COBOL installs statistics

COBOL Source editing for Visual Studio Code

Release Information:

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This unofficial extension provides syntax highlighting for Rocket ® COBOL based COBOL languages (previously Micro Focus COBOL), with some support for other COBOL dialects such as ACUCOBOL, RMCOBOL, COBOL-IT and ILECOBOL.

Plus related syntax highlighting for other related languages/file formats such JCL, PL/I and directive files and Unit Test Reports.

Some of the features this extension provides are:

• Colourisation and problem matchers for the following Rocket COBOL dialects: • Visual COBOL • ACUCOBOL-GT • COBOL-IT • Colourisation for: • RMCOBOL • ILECOBOL support to help fellow IBMi COBOL developers • COBOL tab key support (configurable) • COBOL source navigation support • Shortcuts/Commands for navigation to divisions • Fixed format margin support • Outline view/breadcrumb support • Text based find all references • Peek definition • Copybook navigation • Intellisense support for keywords in lowercase, uppercase and camelcase • Snippet support for various keywords • including callable COBOL library routines • and intrinsic functions • Source code linter for in house/internal COBOL standards • Compiler directive file colourisation • Unit test report colourisation • Drag & Drop filename into source code inserts copybook verb • COBOL Source Utilities • Remove column numbers • Remove program identification area • Remove all comments • Text based rename paragraphs/sections and variables • Make all keywords/fields/sections uppercased, lowercased or camelcased • Re-sequence column numbers • Optional xedit'ish key bindings • Align storage items • Text to hex literals & reverse • Documentation for using development containers with Visual COBOL • and more..

While also being able to use it with the official Rocket COBOL extension (for debugging for example).

Examples of features provided

Code colorization for COBOL, PL/I and JCL

Intellisense example

Breadcrumb support

Outline support

Enhanced Minimap with Structure Boundaries

The extension enhances VS Code's minimap and overview ruler to display COBOL program structure boundaries, making navigation of large COBOL programs much easier.

Features: • Division markers (orange) - Shows major divisions on the left side of overview ruler • Section markers (blue) - Shows COBOL sections on the right side of overview ruler • Paragraph markers (purple) - Shows COBOL paragraphs on the right side of overview ruler • Click navigation - Click any marker to jump directly to that location • Fully customizable colors - Configure colors through VS Code settings

Configuration:

Settings: • coboleditor.enable_minimap_section_boundaries - Master toggle to enable/disable all minimap boundary markers • coboleditor.enable_minimap_section_boundaries_for_divisions - Show division boundary markers (default: true) • coboleditor.enable_minimap_section_boundaries_for_sections - Show section boundary markers (default: true) • coboleditor.enable_minimap_section_boundaries_for_paragraphs - Show paragraph boundary markers (default: false) • coboleditor.minimap_section_colors - Customize the colors used for each boundary type • Each color configuration supports: • light - Color for light themes (hex format, e.g. "#FF6F00") • dark - Color for dark themes (hex format, e.g. "#FFB74D") • alpha - Transparency level for background highlighting (0.0 to 1.0, where 0.0 is fully transparent and 1.0 is fully opaque)

This feature is especially valuable when working with large legacy COBOL programs containing many sections and paragraphs.

Code Folding

The extension provides comprehensive code folding capabilities for COBOL source code, allowing you to collapse and expand sections of code for better readability and navigation.

Features: • Structural folding - Based on parsed COBOL structures including: • Divisions (IDENTIFICATION, ENVIRONMENT, DATA, PROCEDURE) • Sections and Paragraphs • Program/Class/Method definitions • EXEC blocks • Copybook statements • Comment block folding - Consecutive comment lines are grouped into foldable blocks • Block statement folding - IF...END-IF, EVALUATE...END-EVALUATE, PERFORM...END-PERFORM, and other structured COBOL constructs

Configuration:

Settings: • coboleditor.enable_folding_ranges - Enable/disable code folding support (default: true)

Expanded Copybook View

When coboleditor.enable_codelens_copy_replacing is enabled, COPY statements that use REPLACING provide CodeLens actions to:

• Open the original copybook • Open a read-only expanded COBOL document • Compare the original copybook with its expanded content

The expanded view applies the replacement text already calculated by the source scanner and expands nested copybooks in statement order. Use **COBOL: Refresh Expanded Copybook** after an external file change. Saving a source document or changing a COBOL setting refreshes open expanded views automatically.

F12 or Ctrl/Cmd+click on an expanded line opens the corresponding source copybook line. Source navigation is line-based; columns changed by a replacement are not mapped individually.

Copybook expansion requires coboleditor.parse_copybooks_for_references and coboleditor.enable_text_replacement to be enabled.

Go to definition

Peek definition

COBOL specific coloured comments

Keybindings

| Keys | Description |

| ctrl+alt+p | Go to procedure division | | ctrl+alt+w | Go to working-storage section | | ctrl+alt+d | Go to data division (or working-storage section if not present) | | ctrl+alt+, | Go backwards to next section/division | | ctrl+alt+. | Go forward to next next section/division | | f12 or ctrl+click | Go to copybook/file | | ctrl+hover | Peek head of copybook or symbol/field | | right mouse/peek | Peek copybook without opening the file | | ctrl+alt+a | Adjust line to cursor position | | ctrl+alt+l | Left adjust line to left margin | | alt+right | Insert spaces to column 72 |

Keybindings - xedit'ish…

Description from the VS Code Marketplace listing.