Do not use the Startup object in the Application properties page to set the main program. The startup object must be the first
static method in a class specified using the ILMAIN directive.
The use of drag and drop for adding large numbers of files or folders is not recommended, as the IDE may become unresponsive
while the files are imported.To add files to your projects, use either one of the following options as appropriate –
File > Create Project From Existing Code or, in Solution Explorer,
Add Existing Files,
Add Existing COBOL Files context menu commands at project level.
When trying to rebuild a project that includes a
filename.xaml file, you might receive a build error that the project output could not be deleted. A possible cause for this might be a
third party application, such as the real time scanner of your antivirus software, locking the file. To work around this problem,
instead of a rebuild, perform a build.
When adding a bitmap or an icon to a WPF COBOL project, the
Build Action for the resource is set to
None by default. In order to include the resource in the built output, you need to manually set its
Build Action to
Resource.
The multi-output project template has the following limitations:
Adding .NET resources such as classes, WinForms, resources, Service References, Web References is not supported. You need
to create these in a separate .NET project and reference that project from within the Procedural Multi-Output project.
The programs generated from the procedural multi-output project cannot be referenced from other .NET projects, nor can they
be referenced using object COBOL syntax. However, a multi-output project supports adding references to other types of .NET
projects.
Editor:
You need to use the Visual Studio Code Snippets Manager (click here) to manage code snippets and to create new custom ones. Do not edit the snippets directly in their default installation folder.
Any changes you make in that location will be reverted and lost if you later install an upgrade to
Visual COBOL such as a Patch Update release. Following the Microsoft procedure ensures that the snippets will be handled correctly during
a Patch Update install.
A data item is displayed as grey and not red if it has been previously referenced 32766 times.
Searching:
When you perform a search in the IDE for copybooks that your programs depend upon, if you have not specified that an extension
is a copybook in
Tools > Options > Text Editor > Micro Focus COBOL > Advanced, the IDE examines only the
Additional directives field on the
COBOL tab in the project's properties, for COPYEXT. It does not check COBOL.DIR and the files' properties. To work around this
restriction, ensure the extension has been added to the
Copybook extensions option in
Tools > Options > Text Editor > Micro Focus COBOL > Advanced.