The
Application property page for native COBOL projects lets you specify properties such as the name of the file to build and entry point for the application.
- Output name
- Defines the name of the target file to be built. By default, this is the same as the project name.
Note: This setting is disabled for native Link Library projects building to Multiple Libraries as each COBOL program in the project compiles to a .dll file with the same filename.
- Output type
- Defines the type of project to be built. This is one of:
- Console Application - defines a console application (always an .exe)
- Link Library - defines a library project such as a collection of shareable classes (always a .dll)
- Windows Application - defines a windows application
- INT/GNT - defines a project that compiles to the
Micro Focus file formats .int and .gnt
This is initialized depending on the type of new project you create.
- Output to
- Select
Single Executable to build your project to a single executable file (either an .exe or a .dll), or
Multiple Executables to build separate executable files (of only one type - .exe, or .dll) for each COBOL source file in your project.
- Entry point
- Defines the method entry of the application, for
.exe-based projects. If no entry name is specified for a Console or Windows application (.exe type), the first static method in the first program (in OO code) or the first procedure division (in procedural code) becomes the main entry point. The name needs to be the full method name as defined in the Program-ID (in order to include the namespace).
This setting is disabled for native Link Library projects as .dlls do not have a main entry point:
- If you have a Link Library project that builds to a single
.dll file, the entry point is always the first COBOL program passed to the linker when the .dll is created, or the program which you may have specified in your own definition (.def) file. If you do not use a .def file, the IDE links programs in the order in which they appear in the project file which is alphabetical order by default.
- If you have a Link Library project that builds to multiple
.dll files (each COBOL program gets built to a separate .dll), the first entry point in each output .dll file is the name of each individual COBOL program in the project.
- Package as .lbr
- Check this to bundle the .int or .gnt files produced by your project into a
Micro Focus library file (.lbr). This setting only applies to projects that have their
Output type set to
INT/GNT and does not apply to native Mainframe Subsystem Applications.
Note:
- .lbr files produced with this product can only contain COBOL programs. You cannot add data files to an .lbr file. If your project includes data files, you can copy these to the output folder where the .lbr is produced, but the data files will exist as separate files. To ensure a data file is copied into the output folder during the build, go to the data file properties and modify the
Copy to output setting.
- You cannot debug a project that compiles to .int or .gnt code if it is set to package the output files as an .lbr file. Before you can debug such projects you need to disable the setting
Package as .lbr on the
Application page in your project's properties.
- Environment
- Click this to set environment variables for when you run the project from within the IDE. You can also set environment variables that the COBOL run-time system uses during its initialisation and are not therefore picked up if you set them in the application configuration file.
- Use variables when building the project - check this if you also want to use the variables specified in this dialog box at project build time as well as at run time.
