OS/VS COBOL in CICS 2.3

Ahhhh, the most popular subject at SHARE in Anaheim a few weeks ago! And, as usual, the short answer is too misleading, so here is the long answer about which COBOL works and which does not in CICS TS 2.2 and 2.3.

CICS TS 2.2

• Cannot translate OS/VS COBOL programs
• Must use COBOL3 translator option
• OS/VS COBOL programs under OS/VS COBOL runtime library may run, but is unsupported

CICS TS 2.3

• OS/VS COBOL programs will run, but only if using LE as a run time library
• Any attempts to initialize OS PL/I, OS/VS COBOL or VS COBOL II run times will result in ABEND
• All High-Level Language programs running under CICS must use LE CICS TS 3.1
• OS/VS COBOL programs will ABEND even if using LE!

The CICS story is described in CICS announcements, such as for CICS 3.1. Go to the CICS 3.1 page, click on "Announcement Letter" and search for COBOL in the announcement for details.