The isCOBOL runtime has been enhanced with a new option to measure the time spent, new configuration options and others.

A new option, named –time, is supported by the iscrun process to measure the time spent by the running session. This is useful in batch programs whose runtime needs to be measured. The same option is supported by the trun process.

For example, running the command:

The output is:

The last line shows the total time elapsed, including the time spent for Java startup and shutdown.

A new property, iscobol.runtime-preload, has been implemented to preload a list of programs separated by space or comma. This feature is similar to the C$PRELOAD routine that loads all the COBOL programs contained in a jar library or in a folder, but you can use this configuration to list arbitrary program names without the need to create a separate jar file or a folder to group the programs.

The property also helps in cases where a PROGRAM-ID contains ENTRY points, and the caller program calls the entry directly without ever calling the main program. This approach is the equivalent of C functions called in a native library and preloaded with the configuration iscobol.shared_library_list.

For example, having these entry points declared in this PROGRAM-ID:

a program can now execute:

without adding the CALL “progentry” before calling the entry points by setting the configuration property:

A new property iscobol.file.env_toupper=false has been implemented to resolve file aliases in case sensitive way. When searching for an environment variable, its name is considered in upper case by default. By setting this new configuration to false the runtime will look for the environment variable in case sensitive way, keeping the case used in the program source code. It affects only environment variables in file names, for example with this select:

the runtime will search for the file “customer” in the $datapath environment variable instead of $DATAPATH. The same behavior is applied to file names remapped in the environment when having iscobol.file.env_naming=true.

The WIN$PLAYSOUND routine now supports files included in the source with COPY RESOURCE statement. This avoids the need to provide the physical file in the production environment since the resource file is included in the .class when compiling the COBOL source.

The USE AT PROGRAM START declaratives have been enhanced by supporting the linkage parameters and library routines. The statement is useful to provide startup code that will be executed only once when the program is instantiated.

New methods are implemented in the com.iscobol.rts.IscobolSystem class. The method signatures are:

The duplicateIscobolEnv method is useful to duplicate the isCOBOL environment between Java threads. The destroyIscobolEnv method is used to clear the isCOBOL environment of a Java thread. These methods help in the COBOL integration with Java for multithread environments that require an isolated environment, similar in the COBOL solution under the CALL RUN statement.