When you write an object-oriented (OO) program, you have to determine what classes you need and the methods and data that the classes need to do their work.
OO programs are based on objects (entities that encapsulate state and behavior) and their classes, methods, and data. A class is a template that defines the state and the capabilities of an object. Usually a program creates and works with multiple object instances (or simply, instances) of a class, that is, multiple objects that are members of that class. The state of each instance is stored in data known as instance data, and the capabilities of each instance are called instance methods. A class can define data that is shared by all instances of the class, known as factory or static data, and methods that are supported independently of any object instance, known as factory or static methods.
Using COBOL for AIX, you can:
In COBOL for AIX programs, you can call the services provided by the Java Native Interface (JNI) to obtain Java-oriented capabilities in addition to the basic OO capabilities available directly in the COBOL language.
In COBOL for AIX classes, you can code CALL statements to interface with procedural COBOL programs. Thus COBOL class definition syntax can be especially useful for writing wrapper classes for procedural COBOL logic, enabling existing COBOL code to be accessed from Java.
Java code can create instances of COBOL classes, invoke methods of these classes, and can extend COBOL classes.
Restrictions:
related concepts
JDK support
related tasks
Defining a class
Defining a class instance method
Defining a client
Defining a subclass
Defining a factory section
Compiling, linking, and running OO applications
related references
The Java Language Specification