Platform Information
ICOBOL Operating System Platform Support
ICOBOL is offered on the Microsoft Windows platforms and various UNIX platforms. Because some features of ICOBOL are unique to the particular operating system platform, the overviews (below) have been provided for your convenience.
The Windows ICOBOL Runtime System is a 32-bit Windows application that runs on Windows 200x, XP, and Vista. Please Note: several of these versions are no longer supported by Microsoft and we no longer support Windows 9x, Me, and NT. We also highly recommend Windows XP Professional and Windows Vista Business over the various Home editions.
File sharing and record locking are performed using Microsoft Windows networking protocols and compatible servers under UNIX such as Samba. This allows complete multi-user functionality via multiple windows on a single computer, multiple computers in a network, or a combination of the two.
The Runtime System on Windows adds full minicomputer-like functionality for executing multi-user programs on dumb terminals or via TELNET sessions. This version of the runtime is very similar in structure to the UNIX versions of Interactive COBOL. The multi-terminal runtime system also inter-operates seamlessly with single-user sessions running in a window and with other computers on the network.
The multi-terminal runtime provides an excellent upgrade path from the ICOBOL 2 MS-DOS based multi-user product on a familiar, easy-to-manage system. Using the multi-terminal runtime on Windows and multi-port serial cards, a single machine can support up to 128 terminals. The product can also support up to 2048 nodes (running both single-session and multi-session) in a networked environment.
License management can be centralized in a network environment by using the License Manager in client/server mode. Alternatively, each workstation can be licensed individually.
The ICOBOL UNIX system most closely mimics the traditional minicomputer systems of the past. These systems were built around a single machine with multiple dumb terminals connected via serial I/O ports. Current systems augment this capability in a network environment by allowing remote telnet sessions to act as terminals. These UNIX-based systems are very flexible, stable, and scalable.
Support for a variety of UNIX platforms is provided, but does not include every possible variation. Two primary reasons are:
- Each platform requires some custom code in order to provide platform independence to the ICOBOL program.
- Consistent with our high commitment to support you, Envyr Corporation maintains machines with each of the supported versions in its lab.
The UNIX platforms currently supported are:
- AIX on IBM RS/6000
- HP-UX on HP Series PA-RISC 1.1
- Linux 2.4 and 2.6 kernels (RedHat) on Intel