COBOL program restrictions

When generating COBOL code using EGL there are some restrictions on what you can do.

If you are generating COBOL code, the following restrictions are in effect:

• COBOL program names have the following restrictions:
  • For zSeries®, names are limited to 8 characters.
  • For iSeries®, called program names are limited to 8 characters, main program names to 7 characters.
  • For services, names are limited to 7 characters.
  • Names can contain alphanumeric characters plus @, #, and $ only.
• A CICS® application can only call a common batch application if the following conditions are met:
  • The batch application does not initiate file I/O;
  • The batch application is called using the DYNAMIC and OSLINK linkage option settings;
  • The called application must be generated for batch (not CICS®).
• Set-values blocks are supported only for setting property values in part definitions and variable declarations and for initializing field values in variable declarations.
• The validValues property supports only a single range of numbers.
• For both text and print forms:
  • Do not include the following field types:
    • HEX
    • FLOAT
    • SMALLFLOAT
    • TIME
    • TIMESTAMP
  • If you are using a field as a date, you specify a date-format string or constant in the dateFormat field property, and these restrictions are in effect:
    • If you specify the form field as type DATE, NUM(8) or NUM(10) and intend to present a date in Gregorian format, you must specify the field length as 10 and may use your own 8 or 10-character format (either "yy/MM/dd" or "yyyy/MM/dd", with a separator of your choice and with the years, months, and days in any order); or any of the following date formats:
      • usaDateFormat
      • eurDateFormat
      • isoDateFormat
      • jisDateFormat
      • systemGregorianDateFormat
    • If you specify the form field as type NUM(8) and intend to present a date in Julian format, you must specify the field length as 8 and can use either the Julian format "yy/ddd" or "yyyy/ddd" (with a separator of your choice) or the date format systemJulianDateFormat
    • If you specify the form field as type NUM(6) and intend to present a date in Julian format, you must specify the field length as 6 and can use either the Julian format "yy/ddd" (with a separator of your choice) or the date format systemJulianDateFormat
    • If you specify the form field as type CHAR(8), you must specify the field length as 8 and may use either the Gregorian format "yy/MM/dd" (with a separator of your choice and with the years, months, and days in any order) or either of the following date formats:
      • systemGregorianDateFormat
      • systemJulianDateFormat
    • If you specify the form field as type CHAR(10), you must specify the field length as 10 and may use your own 8 or 10-character format (either "yy/MM/dd" or "yyyy/MM/dd", with a separator of your choice and with the years, months, and days in any order); or any of the following date formats:
      • usaDateFormat
      • eurDateFormat
      • isoDateFormat
      • jisDateFormat
      • systemGregorianDateFormat
      • systemJulianDateFormat
• The following capabilities are not supported:
  • ArrayDictionaries, Dictionaries, Delegates, report processing, and consoleUI
  • The sysVar.currentException system variable; you cannot identify which exception was thrown most recently in the run unit, although use of the OnException block is supported
  • Multidimensional arrays or the array-specific functions resizeAll and setMaxSizes. However, multidimensional structured field arrays are supported.
  • The primitive types CLOB and BLOB (but literals and the substring syntax are supported)
  • Conversion of text to SMALLFLOAT or FLOAT (but conversion of FLOAT or SMALLFLOAT to text is permitted)
• The following system functions are not supported:
  • Functions in the system libraries consoleLib, javaLib, and lobLib
  • The following functions in sysLib:
    • callCmd
    • errorLog
    • getCmdLineArg
    • getCmdLineArgCount
    • getMessage
    • getProperty
    • setError
    • setErrorForComponentID
    • setLocale
    • setRemoteUser
    • startCmd
    • startLog
• The type property in the callLink element of the linkage options part does not support the use of remoteCall on the iSeries® platform