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The COBOL support for Eclipse enables you to develop COBOL applications using the Eclipse IDE. Eclipse is open source software and provides the platform for plugging-in tools, thereby providing a fully integrated software workbench.

You use the Eclipse IDE to develop applications written in COBOL and in other languages such as Java.

The plug-in provides Eclipse features such as a COBOL perspective, as well as background checking COBOL syntax and COBOL launch configurations. Like in other Micro Focus products, the plug-in provides COBOL-specific projects, familiar functionality for editing and debugging, and comprehensive COBOL Help.

To read some background

Read Overview of COBOL Development in Eclipse, which gives a brief tour of the COBOL features available in Eclipse.

To get started right away

Try the COBOL cheat sheets on the Help menu by clicking Help > Cheat Sheets > COBOL Development. Cheat sheets are like tutorials and give step-by-step instructions on how to do a task, together with brief explanations. There are cheat sheets to:

For details of restrictions in Server Express and other supplementary information, see your readme.txt file, which is on your Micro Focus CD and also in the $COBDIR/docs directory of your installation.

For other information on getting started see: