[Info-vax] cobol.vim for VIM

[Bill Gunshannon]

In article <nt0sl.24262$ZP4.12175 at nlpi067.nbdc.sbc.com>,
	Michael Austin <maustin at firstdbasource.com> writes:
> Hein RMS van den Heuvel wrote:
>> Years ago "Mark Vilstrup Svanesteen" wrote..
>> -----------------------------------------------------
>> Date: May 3 2005, 7:55 am
>> Subject: cobol.vim for VIM
>> To: comp.os.vms
>> 
>> Hi,
>> 
>> I downloaded VIM6.3, but it seems impossible to get it to display
>> COBOL-code
>> correctly. I've been googling all day, but I can't find anything that
>> really
>> works.
>> VIM places red lines all over my COBOL-code. If I try:
>> 
>> :hi error none
>> 
>> , the red lines disappear allright, but now words are only partly
>> colored.
>> This happens every 6. line I believe.
>> 
>> I've also tried putting:
>> 
>> let cobol_legacy_code=1
>> and
>> unlet cobol_legacy_code
>> 
>> in my .vimrc and .gvimrc - files.
>> 
>> Maybe its in my .vimrc-files
>> ---------------------------------------------------
>> 
>> But I could not reply to that, hence a new topic.
>> 
>> I just tried VIM (7.0 + syntax 7.2) on COBOL and the color
>> highlighting was very ugly to begin with. The cobol syntax really
>> wants the 'ANSII' style layout where the columns matter a lot and a
>> space is a space, not a tab. Not the largely free-format we VMS folks
>> are used to.
>> 
>> I could make it 'almost bareable' with a quick HACK.
>> I do not claim to understand this, and the solution is by no means
>> complete or perfect,  but it is a lot better than it was.
>> Basically replaced the markers for 4 - 6 space by 1 or 2 [spaces OR
>> tab]
>> 
>> -------
>> syn match   cobolMarker     "^\%([       ]\{,1\}[^       ]\)\@=.\{,2}"
>> nextgroup=@cobolStart
>> syn match   cobolSpace      "^[  ]"  nextgroup=@cobolStart
>> syn match   cobolAreaA      "[   ]\{1\}"  contained
>> nextgroup=@cobolAreaA, at cobolAreaAB
>> syn match   cobolAreaB      "[   ]\{2,\}\|- *" contained
>> nextgroup=@cobolAreaB, at cobolAreaAB
>> syn match   cobolComment    "[/*C].*$" contained
>> -------
>> The pieces of string above looking like "[  ]" contain not two spaces,
>> but a space and a tab.
>> 
>> But... it still is a mess. Specifically the KEYWORDS defined with
>> CONTAINING are recognized in any piece of string, and not only when
>> started and ended on some word boundary.
>> 
>> So take  piece of code like; PERFORM 41000_CLOSE_ALL_FILES ...
>> There 41000 is highlighted in RED (constant !?), CLOSE and ALL in
>> YELLOW (keywords) and FILES in white for simple variable name. Yuck!
>> 
>> If anyone has tweaked a COBOL.VIM for use with OpenVMS Cobol, then I'd
>> love to try it!
>> 
>> Regards,
>> 
>> Hein.
>> 
>> 
> 
> Does anyone know what ever happened to LSE?  There was also a COBOL code 
> generator IIRC...  I learned COBOL using these tools... well, good 
> enough that I could read it and attend a Rdb SQL class :)

LSE here (back when we still used VMS for academics) supported most
languages with templates to make creating new programs real easy for
students.  I personally remember COBOL, Ada and Pascal.  Of course,
the person who wrote those templates has long since retired and I
would bet the Datacenter has neither retained or preserved any of them.

bill

-- 
Bill Gunshannon          |  de-moc-ra-cy (di mok' ra see) n.  Three wolves
billg999 at cs.scranton.edu |  and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.
University of Scranton   |
Scranton, Pennsylvania   |         #include <std.disclaimer.h>