The Windows and AIX language support is almost identical.
However, there are differences between
the Windows and the AIX platforms that you should keep in mind.
When developing applications to be
portable between the Windows-based and AIX workstations,
consider these items:
- Hard-coded file-names in source programs can lead to problems.
Instead of hard-coding the names, use mnemonic names so that you
can compile a program without having to change the source code.
In particular, consider how you refer to files in the following
language elements:
- ACCEPT and DISPLAY statements
- ASSIGN clause
- COPY (text-name or library-name) statement
- In COBOL for AIX,
COBOL source files that have a suffix of either .cbl or .cob are passed to
the compiler.
In COBOL for Windows, however, only COBOL files
that have extension .cbl are passed to the compiler.
- Windows represents integers in little-endian format.
AIX maintains integers in big-endian format.
Therefore, if your Windows COBOL
program depends on the internal representation of an integer, the
program is probably not portable to AIX.
Avoid writing programs
that rely on such internal representation.
-
Windows represents class national data items in little-endian format.
AIX represents class national data items in big-endian format.
Therefore, if your COBOL program depends on the internal
representation of such data items, the program is probably not
portable between COBOL for Windows
and COBOL for AIX.
Avoid writing programs
that depend on such internal representation.
If your program does not depend on the internal representation
of class national data items, your program is probably portable
between COBOL for Windows and
COBOL for AIX, but you must convert file data
to the representation of the target platform.