Microsoft KB Archive/69852

When PWB’s Make Menu Won’t Allow COBOL Program to Be Compiled

PSS ID Number: Q69852 Article last modified on 04-25-1991

4.00 MS-DOS

Summary: After loading the COBOL source program into Programmer’s WorkBench (PWB) and choosing the Make menu, the only option is Set Program List. Compile, Build, or Rebuild are unavailable. This happens because PWB only recognizes a file extension of .CBL as a COBOL source program. Renaming the source program to change its extension to .CBL from .COB will solve this problem. This information applies to PWB.EXE when installed from Microsoft COBOL Compiler version 4.00 for MS-DOS.

More Information: PWB is an extensible development platform used for many Microsoft professional languages. Makefiles and the NMAKE utility all utilize the file extensions to determine what actions to take when building a final executable. To recognize a source program as a COBOL program, it must have the file extension, .CBL. PWB does not read the compiler directives, and thus, does not process the OSEXT“COB” directive. To rename all files in a subdirectory with the file extension of .COB to .CBL, use the Windows File Manager or the following DOS command: rename .cob .cbl If you rename the COBOL source program, and PWB’s Make menu still has the Compile, Build, and Rebuild options dimmed, check to see what program is loaded into PWB. When the source program with the .CBL extension is loaded into PWB, the compilation will be possible within PWB.

Copyright Microsoft Corporation 1991.