extend®8 Overview

Acucorp has just released extend8.  This latest version of our software includes well over 100 new enhancements.  It also includes a new product, known as AcuXUI™.   

AcuXUI is a cross-platform user interface engine that lets you execute graphical ACUCOBOL-GT® programs on any machine that supports the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) Version 1.5 or later, including UNIX®, Linux® and Macintosh.  This innovation increases the portability—and for ISVs, marketability—of graphical programs.  Rather than executing applications with “runcbl” or “wrun32.exe”, you run them with a Java command on the server indicating the AcuXUI Java archive (JAR) file and resources to use to run the COBOL program.  For more information on this revolutionary yet simple-to-use GUI engine, read Introducing AcuXUI: A Java-based GUI for Any Platform.

In addition, Version 8 introduces a remote preprocessing utility called Boomerang that makes accessing preprocessors from companies like IBM® and Oracle® easier and more efficient.  Boomerang transfers files to a remote server, invokes a preprocessor, then returns the preprocessed files to your client machine for additional compilation.

Figure 1:  Boomerang interface in AcuBench®

Version 8 also features enhancements that can improve many applications’ performance, including, but not limited to faster binary math operations, more efficient WRITE and READ NEXT operations on locked indexed files and faster code for many comparison operations.
Additionally, Version 8 enhances interoperability in many key ways.  For example:

• There are several new C$JAVA op-codes for handling exceptions, setting system properties and calling Java main methods.
• ACUCOBOL-GT now supports nested ActiveX and COM event procedures.
• ACUCOBOL-GT can now recognize and compile .NET assemblies version 1.1 and 2.0.
• The NETDEFGEN interface has been revamped and .NET COPY files are more readable.
• There are nine new C$XML op-codes for getting and setting encoding and processing instructions, such as stylesheets.

Figures 2:  New NETDEFGEN interface

And that’s just ACUCOBOL-GT!  Nearly all of Acucorp’s products have been enhanced in one way or another. 

• AcuBench has a new, modernized look with different toolbars and menu icons.  It has also been enhanced to allow remote debugging of IBM CICS applications, support for AcuXUI and Boomerang, HTML report improvements and new styles and configuration options.
• ACUCOBOL-GT, AcuConnect®, AcuSQL® and Acu4GL® can now be ported to run on the Windows x64 platform.
• AcuSQL and Acu4GL for Microsoft SQL Server® have been reengineered to access Microsoft SQL Server using the latest Microsoft communication technology.
• AcuODBC® has been replaced by its next generation, AcuXDBC™.  First released as the sole product of Version 7.4, AcuXDBC now joins the extend8 family of technologies—letting you apply relational database management techniques to your Vision files, such as defining databases and database objects and manipulating and managing access to those databases.  AcuXDBC also provides access to data stored in Vision via ODBC- and JDBC-compliant applications.

And this is just a sampling of the new enhancements.  For a complete list of the changes in what has become known as our biggest release yet, visit our Version 8 landing page. There you’ll find even more information on Version 8, including our Why Upgrade? paper, press release and Release Overview. You can also contact your Sales Professional for details.

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