On UNIX platforms that support the execution of both 32-bit and 64-bit applications, Visual COBOL for such platforms is installed with both a 32-bit version and 64-bit version of the COBOL development and run-time systems. This enables you to write programs that can be run on both 32-bit and 64-bit systems, and to migrate applications from 32-bit systems to 64-bit systems.
The development tools, run-time libraries and run-time system for both the 32-bit and 64-bit version of Visual COBOL are located in the $COBDIR directory.
You can specify a working mode for Visual COBOL; that is, whether the default development system is the 32-bit system or the 64-bit system. Whichever working mode you specify, you can always use tools that work in the other mode. For example, if you set Visual COBOL to work in 32-bit mode by default, you can still run 64-bit versions of the tools and utilities.