Open Source Usability Software

One of the hardest things to do when coding with COBOL is translating a screen design into code. The process may take hours, not to say days. In my old BLIS-COBOL, COBOL 74 and COBOL 80 /85 days (and those last 2 had the SCREEN SECTION which helped a lot !), I recall spending a significant amount of time dedicated to that activity. Time that could be used for more productive activities like coding and resolving bugs, for instance. Having said that, I developed a Screen Editor (similar to a Screen Painter, as some tools may call it) which allows the user to create screen layouts (which includes the use of colors) with delimited fields and respective input masks, and finally generate the SCREEN SECTION code that reflects that layout. All of it automatically - no code needed. The idea came from a program I used to use named EDITEL. I have adapted the concept (it was originally built for BLIS COBOL systems) and created a version that does this for GnuCOBOL and Microfocus COBOL. Enjoy !