Last week I came here asking, why I couldnt access my files in the Cobol Program which I can always access in any other editor. Well I got answer such as Cobdata, but then someone told me since i have PE (personal edition) COBDATA wont work, so i was on my own. No answer no help. Though Micro Focus called me back from England i missed them. Anyways there is two solutions. One way is enter the full path, which i wish someone could have mentioned but didnt. So I created a directory, with all my files i have 100s and i dont use the same File Control Name in each program so using SETFILE was not an option.
The other way is tricky. In my workspace, well in anyones workspace with VC editor with COBOL Projects. What happens is orignally i had placed each file in the PROJECT directory, and accessing a file that way is easy in any editor since, you just assign the file name in your FILE-CONTROL Paragraph as "filename.dat" whatever. But with me in using MF VC it never worked. Well now it does. If you look in your Cobol Explorer window, youll see that the .cbl programs are in "COBOL Programs" container. But the files which you have placed in the same directory as the cobol program in your workspace, in Cobol Explorer they are placed in the Project Container not in the Cobol Programs container. Therefore if you wish to access your files in your workspace project directory you need to access them by "../filename.dat" and now everything works fine. I just wish 1 so called expert, could have mentioned this, so i didnt need to waste time to figure this out. Again this is my first time using Eclipse and VC from Micro Focus, so someone with year of experience should have known this, and could have told me. Instead of making me read all the MF manuals out there, and people here telling me to watch the videos. Anyways i dont take this personal, but what i have seen here, that every single question i have posted so far, i had to answer myself. Guys Gals, lets try and be a little more helpful, and if you call yourself an expert, please show it next time. I can see why there is such a great demand, for MF VC programmers, my guess is most out there are just mediocre programmers, who just barely just make it a their jobs, knowing the bare minimum just enough to write a simple Cobol Report. Not trying to downplay anyone, only saying what i have seen so far. And new people with no subject matter experts to rely on, either give up on the way, and just go to java. Or start but with a major major learning curve. As i get better in Eclipse with MF, i will be happy to assist new programmers. Just give me a month or two until i tackle DB2, and Cobol Migrations, Rest.
