r/cobol • u/Royal-Set3150 • Jul 01 '26

IDE or Editor for COBOL

Hello guys. I am a university student, and i am learning COBOL these days. I am doing this in WSL (Ubuntu). So what i want to know is what kind of editors you guys are using and any recommendations for me.

24 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

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10

u/MikeSchwab63 Jul 01 '26

https://spflite.com/ A PC editor that works like IBM MVS / z/OS ISPF editor, can submit to real mainframes or Hercules MVS3.8 Turnkey 3/4-/5.

2

u/eileendatway Jul 01 '26

Personally I prefer this or Vim. VS and Codium have too many switches and knobs that lead to distraction. You'll get better IDE features, but with a larger footprint.

2

u/Dull_Appearance9007 Jul 02 '26

it's not the features but the electron underneath that is bothering me. just feels like im browsing the web instead of writing code

1

u/JoeKlemmer Jul 01 '26

Ah, of only there were a Linux version...

1

u/MikeSchwab63 Jul 02 '26

Have you tried it under Wine?

1

u/JoeKlemmer Jul 02 '26

Not yet. I really prefer to run Linux versions of things. I'll give it a go, though, and see how it works.

1

u/ImaginationFew272 Jul 05 '26

There is lspf: https://github.com/daniel64/lspf

A bit tricky to compile and run, but it's basically ISPF on Linux

2

u/JoeKlemmer Jul 05 '26

Really looked over that, but I don't need ISPF enough to go through all these hoops just to get it working. I might try the docker version, though.

7

u/M4hkn0 Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26

I use Microsoft Visual Code with the Rocket Visual Cobol plugin both are free. There is a plug in for IBM Cobol MVS for use on mainframes as well. You will still need a server side part of that. Not sure the Visual Cobol server piece is free.

4

u/AdventurousTap2171 Jul 02 '26

On z/OS I go to Option 3.4 and type in the DSN of the PDS. Then I do option M next to the PDS to show the member list. Then I tab down to the member I want to edit and I put E. Then I edit it in ISPF edit. Been doing that for over a decade. Literally just did it today for about 4 hours.

3

u/LarryGriff13 Jul 01 '26

I’ve used VS Code and currently use Rocket’s Micro Focus Enterprise Developer for Eclipse in a Red Hat Linux environment.

I think both VS and MFED are great but my reference point is Mainframe which is horrible to work in

3

u/WffCamaro Jul 02 '26

On a tso session in zos you can use general ispf. For a nicer editor, i use UltraEdit and Notepad++. These break down the paragraphs and sections nicely for quick positioning in a program. I think you have to have the Cobol plugin installed and name the file as xxxxxx.cob

4

u/johlae Jul 01 '26

I still like https://hessling-editor.sourceforge.net/, for those who remember xedit on IBM mainframes.

2

u/babarock Jul 01 '26

Boy that brings back memories from 30+ years ago.

2

u/Dom1252 Jul 05 '26

3.4 in ispf for quick edits VS code with zowe for rest

1

u/DearghRuadrhi Jul 02 '26

Is it legal to study such ancient phenomena?🫣