You can use the settings in
Tools > Options > Text Editor > Micro Focus COBOL and on the
Advanced page to configure some additional features such as the formatting or some of the tooltips.
Advanced
- Copybook extensions
- Specifies the file extensions that are recognized as copybook files. Separate the extensions by a comma.
Note: To ensure the file extensions will be recognized as COBOL copybooks, you also need to add them to your project properties
(type
copyext(ext1,ext2) in
Additional Directives on the
COBOL page in your project's properties).
- Enable inactive code colorization
- Enabled by default. Specifies that any sections of code in $if conditional compilations that are not compiled should be colorized.
If you are editing large source files, switching this option off could help improve the performance in the editor.
- Enable Outlining
- Enabled by default. Controls whether to show the outlining for blocks of code in the editor. If there are files opened in
the editor, any changes to this option only take effect after closing and reopening the files.
If you are editing large source files, switching this option off could help improve the performance in the editor.
- Enable Outlining for groups
- Enabled by default. Controls whether to show the outlining for 01 level group items. If there are files opened in the editor,
any changes to this option only take effect after closing and reopening the files.
If you are editing large source files, switching this option off could help improve the performance in the editor.
- Find All References scope
- Enables you to configure whether
Find All References searches only in the current project or, only for
.NET COBOL, in all
.NET COBOL projects within your solution. See
General Visual Studio IDE Issues for information about the limitations when using
Find All References.
- Limit IntelliSense search scope
- Disabled by default. Limits the IntelliSense search scope so suggestions might not be available in certain cases. Only enable
this setting if IntelliSense is causing performance issues.
- Place 'System' $set ilusing statements first
- When orderering ILUSING statements, the 'System' namespaces are placed first.
- Show comment tasks
- Enables you to specify whether the IDE should scan the source files in the editor for Task List comments (such as TODO or
HACK) and display them in the
Task List window. If there are any files opened in the editor, changes to this option only take effect after closing and reopening
the files.
If you are editing large source files, switching this option off could help improve the performance in the editor.
Error Reporting
- Background syntax check timeout
- Specifies the response time (in seconds) after which the background parse is aborted.
- Enable background syntax checking
- Enables automatic syntax checking of the code as you type.
Generally, it is recommend that you leave Background Syntax Checking turned on as a number of IDE features rely on it and
are not available when it is disabled. You might consider turning it off only when editing exceptionally large files. See
Known Issues and Restrictions for more information about which IDE features are not available in that scenario.
- Enable DB2 background syntax checking
- Enables DB2 syntax checking during background compile.
- Enable OpenSQL background syntax checking
- Enables OpenSQL background syntax checking to a specified level.
- Enable SQL Option background syntax checking
- Enables SQL background syntax checking to a specified level.
- Run background syntax check in separate process
- The default is
x86 project configurations. Native COBOL only. Specifies which project configurations should run background syntax checking in a separate process and
not as part of the Visual Studio process.
Background syntax checking runs as part of the Visual Studio process. This is a 64-bit process in Visual Studio 2022, and
was previously 32-bit in versions earlier than 2022. This can be an issue for projects that require specific bitism, such
as applications that use XDB, in that they would fail to perform background parse correctly. To avoid this issue, use this
option to specify if a project is to be parsed out-of-process in the correct bitism.
Restriction: Only applies to native COBOL projects. Background syntax checking of .NET COBOL projects only works as part of the Visual
Studio process.
- Off - all configurations run as part of the Visual Studio process.
- x86 project configurations - specifies that background syntax checking for x86 project configurations runs as a separate process, but 64-bit configurations
run as part of the Visual Studio process
- x86/x64 project configurations - specifies that background syntax checking for both x86 and x64 project configuration runs as a separate process.
Expanded Copybooks
- Discard unsaved changes in copybooks when closing the source
- Set to True by default. Discards any unsaved changes in the expanded copybooks, when you close the COBOL source file.
- Enable expanded copybook view
- Set to True by default. Enables support for showing copybooks in an open source file. It is not possible to change this setting
while debugging.
- Maintain expanded copybook view state
- Enables you to specify whether the state of the expanded copybook view should be preserved between closing and reopening a
file or the project.