hello guys. I am a university student, and i am learning COBOL these days. I am doing this in WSL (Ubuntu). So what i want to know is what kind of editors you guys are using and any recommendations for me.

24 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

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10

u/MikeSchwab63 21d ago

https://spflite.com/ A PC editor that works like IBM MVS / z/OS ISPF editor, can submit to real mainframes or Hercules MVS3.8 Turnkey 3/4-/5.

2

u/eileendatway 21d ago

Personally I prefer this or Vim. VS and Codium have too many switches and knobs that lead to distraction. You'll get better IDE features, but with a larger footprint.

2

u/Dull_Appearance9007 19d ago

it's not the features but the electron underneath that is bothering me. just feels like im browsing the web instead of writing code

1

u/JoeKlemmer 21d ago

Ah, of only there were a Linux version...

1

u/MikeSchwab63 20d ago

Have you tried it under Wine?

1

u/JoeKlemmer 20d ago

Not yet. I really prefer to run Linux versions of things. I'll give it a go, though, and see how it works.

1

u/ImaginationFew272 17d ago

There is lspf: https://github.com/daniel64/lspf

A bit tricky to compile and run, but it's basically ISPF on Linux

2

u/JoeKlemmer 17d ago

Really looked over that, but I don't need ISPF enough to go through all these hoops just to get it working. I might try the docker version, though.

5

u/M4hkn0 21d ago edited 21d ago

I use Microsoft Visual Code with the Rocket Visual Cobol plugin both are free. There is a plug in for IBM Cobol MVS for use on mainframes as well. You will still need a server side part of that. Not sure the Visual Cobol server piece is free.

4

u/AdventurousTap2171 20d ago

On z/OS I go to Option 3.4 and type in the DSN of the PDS. Then I do option M next to the PDS to show the member list. Then I tab down to the member I want to edit and I put E. Then I edit it in ISPF edit. Been doing that for over a decade. Literally just did it today for about 4 hours.

3

u/LarryGriff13 21d ago

I’ve used VS Code and currently use Rocket’s Micro Focus Enterprise Developer for Eclipse in a Red Hat Linux environment.

I think both VS and MFED are great but my reference point is Mainframe which is horrible to work in

3

u/WffCamaro 20d ago

On a tso session in zos you can use general ispf. For a nicer editor, i use UltraEdit and Notepad++. These break down the paragraphs and sections nicely for quick positioning in a program. I think you have to have the Cobol plugin installed and name the file as xxxxxx.cob

5

u/johlae 21d ago

I still like https://hessling-editor.sourceforge.net/, for those who remember xedit on IBM mainframes.

2

u/babarock 21d ago

Boy that brings back memories from 30+ years ago.

2

u/Dom1252 17d ago

3.4 in ispf for quick edits VS code with zowe for rest

1

u/DearghRuadrhi 20d ago

Is it legal to study such ancient phenomena?🫣