{"id":7994,"date":"2026-09-06T15:30:05","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T20:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.logikalsolutions.com\/wordpress\/?p=7994"},"modified":"2026-09-06T15:30:06","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T20:30:06","slug":"cobol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.logikalsolutions.com\/wordpress\/information-technology\/cobol\/","title":{"rendered":"COBOL – Because I Can – Pt 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

COBOL was my second home. VAX BASIC was the first. I lived there for many years. If you wait for enough people to die off, your old skills become really valuable!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thankfully DECUS maintains URLs for Eisner<\/a>. I believe it is actually hosted by VSI now. Any dues paying Encompass member can get themselves an account on Eisner. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My ancient copy of Reflections was from like, Windows 98 days. It installed, but was useless. SSH has changed dramatically. I could have moved over to one of my Linux machines and dusted off my old Xterm configuration<\/a>, but wanted to see what was out there. I remember when KEAterm and Reflections were something like $400 a seat! Found ZOC9<\/a> for $80. I’ve almost<\/em> got it configured the way I like. I seem to remember Reflections and KEAterm had a checkbox or something for “leave the cursor keys alone.”<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Delete, End, and Home used to work just like on a PC. Delete would delete whatever was at the cursor, even on the command line. I haven’t replicated the command line capabilities yet, but things work well in LSE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Triangles<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I started researching what has changed in the world of COBOL and found this!<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
here<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Yippee! I’m gonna do Triangles and use REPORT WRITER. Then reality screwed me from afar. Version of COBOL on Eisner (and most likely where I will contract) didn’t have that. The difficult part of the Triangles problem is dealing with the fact COBOL doesn’t have dynamic strings. COLUMN CENTER would make the problem go away.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Most of you kids will think that looks terrible. You kids should be warned about thinking. This is a character cell terminal<\/em>, not a word processor with dynamic fonts nor is there really a graphics card involved. Odd count stars will stick out on the left if you don’t slush the remainder or right if you do. You just can’t center 3 under 4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Code<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/circle><\/circle><\/circle><\/g><\/svg><\/span>