COBOL Language Profile

Objectives

The SPIRIT COBOL Language profile was created because it helps meet the SPIRIT goal of application portability.

This profile includes detailed specifications for the base standards, including implementation-defined items and numerical limits that are not defined by the base standards. Therefore, application programs written in SPIRIT COBOL may be ported with minimal modification across different SPIRIT Platforms. The selection of features in the SPIRIT COBOL Language profile was based on users' business requirements.

Applicability

The SPIRIT Issue 3.0 COBOL Language profile is intended to be used for procurements by SPIRIT Service Providers to specify the characteristics of the COBOL language within 6 to 12 months after publication. For procurements before the SPIRIT Issue 3.0 timeframe, Service Providers should use the SPIRIT Issue 2.0 COBOL Language profile.

The SPIRIT COBOL Language profile is also intended to be used in conjunction with other SPIRIT APIs that have a COBOL language binding.

SPIRIT Profiles

The actual specifications of the SPIRIT Issue 3.0 COBOL Language profile are published electronically (see Preface for details).

Specifications

The SPIRIT COBOL Language profile complies with the following standards:

• ISO 1989:1985, Programming Languages - COBOL (technically identical to ANSI standard X3.23-1985).

• ISO 1989/Amendment 1:1992, Intrinsic Function Module (technically identical to ANSI standard X3.23a-1989).

The features that have a substitute method and that will be deleted from the international standards in the future (that is, obsolete language elements, and the features which were not requested by users) have been deleted. The features requested by users and considered to be necessary, are added. To promote the portability of application programs, implementation-defined items are defined as fully as possible. Furthermore, some types of limits which occur in the program syntax are defined.

This profile improves application portability by eliminating as many differences among implementations as is possible. However, some of the implementation-defined items are not defined because of differences in the characteristics of hardware, and so on. These implementation-defined items should be taken into account so they will not hamper application portability. For this purpose, an application program portability guide for COBOL Language is also available electronically (see Preface ).