COBOL Report Writer

Overview

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IBM COBOL Report Writer is an add-on program for the IBM COBOL compiler.

IBM COBOL Report Writer saves you time coding a print layout by defining it in the Data Division. You can move and edit data automatically and perform such tasks as page headings and footings, totaling, displaying dates, and organizing tables.

Improves programmer productivity in all aspects of printed output in COBOL by encouraging use of COBOL's report writer feature.
Helps users who have used a version of IBM COBOL compiler that included report writer as an integral feature and who want to use the same facilities.
Presents a standard, feature of COBOL that prints lines, pages, and sophisticated layouts anywhere you want within a COBOL program.
Saves time in coding a print layout because you define it entirely in the Data Division.
Requires few Procedure Division statements as they print whole blocks of lines at once.
Implements the report writer features by means of a precompiler rather than within the compiler itself.
Makes the precompiler phase transparent to programmers, so that their attention is not distracted from the original report writer source.
Includes an environment in which the precompiler and the compiler cooperate closely in a single-step operation.

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