ASurveyPaperonCobolReportWriter

Prathviraj S.G. Student II MCA, RVCE, Bangalore 59, prathviraj080@gmail.com Rajashekar P.I. Student II MCA, RVCE, Bangalore 59, rpijantakar12@gmail.com

Abstarct
COBOLReportWriterisCOBOL'sownbuiltinnonproceduralfacilityfortheproductionof printedoutput.Itenablesyoutodefineandproduceallthelistings,reports,anddisplayed summariesthatwouldnormallyberequiredfromaCOBOLapplication,butinfarlesstime.It allowsmanymoreprintedoutputs,whichmighthavebeenproducedpreviouslyusingstand alonenonCOBOLreportgenerators,tobedoneinCOBOL,becauseitreducesgreatlythetime andeffortneededtocodeandtestaCOBOLprogramwithprintedoutput.Inthispaperthe differentusesandthecurrenttrendinCobolreportwriterishighlightedinasurveyform.

Introduction
ReportwriterisafeatureofCOBOLthatallowsforthegenerationofCOBOLreportsby describingthecharacteristicsofthereportsintheDATADIVISIONandthenGENERATINGthe reportfromthePROCEDUREDIVISION.Reportwriterismorethanjustawayofproducing reports.ItisafeatureoftheCOBOLlanguageandusingitdoesnotmeanthatyoulooseanyof thepowerofCOBOL.YoucanstillhaveverycomplexCOBOLlogicandprocessinginyour reportandincludethefeaturesoftheREPORTWRITERtosetupandgeneratethereport.The DECLARATIVESECTIONcangiveREPORTWRITERmorepowerbyallowingtheprogrammer tocodespecialfeaturesthatREPORTWRITERdoesnothave. STATISTICALFINDINGS ConsiderthefollowingitemsallegedlygatheredfromvariousGartnerreports(2007): *Thereare310billionlinesoflegacycodeoperatingintheworld(65%ofallsoftware). *FivebillionlinesofnewCOBOLcodearebeingwritteneveryyear. *FifteenpercentofnewapplicationdevelopmentiswritteninCOBOL. *ThirtyfourpercentofcodingactivitiesareinCOBOL. *Seventyfivepercentoftheworld'sbusinessdataresidesonmainframesystems. *Thereare38,000legacysystemsatmorethan10,000mainframesitesworldwide. *COBOLdevelopersareretiringmuchfasterthantheyarebeingreplacedaseducational institutionsemphasizemorecuttingedgetechnologies.

Trendline

Currentsessionbriefstheareasinwhichreportwriterisbeingemployed. EndUserCriteriaforselectingfourthgenerationreportgenerator

TheFourthGenerationLanguage(4GL)hastheaddedadvantageslikeincreaseinapplication developmentproductivity,significantreductionindevelopmenttimeandmanymore.thisaids MISmanagersindevelopingnewsystemsandreducingexistingprocessingoverhead.Wemust noteherethatthereportgeneratorisoneofthetoolof4GL..TheCOBOLreportwriterhasthe powertosolvethetestproblemcompletely. Criteriaforselectingreportgenerator 1. Maximumnumberofinputfiles 2. Maximumnumberofenduserdefinedcontrols 3. Repeatingcolumnvaluesuppression 4. Flexibleeditingforreportfields 5. Reportheaderandfooters 6. Supporttocalltoprocedurecode ProblemswithCOBOLSomeEmpiricalEvidence ThereisnodoubtthatCobolisimportantlanguage,despiteitswidespreaduseitsuffersfrom HumanEngineeringProblemslikedifficulttousesafely. inceCOBOLisawidelyusedlanguage.thereisaneedtoidentifyits problemareassothatimprovementscanbemadeinCOBOLcompilersandin LhemannerinwhichCOBOListaught.Suchimprovementscouldyielda reductioninthenumberoferrorscommittedbyCOBOLprogrammers. ReportWriterSpeedupTips Ifthereare100recordsinafile,feelfreetowritethequeryanywayyoulike,Itwontmake any measurabledifference.Butwhenthereportcomesfromaverylargefile,andespeciallyifit willrunonaregularbasis,itprobablyisworththeefforttoimplementsomeofthesespeedup tips.Itmayrequirejusta littlemorethought.Buttheresultswillbeworthit. 1. FIELDSFROMKEYEDAUXILIARYINPUTFILES 2. REPLACEFILEI/OWITHANINTERNALLOOKUP 3. LIMITTHEKEYRANGE 4. SKIPCLEARINGTHEI/OAREA 5. SPEEDUPTHEDEVELOPMENTCYCLE 6. INCREASEVSAMBUFFERS SimplifyingBatchOutputtinginCOBOL ThetraditionalmethodofcreatingoutputlinesinCOBOListediousandtimeconsuming. WORKING STORAGEgrowstremendouslywitheachadditionaloutputlinethatisgenerated.Later,when testing,theliningupofcolumnsofinformationundertheheadingandcolumnheadinglines cancausethestudentprogrammermanyrunsjusttogetthealreadycorrectoutputtolook pretty. Byemployingreferencemodification,theCOBOLstudentprogrammercanutilizetheprint recorddefinedintheFILESECTIONdirectlyandnothavetodefineeachheading,column heading,detaillineandtotallinecalledforinthereportformat.Thisgreatlyreducesthesize ofWORKINGSTORAGE.

Aninteractivereportgeneratorlanguageforarelationaldatabasesystemallowinguser definedaggregationoperators Thefeaturesofthereportgenerationlanguageincludehandlingofgroupsofattributevalues intheresultofaqueryanda facilityfordefininguserdefinedaggregationoperators;allbuiltinaggregationoperatorsare summationandaverage.Queriescanberunbothinteractivelyfortestingreportlayoutsand logicofqueriesandinacompiledmodewhereproductionprogramsinaconventional programminglanguagelikeCOBOLaregenerated.Thequeryandreportgenerationlanguage canbeusedeitherinteractivelyorcompiled.Inthelattercaseaprogramgeneratorisusedfor generatingaprogramfromagivensetofquerylanguagestatements.

Conclusion

Morethanthetechnology,thefuturelieswithversatiledeveloperswhocaninteract productivelywiththeendusercommunityatalllevelstounderstandwhattheyneedtodo andcantranslatethatintoworkingsoftwarewithoutcreatingvolumesofdocumentation artifacts.Thecobolbeingthemotherofmajorityoflegacycodesallovertheworlditis apparentthatthelanguagestillhasitsplaceinglobalmarket.Thereportwriterbeingthe addedfeaturetoenhancetheformattedprintingabilityofthelanguage.

References

1. ToreRisch,Aninteractivereportgeneratorlanguageforarelationaldatabasesystem allowinguserdefinedaggregationoperators 2. BarbaraRussell,SimplifyingBatchOutputtinginCOBOL 3. VictorM.Matos,SanthoshKMishra,PaulJ.Jalics,EndUserCriteriaforselectingfourth generationreportgenerator 4. D.M.Volpano,HerbertE.Dunsmore,ProblemswithCOBOLSomeEmpiricalEvidence 5. TomPurnell,ReportWriterSpeedupTips