Hi Group,
Which is better? netexpress or fujistu cobol?

thanks,
Stan

Silly question.

You didn't say what your criteria are...

What are you looking for?

Might as well ask: "Which is better...Nike or Reebok?"

Or "Rolls Royce or Mercedes?"

The answer is the same. They are BOTH quality products.

If you are looking for sportshoes you will have certain criteria in mind. If
you are looking for a luxury vehicle you will have certain criteria in mind.

If you haven't, then toss a coin <G>.

If you don't know how to formulate criteria and evaluate products for
yourself, then you deserve whatever you get...

And if you buy products based on other people's opinions, or the power of
advertising, then you also deserve whatever you get.

Pete.

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Ha, tough room.

Okay, what criteria would you recommend I use to evaluate?

StanleyDog

PowerCobol from Fujtisu  is better, DialogSystem from Merant is very
hard to use and in Fujitsu is full Cobol, has a better interface and
Project, but of course
need to Improve
My Opinion.

By the way I Know both

Carlos Lages

clages.vcf < 1K Download

Well, you can't use the compiler itself as a criterium inasmuch as both are
ANSI-85 compliant. So, then,

1. Price,
2. Runtime charges (if any, which is kind of a price),
3. Debugging capability (which affects time-to-deliver, which is kind of a
price)
4. Ease of use (which affects man-hours, which affects price).
5. Likelihood of being around in five years.

I mean, look at the price first; it might be definitive.

The big gripe agains Merant seems to be their runtime charges; the main
flame against Fujitsu seems to be their software activation process.

First and foremost,  your subject line mentions "MERANT".  MERANT is now OUT
of the COBOL business.  However, NetExpress is a product that is provided by
the *new* Micro Focus company.  See:
   www.microfocus.com

Before helping you with the criteria for selecting one of these, how about
you tell us what you expect to do with the compiler and why you are looking
at getting a new COBOL compiler?

A) Do you plan to use this to "teach yourself" COBOL?  In which case, I
would get a book that includes a compiler (or two)?

B) Are you a student in a COBOL course?  In which case, I would get the
compiler recommended by the instructor.

C) Do you know COBOL on another platform?  In which case, I would check out
the "compatibility" features of each compiler.  (Micro Focus tends to have
MORE compatibility options with newer IBM compilers - but Fujitsu is quite
compatible with older ones.)

D) Do you need/plan on interfacing with other software?  (For examples, IBM
Assembler, PL/I, CICS and IMS is probably better with Micro Focus.   It
seems to me that Fujitsu is the only one working with Microsoft .NET - and
MAY be better in OLE integration).

E) What do you plan on doing with the "output" of your work with the
compiler?  Sell it?  Port the source code to an IBM mainframe? Use it for
your own personal applications?  Use it for in-house (many people in your
company) applications?  Each of these have different ramifications for
deployment ease and price.

F) What operating system to you work on and do you plan on running your
applications on?  How often do you upgrade your OS?  How often might you
port your application?

  ***

There are probably LOTS of other questions that I would ask before even
starting to give you a "clue" on which would be better for you.  Again, if
you tell us WHY you are looking for a compiler, we may be better able to
give you some ideas of what to look at.

--
Bill Klein
 wmklein <at> ix.netcom.com
supernews.com...

Bill, if what others (whose native language is apparently not English)
believe is true, you've just counseled theft, which, it was pointed out to
me earlier, could result in this poor sod being expelled from school.

Stan,

This is the sort of damn silly advice that Pete Dashwood was warning you
against !
As he pointed out, make your own evaluation using demo copies of BOTH
compilers - which features appeal, which don't, how are they on pricing,
irritants like password keys, cost for tech support, how quickly do they
react with changes  etc.  They are both like comparing the Rolls Royce
and the Mercedes - they both give excellent road worthiness. You be the
judge.

I use Micro Focus (was Merant) but don't use the Dialog System - there
are many using this module who swear by it. With no direct knowledge, I
have gained the 'impression' that the POWERCOBOL approach to GUI design
is *smoother*. I have no problem with Micro Focus project control,
allows me to do a tremendous number of things and is backed up by a
superb de{*filter*} 'Animator'.

If you sit down and tabulate the pluses and minuses for both, I think
you will come out pretty equal. But it's your decision, based on taking
a personal look see.

Jimmy, Calgary AB

Tough question to answer.  Tell us what your environment is, and your
requirements and we'll try to help.  On the balance of things, when I had to
choose, I chose Fujitsu.

But that would have been too easy Pete.  OBVIOUSLY Reebok is better - more of a
chance to hit a triple word score because it has more letters!

Stan,

Yep, it's a tough room for sure.  But then again, programmers reside here,
so without sufficient input as to purpose, proposed usage, budget, future
plans, etc., there probably will be no correct reply to your inquiry.

However, our shop used to use the MicroFocus PC compiler, which was a
quality product and had good debugging tools, but definitely had an IBM
"slant" to it.  Since we run a Unisys Clearpath "open systems" mainframe and
we were moving to more Server/Client programs that interface directly with
the Clearpath system, we switched to the Fujitsu product, which includes
"PowerCobol", "PowerForm", etc.  This decision was perfect for us since the
PowerCobol product let us snip much of our existing Mainframe code into
modules of PowerCobol, let the PowerCobol tool interface create the "tough"
Windows GUI side of the application, and get the program off and running
with relatively little investment in money and programmer time.
We had not tried the Netexpress Version before we made the decision to go
with Fujitsu, so I'm not qualified to make that comparison.  Actually, I
don't think it was released when we made the decision.

But overall, the Fujitsu product has exceeded our expectations, especially
since we're now using some of the ODBC interfaces that Fujitsu provides.  As
others have said, try both and see which one fits your needs and budget.

Denny

Now where did that idea come from? I see nothing here that advocates or
even suggests any kind of theft. At worst, maybe a potential for a
conflict of interest if the professor has an undisclosed interest in a
particular brand and the student goes out and buys his own copy of the
same brand without questioning the recommendation. Who said anything about
theft?

--
Robert M. Pritchett, President - RMP Consulting Partners LLC - member ICCA
Quality means doing it right the first time - http://rmpcp.com
Tired of hearing "W-2 only"? Work the same contract on our 1099 instead!

.

Bill, if what others (whose native language is apparently not English)
believe is true, you've just counseled theft, which, it was pointed out to
me earlier, could result in this poor sod being expelled from school.

Go for Fujitsu.

Tony M. Mina

Web:   www.newagesoftwaredev.com

Someone said Coin Toss....    well I'm not so sure......   I use NE 3.1 and
do like it but am disappointed that micro focus's apparent .NET support is
not going to be a native IL compiler but the fact that "we can make COM
objects" which can be used via .NET interop (managed CLR talking to
unmanaged COM via costly mashalling).   I'd focus on Fujutsu first and maybe
take a NE demo if you think it's lacking in some way.......     I'd love to
see a MF-Cobol.NET.

Big .NET Fan from TX
Mike

Wow!

A Canadian fellow who actually has a strong opinion...
You sure you're Canadian?! <G>

Calin, TORONTO