[Info-vax] wrong file format

[Bill Gunshannon]

On 1/1/21 3:28 PM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
> On 1/1/2021 11:39 AM, Dave Froble wrote:
>> On 1/1/2021 10:46 AM, Dirk Munk wrote:
>>> Yes indeed. And all those files created by those Cobol programs can only
>>> be used by other Cobol programs created by that compiler.
>>
>> I've got to challenge this statement.  The files are just data, and 
>> many compilers can produce code that could use the data.  Might 
>> require some special coding, but, it's possible.
> 
> Of course data can be read. And with the correct library then data
> can be interpreted correctly.
> 
> But there is a difference between VMS and non-VMS.
> 
> In the VMS world it is:
> 
> Cobol program----Cobol RTL----|
> Pascal program---Pascal RTL---|--RMS--RMS index sequential file format
> Fortran program--Fortran RTL--|
> 
> In the non-VMS world it is:
> 
> Cobol vendor A program--Cobol vendor A RTL--vendor A ISAM file format
> Cobol vendor B program--Cobol vendor B RTL--vendor B ISAM file format
> Cobol vendor C program--Cobol vendor C RTL--vendor C ISAM file format
> 
> where A, B and C ISAM file formats are different.
> 
> Heck - GNU Cobol even comes in two flavors with two different ISAM file 
> formats.


Yes, but they are well documented and use underlying systems (like
Berkeley DB) that work just fine with other languages and applications.

bill