Free COBOL Compilers and Interpreters
Get a free ANSI COBOL compiler and interpreter for your platform
Free COBOL Compilers and Interpreters
Learning the COBOL language? Or perhaps you're faced with the task of maintaining a program written in COBOL? This page lists free implementations of the COBOL language, whether they follow the ANSI 85 COBOL standard, ANSI 74 COBOL standard or otherwise.
If you need a book on COBOL, you may want to check out the selection of books available at Amazon.com.
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Disclaimer
The information provided on this page comes without any warranty whatsoever. Use it at your own risk. Just because a program, book, document or service is listed here or has a good review does not mean that I endorse or approve of the program or of any of its contents. All the other standard disclaimers also apply.
Free COBOL Compilers and Interpreters
- MicroFocus COBOL Net Express Personal Edition
MicroFocus COBOL Net Express Personal Edition allows you to create COBOL programs for the Windows' .NET Framework. It includes an IDE, a COBOL compiler, debugger (Animator), an object-oriented programming environment, data access via Open ESDL, and support for parts of ISO 2002 COBOL. The compiler will not compile your source code to executable files if it contains more than 2200 lines of source code (excluding comments and blank lines). To download it, click the link at the bottom of the page "product for purchase/download" (it's free, so you don't have to pay). Note that you can only use this software for "education, training [and] academic research activities".
- COBOL12 16-bit COBOL Compiler
This is a 16-bit COBOL compiler for DOS and Windows. It supports some of the ANSI74 specifications, lacks some features like SORT and STRING, and includes other non-standard features such as the modules that allow screen output. Compiled programs use video mode 12h, a 16 colour graphical mode with a resolution of 640x480. The compiler comes with an IDE, linker, a runtime module and a reference manual.
- OpenCOBOL COBOL to C Translator
OpenCOBOL translates COBOL source code to C, which can then be compiled with the GNU C compiler, gcc. It is released under the GNU licences (either GPL or LGPL).
- OTCobol COBOL Compiler
The C source code for an MSDOS COBOL compiler can be found here. According to the website, it handles most of the COBOL keywords. It is no longer being developed.
- Project CobCy: Cobol to C Compiler
This COBOL compiler generates C code from COBOL source code. The generated code can be compiled by GCC. The author developed the program on OS/2 using the EMX port of GCC, so presumably the compiler should work fine on OS/2. There is little information about the compiler on the site.
- COBOL for GCC
This is an attempt at creating a COBOL 85 compliant compiler for Linux and other operating systems. It generates assembler code which is passed to the GNU C compiler backend. At the time of this writing, the work is still not completed (it can only generate code for a "very small subset of COBOL"), but the source code is accessible for you to tinker with.
- Fujitsu COBOL Compiler
This is a free version of Fujitsu's COBOL compiler (it is an old version) for students. It works under Windows 95, 98 and NT. Unlike its commercial version, the students' version has the ODBC connectivity and optimizations disabled. The compiler is compliant (or so its documentation claim) with the "Full ANSI Standard X3.23 1985, ISO- 1989- 1985". It is compatible with OS/VS COBOL, VS COBOL II and Micro Focus. There is an embedded SQL Preprocessor, an embedded COBOL Report Writer, a full function COBOL GUI Source Code Debugger, an IDE (what they call "Programming Staff"), Micro Focus Conversion Utility and a file utility.
- Tiny COBOL Compiler
This COBOL implementation intends to be compliant with COBOL 85 standard, in particular, according to their website, the ISO 1985, ISO 1989-1 (Intrinsic Function Module), ANSI X3.23-1985, ANSI X3.23a-1989 (Intrinsic Function Module), X/Open XPG3 (COBOL programming languages extensions). It has, in addition, the ability to read/write from standard input/output/error, read command line parameters, read environment variables, set a file name at runtime, and return a program exit code to the invoking process. It generates Intel x84 assembly language code, and works together with the GNU assembler to generate binaries. Platform supported: Linux. The compiler is licensed under the GNU GPL.
- Wildcat Cobol Compiler for .NET
The Wildcat Cobol Compiler for .NET, Mono (an open source implementation of .NET) and DotGNU Portable .NET runtimes, is an open source COBOL compiler with some extensions that allow your programs to use the .NET Framework and external .NET assemblies such as NUnit. The compiler is released under the GNU GPL.
- Deskware Cobol Interpreter (Win32 port) (MSDOS port)
This is a very old freeware versions (version 0.001 Apha) of the Deskware COBOL interpreter. The interpreter supports a subset of the ANSI85 COBOL syntax and has some extensions. Alas, the package does not come with any documentation. The freeware version is no longer supported.
- COBOL650 COBOL Compiler
This is an old free MSDOS COBOL compiler that comes with documentation. It is no longer supported (the author was apparently dying at the time it was released). It conforms with the ANSI COBOL-74 standard although it does not implement the sort/merge feature. It apparently generates OBJ files, so you will need a linker to generate an executable binary. You can get free linkers from the Free Assemblers, Linkers and Object Module Librarians page.
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Free COBOL Compilers and Interpreters
