Covered Technologies

Global support

Technology / framework supported	Comments	Supported by
Cobol ANSI 85	The Mainframe Analyzer is based on the Cobol 85 standard but it does not take into account all specific Cobol extensions to this standard. Supported Cobol Extensions Terminal Format Pointer Variables declaration Level-78 variables (Micro Focus) Command mode EXEC CICS Command mode EXEC SQL Command mode EXEC DLI Floating comments tag (">") Please ensure you check the list of Cobol dialects and their level of support as listed below. Copybook pre-processing* In addition to the standard COPY directive, the following specific directives are supported: Panvalet (++INCLUDE) Librarian (-INC) OpenVMS (<copyDir>:<copyName>) Replacement rules used in COPY REPLACING directives are: Replacements can be applied to words or parts of word. Patterns used to replace parts of words must be delimited by the following characters: :, (, ), \ or " Patterns that are not delimited by the above characters are considered as being used to replace entire words. LEADING and TRAILING clauses mean that the replacement will be applied on parts of words and as such, patterns must respect the rule 2 (first character and last character will be removed from the pattern).	Mainframe Analyzer (embedded in CAST AIP and as an extension)
JCL z/OS	-	Mainframe Analyzer (embedded in CAST AIP and as an extension)
IMS/DB	The Mainframe Analyzer takes into account IMS/DB (DBD, PSB, CBLTDLI calls and EXEC DLI macros). Non-relational mainframe DBMS other than IMS/DB are not supported (ex: DATACOM, IDMS, IDS2, DMS2, ADABAS...). However, DB2 and Oracle (ProCobol) are supported. From 8.3.12, AIBTDLI call is taken into account.	Mainframe Analyzer (embedded in CAST AIP and as an extension)
IMS/DC	IMS/DC is taken into account. Support for: APPLCTN macro TRANSACT macro Links from Cobol to IMS Transactions Note that IMS/DC is supported in CAST AIP ≥ 8.3.19 only.	Mainframe Analyzer (embedded in CAST AIP and as an extension)
CICS	-	Mainframe Analyzer (embedded in CAST AIP and as an extension)

Detailed support

COBOL

Platform / OS	COBOL dialect	Support	Comment
IBM z/OS	Enterprise COBOL for z/OS - up to v6	High	No problem
IBM z/OS	IBM Cobol for OS/390 VS COBOL II	Medium	Source code implemented with these compilers can be analyzed with the Mainframe Analyzer
IBM i	COBOL/400	High	Some constructs related to screens and transactions are not taken into account but this does not cause problems for the Mainframe Analyzer nor the Metric Assistant.
Unisys A Series	Unisys Cobol	No	Copybook inclusion mechanism is not supported. Program calls are not correctly managed.
Bull DPS7 (GCOS7) Bull DPS8 (GCOS8)	GCOS Cobol	Low	DML is not supported. Screens are not supported. Transactions are not supported. Some constructs must/should be removed from the source code because they can cause parsing problems.
Tandem NonStop	HP COBOL for TNS/E Programs	Medium	Transactions and screens are not supported. Some constructs must/should be removed from the source code because they can cause parsing problems. CAST rules specific to CICS/IMS (DL/I), file descriptors and SORT/MERGE may produce false violations.
Unix, AIX, Windows	Microfocus	High	Definition and statements associated to screens are not support but this does not cause problems for the Mainframe Analyzer nor the Metric Assistant.
Unix, AIX, Windows	ACUCOBOL-GT	Medium
Windows	Cobol .NET	No	Object COBOL is not supported. It is possible to use a Universal Analyzer profile to extract some information.
OpenVMS	HP Cobol for OpenVMS	Medium	Copy directive is supported COBOL 85 syntax is supported
Stratus VOS	VOS Cobol	Medium	Some constructs must/should be removed from the source code because they can cause parsing problems.

Note that some AIP quality rules specifically target IBM style COBOL, therefore you may find that results of these rules may not be pertinent if you are using a different compiler such as Microfocus. Rules which target IBM style COBOL usually quote this in the “Reference” section of the rule documentation, e.g.:

JCL

Platform (OS)	Control Language	Support	Comment
IBM zSeries (z/OS)	JCL	High
IBM i (AS/400)	CL	No	CL/CLP is supported thanks to IBM RPG Analyzers
Unisys A Series	Workflow	No	Workflows are implemented in Algol language (yes, this language is still used) so it is difficult to analyze it with a Universal Analyzer profile/extension.
Bull DPS7 (GCOS7) Bull DPS8 (GCOS8)	JCL	No	A Universal Analyzer profile/extension could be developed to take GCOS8 job into account. This is more difficult for GCSO7.
Tandem/HP	JCL	No	Difficult to analyze with a Universal Analyzer profile/extension.

Transaction Managers

Transaction Manager	Platform (OS)	Support	Comment
CICS	IBM zSeries (z/OS) IBM i (AS/400)	High
IMS/DC	IBM zSeries (z/OS)	High	Support introduced in CAST AIP 8.3.19 Support for: APPLCTN macro TRANSACT macro Links from Cobol to IMS Transactions
TDS TP8	Bull DPS7 (GCOS7) Bull DPS8 (GCOS8)	No	Transactional calls between programs are performed via the variable NEXT-TPR defined in the LINKAGE section. The Dynamic Link Manager can draw links between programs from this variable. Initialization file could be analyzed with a Universal Analyzer profile.

CICS

IBM zSeries (z/OS)
IBM i (AS/400)

High

IMS/DC

IBM zSeries (z/OS)

High

Support introduced in CAST AIP 8.3.19
Support for:
- APPLCTN macro
- TRANSACT macro
- Links from Cobol to IMS Transactions

TDS

TP8

Bull DPS7 (GCOS7)

Bull DPS8 (GCOS8)

Transactional calls between programs are performed via the variable NEXT-TPR defined in the LINKAGE section. The Dynamic Link Manager can draw links between programs from this variable.
Initialization file could be analyzed with a Universal Analyzer profile.

DBMS

DBMS	Platform (OS)	Support	Comment
Db2	IBM zSeries (z/OS) IBM i (AS/400) Unix Windows	High	EXEC SQL … END-EXEC macros
ORACLE	Unix	High	EXEC SQL … END-EXEC macros for Pro*Cobol.
IMS/DB	IBM zSeries (zOS)	Medium	Access to PCBs are detected for main programs that are directly associated to a PSB. For subprograms, only PCBs that are used are sent by main programs via the CALL statements and so links to PSBs and their PCBs cannot be created.
IDMS	IBM zSeries (z/OS)	No	Often used in conjunction with ADSO. Although unsupported in CAST AIP "out of the box", there is scope to establish links between the COBOL code and the IDMS through a variety of advanced Content Enrichment tools available in CAST AIP such as Reference Patterns, CAST Transaction Configuration Center etc. The IDMS statements inserted in COBOL programs may raise warning messages in the analysis log, however, these will not impact the analysis results (i.e. metamodel generation or rule evaluation). A custom extension has been developed for this platform, however it is a User Community extension and is therefore not officially supported by CAST.
DATACOM	IBM zSeries (z/OS)	No	It is often used in conjunction with the IDEAL programming language. A custom extension has been developed for IDEAL/Datacom, however it is a User Community extension and is therefore not officially supported by CAST.
ADABAS	IBM zSeries (z/OS) Unix Windows	No	A custom extension has been developed for this platform, however it is a User Community extension and is therefore not officially supported by CAST.
IDS2	Bull DPS7 (GCOS7) Bull DPS8 (GCOS8)	No	The DML verbs inserted in COBOL programs can cause problems. A Universal Analyzer profile/extension can be implemented to analyze DDL and DMCL files. Some DML verbs can be parsed by using the Reference Pattern. Please note that dynamic programming is often used. As a consequence, simple analysis techniques won't deliver interesting results.
DMS2	Unisys A Series		This DBMS is similar to IDS2 but for the UNISYS A Series platform. See remarks for IDS2. A custom extension has been developed for this platform, however it is a User Community extension and is therefore not officially supported by CAST.