Microsoft KB Archive/69763

How to Use COBOL’s PWB with Several Compilers and Help Files

PSS ID Number: Q69763 Article last modified on 04-25-1991

4.00 MS-DOS

Summary: Microsoft Programmer’s WorkBench (PWB) is designed as a multilanguage, project-oriented development environment for MS-DOS and MS OS/2. When installed with COBOL version 4.00, PWB version 1.10 shows build options only for the COBOL language. If you are using several Microsoft languages that utilize the programmer’s WorkBench, you will want to combine the environments. Build options for several languages and all their associated help files will be available to the same PWB environment. The key to each language’s interface into PWB is the .HLP files and the .MXT files for MS-DOS, and the .PXT files for MS OS/2. The .HLP files are the help files for each language product. The .MXT and .PXT files are PWB extensions for each language, and define menus and dialog boxes for each compiler. Thus, to use PWB with COBOL and other languages, you must copy the .MXT file (for MS-DOS), or .PXT file (for MS OS/2), from each of the other languages into the directory containing the PWBCOBOL.MXT file or the PWBCOBOL.PXT file. SET the HELPFILES environment variable to find the other languages’ help files. If you receive a message stating that only 15 help files can be opened at one time, you can combine several of these files into a single file. To append two files named FILE1.HLP and FILE2.HLP, use the following DOS command: copy file1.hlp + file2.hlp The resulting file FILE1.HLP consists of the contents of the original FILE1.HLP file followed by the contents of FILE2.HLP. This information applies to Microsoft COBOL Professional Development System (PDS) version 4.00, to Microsoft BASIC Professional Development System (PDS) version 7.10, and to Microsoft C PDS version 6.00 for MS-DOS and MS OS/2.

Copyright Microsoft Corporation 1991.