Creating a Solution and a Project

The first task is to create a solution and a project. A solution is a container holding one or more projects that work together to create an application. The solution has the extension .sln, and is a readable text file. Microsoft recommends you do not edit the file outside of Visual Studio.

A COBOL project has the extension .cblproj, and again this is a readable file, but Microsoft recommends that you do not edit it. Different types of project have different extensions, so for example a C# project has the extension .csproj.

In this section, you create a project and solution, as follows:

1. In Visual Studio, create a new project by clicking File > New > Project.
2. In the Project Types pane, expand COBOL Projects and click Native.
3. Select the Console Application template.
4. In the Name field, specify Locking as the name of the project.

   Notice that the Name and Solution Name fields have the same name. Changing either one of them automatically changes the other.

5. In the Location field, browse to a directory where you want to put this tutorial.

   For example, if you create a folder on your c: drive called tutorials, change the location field to c:\tutorials. The solution will be stored in a subdirectory Locking, according to the project name.

6. Click OK.

This creates a solution and a project. The Solution Explorer shows the Locking project. It contains:

• Program1.cbl, which is a newly created skeleton program. You can ignore this, because the tutorial uses existing COBOL files.
• Properties, which displays the project's properties when you double-click it.