PowerCOBOL manages applications as projects. A project contains all of the resources required by the application including the application windows (forms), event procedures, bit maps, icon files, point (cursor) files, imagelist files, COBOL source files and library files.
Projects are organized by application modules. Modules are organized by the objects contained within them such as forms (windows). Lastly, forms are organized by objects within them such as controls, events, methods, properties and event procedures (COBOL "scriptlets").
Each resulting module executable may either be an .EXE file or a .DLL file. PowerCOBOL .DLL files can be shared by any application, including other language executables such as Visual Basic and C++.
The steps you take to create an executable program are as follows:
Create a new project in the PowerCOBOL Project Manager.
Select New Project from the File menu.
Select the appropriate application template (for example, "Standard Form").
Expand the project by right clicking the mouse on the project name in the left windowpane and selecting Expand All from the pop-up menu. You will see that a default form has already been created for you. This will be the starting form for the application.
If you wish to add additional forms to an existing application, right-click the mouse on the module name in the left windowpane and select Create Form from the pop-up menu.
Once you have one or more forms created, edit each form by right clicking the mouse on the form name and selecting Open from the pop-up menu. You then add the controls you wish and write any needed event procedures.
When you are finished editing your forms, save them and save the project definition by selecting Save from the File menu in the PowerCOBOL Project Manager.
You are now ready to compile and link the project into an application. You do this by selecting Build All from the Project menu. You may alternatively select the Build ALL option from a pop-up menu by right clicking the mouse on the project name in the left windowpane.
NOTE: This version of PowerCOBOL can import projects from previous versions of PowerCOBOL, including version 1 and up. Select Open from the File menu and then select "PowerCOBOL V3.0 or earlier project (*.prj)" from the Files of Type File Type option if you wish to open a project file from V3.0 or earlier version of PowerCOBOL. Select "PowerCOBOL Project (*.ppj)" if you wish to open a V4.0 or higher project.
Building an application invokes the PowerCOBOL compiler upon the module. If the compile is successful, the PowerCOBOL linker will then be invoked to create an executable module.
Compiling translates any high-level symbolic descriptions into a lower-level symbolic or machine-readable format. Linking gathers object modules and related resources, merges them, and resolves reference conflicts to produce an .EXE program.
When the Build command is issued, PowerCOBOL checks the update status to compare the modification dates of source files. PowerCOBOL then automatically selects the required modules to recompile, and re-links any files that have a modification date later than the resultant object module.
A Rebuild All, on the other hand, is the recompile of all source files and a re-link of all object modules regardless of modification dates.
