Open PL/I

This release provides enhancements in the following areas:

• Integration with Microsoft's Visual Studio 2008

  This release includes enhanced integration of the Open PL/I Compiler, Debugger and Run Time System (RTS) into the Visual Studio 2008 IDE. When migrating applications, this improves the productivity for PL/I programmers post migration so they can deliver updates faster than previously possible on the mainframe.

  Enhancements include:

  • PL/I Project Types which allow for creation of .EXE(s), .DLL(s), and user application programs (.DLLs) targeted for the Server Enterprise Edition JCL, CICS, and IMS rehosting environment
  • Source Colorizing
  • User Customizable Templates
  • Compile, link and debug using the Open PL/I Debugger from the Visual Studio IDE
• CICS-based Open PL/I applications

  This release includes an enhanced support for Open PL/I applications that utilize CICS within Enterprise Server. Ability to migrate mainframe CICS PL/I applications to lower cost Windows, UNIX or Linux platforms while keeping PL/I and EXEC CICS code intact to minimize application updates, simplify migration and mitigate risk.

  Features include:

  • A new PL/I CICS preprocessor
  • Enhanced source level debugging
  • PL/I RTS support for CICS applications
• OpenESQL for PL/I

  Support for Microsoft SQL Server within Open PL/I included within Micro Focus Studio Enterprise Edition and Server Enterprise Edition is available as an early adopter release. This provides the option to select Microsoft SQL Server as the target database when migrating PL/I applications that utilize DB2.

  • The mature OpenESQL technologyMicro Focus has supported for many years for its COBOL customers, is now available for use with PL/I applications. This means PL/I SQL can now execute against popular relational databases like Microsoft SQL Server even though a SQL preprocessor for PL/I is not available from the database vendor.
  • This support is classified as "Preview". It has been successfully tested by Micro Focus development but this functionality has had limited exposure to different customer environments.
• New language and run-time level support for PL/I Dynamic calls

  Support for PL/I Dynamic Calls (FETCH/RELEASE) has been added. This provides greater efficiency during migration and less risk as applications using dynamic calls can be rehosted without significant changes to application logic.

• Open PL/I DB2 LUW Preprocessor

  The Open PL/I DB2 LUW Preprocessor now supports ROWID, BLOB and CLOB which widens the breadth of applications that can be rehosted. Without this support, applications using such features would not be considered as candidates for migration due to the significant reengineering that would be required.

• Language compatibility with IBM's z/OS based PL/I Compiler

  The language compatibility with IBM's z/OS based PL/I Compiler has been improved. Applications that use these IBM mainframe PL/I language features no longer need code modification to function in the same manner using Open PL/I. This reduces risk while accelerating migration of such programs.

  Support for the following new language elements has been added:

  • Variable names up to 100 bytes (*)
  • Support for user written PLIDUMP routines (*)
  • Support for STDCALL linkage on Intel Platforms (*)
  • Support of named constants using the VALUE attribute (*)
  • Compound assignment operators +=, -=, /=, |=, ||=, *=, **= (*)
  • Support for optional parameters to the INDEX built-in function.

  Support for the following new BUILTIN functions has been added:

  • ADDRDATA (*)
  • CENTERLEFT/CENTRELEFT, CENTERRIGHT/CENTRERIGHT (*)
  • FILEOPEN, FILEDDINT, FILEDDWORD (*)
  • HEX
  • LEFT. LOWERCASE (*)
  • MAXLENGTH
  • PACKAGENAME, PROCEDURENAME (*)
  • RANDOM, REVERSE, RIGHT (*)
  • SEARCH, SEARCHR (*)
  • TALLY (*)
  • UPPERCASE (*)
  • Use of the DIM built in function to size static arrays.
  • STRING built in function enhanced to allow for CHAR VARYING structure elements.