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Status Needs more information
Workspace IBM Developer for z/OS
Categories Editors
Created by Guest
Created on Sep 10, 2024

RELATED IDEAS

Cobol Editor should have the preference: Host Characters (like LPEX editor)

The Cobol Editor does not display non-displayable characters correctly.

The LPEX editor does have the option to replace characters (LPEX Editor -> Appeareance -> Host Characters)  . This allows us that for certain non-displayable characters (such as 00-06 hex) we can replace them with a displayable character such as space.

But the COBOL editor does not have this capability. This causes that with this editor, these characters are not displayed properly, even being able to induce to the developer to errors (as we see in the column 73, that could make that the program does not compile).

cobolEditorBad.png
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cobolEditorBad.png
Idea priority Medium
  • Guest
    Reply
    |     Dec 4, 2024
    Thank you for sharing your Idea. We understand the importance of accurately handling non-displayable characters in the COBOL Editor to ensure developers can work efficiently and avoid potential errors, such as issues with characters in column 73 that might prevent a program from compiling.

    While the LPEX editor does offer the ability to replace non-displayable characters with displayable ones via the Appearance -> Host Characters settings, the COBOL Editor currently does not have a similar feature. However, using hexadecimal notation for these characters, as described in the COBOL documentation here - https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/cobol-zos/6.4?topic=literals-hexadecimal-notation-alphanumeric, provides a modern and effective approach. This technique ensures the source code can be safely taken off-platform and used with tools like Git, SonarQube, IDz, and others without any risk of non-displayable characters causing issues.

    Additionally, adopting hexadecimal notation simplifies code maintenance by eliminating the need for developers to switch to a specialized Hex View to understand or modify values. This approach promotes portability and clarity, aligning with modern development practices.

    Please let us know what you think.

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