The Cobos Project, a Metrixware initiative, appears as an Open Source alternative that is interesting from a technical and financial point of view, compared with existing closed source Mainframe solutions.
Cobos is one of the most advanced open source IDE dedicated to Mainframe application development. Based on Eclipse, it combines the best of both worlds by capitalizing on the open source community innovation and on the Mainframe best practices.
Features:
* Eclipse IDE: IDE Cobol, JCL & Rexx editor
The Cobol file editor of Cobos reuses the key features of Eclipse: a quick and simple browsing into files with the Outline, syntax coloring, variable autocompletion, compilation error notifications, changes tracking… All these features have been adapted to Cobol development.
Cobos adds to these native features some very convenient features like COPY REPLACING expansion, customizable tabulations, CAPS ON, a « Word like » revision mode.
* Local compilation: OpenCobol
Compilation features provided by Cobos allows developers to check code syntax locally, without any interaction with the Mainframe server, in order to deliver bug-free applications and reduce host usages at the maximum.
* Source Code Management: CVS, SVN, Endevor, Git…
Cobos is natively integrated with any Source Code Management (SCM) tool compatible with Eclipse such as CVS, Subversion or Git. It offers to development teams the ability to easily import, export, compare or merge source files. A simplified UI makes easy the SCM use by Mainframe developers.
* Code Quality Control: SC4Eclipse Cobol
SC4Eclipse Cobol (a closed-source product extension of Cobos) allows developers to check programs conformance with Cobol best practices, while they’re coding. SC4Eclipse Cobol comes with a customizable repository of coding rules, which is the result of Metrixware’s expertise on Software Quality.
* Mainframe files editing: z/Navigator
Browsing into PDS and editing members while checking their integrity with ISPF has never been so easy !
* Mainframe remote commands: Cobos Host Interface
A simple protocol enables remote communication with mainframe’s Rexx processes from the IDE, which paves the way for powerful extensions to Cobos.
* 3270 terminal emulator: Je3270
Because 3270 still remains a basic access to a mainframe server, Cobos provides users with a terminal emulator integrated to Eclipse.
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