[TUHS] Bell Laboratories COBOL Syntax Checker?

[Tom Perrine]

IIRC, this was related to the use of UNIX to prepare code for the GECOS
(laterGCOS) mainframe that was also in use.

After all that's where there was a GECOS field in the password file, to
carry job/user related info as part of the batch submission.

I wasn't at Bell, but I was at Honeywell in the late 70s/early 80s as a
student intern. Strangely enough, one of the things I used was the COBOL68
(and later COBOL74) compiler for a student project for the Boy Scouts.,

Did you know that in the first release of the GCOS COBOL74 compiler - if
you mis-spelled ENVIRONMENT in the ENVIRONMENT DIVISION statement, that the
compiler would crash and coredump?

It's the only reason I know how to spell "environment" to this very day.

--tep

On Sat, Sep 7, 2024 at 8:14 AM Marc Donner <marc.donner at gmail.com> wrote:

> Aside: by 1982 there was a COBOL compiler for the PC from Microsoft:
> https://archive.org/details/ibmpccobol
>
> I bet it was cheaper than the COBOL "lint" you mention :-)
> =====
> nygeek.net
> mindthegapdialogs.com/home <https://www.mindthegapdialogs.com/home>
>
>
> On Sat, Sep 7, 2024 at 12:50 AM segaloco via TUHS <tuhs at tuhs.org> wrote:
>
>> So I was flipping through a System V software catalog from Fall 1984 and
>> among
>> the many AT&T Bell Laboratories items is the "COBOL Syntax Checker".
>>
>> From the text:
>>
>> ---QUOTE---
>>
>> The COBOL Syntax Checker allows programmers to edit and check the syntax
>> of COBOL
>> programs before they are transmitted to mainframes for compilation and
>> execution.
>> The software increases the chances of a 'clean' compilation and execution
>> and
>> reduces the chance of a program being rejected due to syntax and simple
>> semantic
>> errors.  As a result, expensive mainframe CPU time is reduced.
>>
>> The COBOL Syntax Checker processes a COBOL source program and produces
>> three
>> listings:
>>
>> 1. a diagnostic listing,
>>
>> 2. a cross-reference listing,
>>
>> 3. a source listing.
>>
>> ---END QUOTE---
>>
>> There are two distributions listed, a C binary distribution for SVR2 for
>> the
>> 3B20 for $2000 and a C source distribution for SVR2 for the VAX 11/780
>> for $7500,
>> both listed as released 2Q84.
>>
>> Some quick Googling only offers up additional catalog and magazine
>> mentions.
>> To me this sounds like a linter with some extra bits.  Does anyone have
>> any
>> recollections of this software or know if there's much likelihood of the
>> software
>> itself or any documentation surviving?
>>
>> Thanks for any insights!
>>
>> - Matt G.
>>
>
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