Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!MITRE.MITRE.ORG!art
From: art@MITRE.MITRE.ORG (Art McClinton)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec.micro
Subject: Re: Contaminated Cheese -- oops, I meant DEC PCs...
Message-ID: <8905301210.AA06044@mitre.arpa>
Date: 30 May 89 12:10:23 GMT
References: <890530-042902-6855@Xerox>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The MITRE Corp., Washington, D.C.
Lines: 58

This topic <COBOL Compilers on MS-DOS> seems to be very hot on FIDO.  At
the present time the same discussion is going on over there.  A brief
summary is that the Micro Soft COBOL will run on the rainbow.  Prior to
the most recent release it did not require Code Blue.  The most recent
release however has inserted a hardware clear screen at start-up.  
This requires code blue to run the compiler or any executables.

Another Cobol compiler was mentioned (sorry do not remember the name)
that will run on the Rainbow without CodeBlue.  This compiler is identical
to the VAX Cobol.  

In any case, the use of the DISPLAY command in either compiler by-passes
the MS-DOS commands and writes directly to the screen.  This will make it
IBM specific.

 
     
*
*---Art
*
*Arthur T. McClinton Jr.     ARPA: ART@MITRE.ARPA
*Mitre Corporation MS-Z305   Phone: 703-883-6356
*1820 Dolley Madison Blvd    Internal Mitre: ART@MWVMS or M10319@MWVM
*McLean, Va. 22102           DECUS DCS: MCCLINTON
*

  =-=- This note is in response to yours which follows -=-=

<<
	- Does MS-COBOL run on the DEC rainbow?

	- Are MS-COBOL applications developed on the IBM PC object code
	  compatible on the Rainbow?

	- How do you get the object files from the IBM PC to the
	  Rainbow (remember, the Rainbow has brain-damaged disks)?
	  Will Kermit work?

I don't have specfic info on MS-COBOL but the other MS compilers are not
IBM specofic and run under generic MS-DOS. I would expect the MS_COBAL to
run.

The object code should run on the Rainbow providing the application does
all it's IO via MS-DOS. If the author of the code did ttricks to speed up
IO (like write to screem RAM or access the Pc keybaord directly, then ALL
BETS are off.

You can transfer the files to a PC dick from the rainbow using Media Master
to format an IBM floppy for single side (175KB). 

The Rainbow can read and  write to this format, however disks formatted on
a PC can not be reliabily written on the RB, thus you need Media Master or
equiv to format the disk on the bow.

Kermit will work also, othe file transfer programs will also work, XMODEM
etc.

Ed Kushakk