What is happening with the draft of the next COBOL Standard and what is in it?
NOTE: To see (or download) a copy of the latest draft of the next COBOL Standard, go to the J4 external web site and find a link to the latest and greatest version from there. The external J4 web-site is at: http://www.cobolstandards.com/ This site also provides all the information on the current status of J4s work and links to various related sites) First “9x” has become “0x”. After the last public review, it turns out that there will need to be at least one more public review before it gets approved. 1. Major features/enhancements: A. OO gets all the press B. Common exception handling, C-ification (pointers, call prototypes, typedefs, and everything else needed to use C-type APIs), user-defined functions, file-sharing/record-locking, 31-digit numbers, portable arithmetic, National character handling (MOCS or DBCS but more so), are all some of the “biggies” that some people are looking for. C. In the category of “old technology” getting a new face lift and being added to the Standard
