Before You Begin

This guide provides introductory information for the Oracle Pro*COBOL precompiler running under the Microsoft Windows NT and Windows 95/98 operating systems.

Specific topics discussed in this preface are:

Prerequisites

This guide assumes that you:

can use a COBOL compiler in the Windows NT and Windows 95/98 environments
are familiar with Windows NT and Windows 95/98 commands such as deleting and copying files
understand the concepts of the search path, configuration files, and directory structure
are able to use a text editor to make changes to an ASCII text file

Intended Audience

This guide is necessary for anyone who wants to use Pro*COBOL release 8.0.5 and/or 1.8.27 for Windows NT and Windows 95/98.

How This Guide Is Organized

This guide contains the following chapters:

Chapter 1, "Introducing Pro*COBOL"

Describes the Oracle programmatic interface for the COBOL language running under the Windows NT and Windows 95/98 operating systems.

Chapter 2, "Building Pro*COBOL Applications"

Provides an overview of building Oracle database applications with Pro*COBOL release 8.0.5 and 1.8.27 for Windows NT and Windows 95/98.

Conventions

The following conventions are used in this guide.

Convention Example Meaning

All uppercase plain

ORANT\DATABASE\INITORCL.ORA

Indicates command names, SQL reserved words, and keywords, as in ALTER DATABASE. All uppercase plain is also used for directory names and file names.

Italic

Italic used to indicate a variable:
ORACLE_HOME\filename
Italic used for emphasis:
The WHERE clause may be used to join rows in different tables.

Indicates a value that you must provide. For example, if a command asks you to type filename, you must type the actual name of the file.
Italic is also used for emphasis in the text and to indicate the titles of other guides.

Oracle8 database

The database component of Oracle8.

C:\>

C:\> ORANT\DATABASE

Represents the Windows NT or Windows 95/98 command prompt of the current hard disk drive. Your prompt may differ and may, at times, reflect the subdirectory in which you are working. Referred to as the MS-DOS command prompt in this guide.

Backslash (\) before a directory name

\DATABASE

Indicates that the directory is a subdirectory of the root directory.

Oracle home

Go to the ORACLE_HOME\DATABASE directory.

Oracle home is represented as the hard drive letter and the top level directory where your Oracle software is installed. In this guide, the convention ORACLE_HOME is used to indicate your Oracle home directory, which may be:

C:\ORANT for Windows NT

C:\ORAWIN95 for Windows 95

or whatever you may have called your Oracle home.

Symbols

period .
comma ,
hyphen -
semicolon ;
colon :
equal sign =
backslash \
single quote `
double quote "
parentheses ()

Symbols other than brackets and vertical bars must be entered in commands exactly as shown.

Convention	Example	Meaning
All uppercase plain	ORANT\DATABASE\INITORCL.ORA	Indicates command names, SQL reserved words, and keywords, as in ALTER DATABASE. All uppercase plain is also used for directory names and file names.
Italic	Italic used to indicate a variable: ORACLE_HOME\filename Italic used for emphasis: The WHERE clause may be used to join rows in different tables.	Indicates a value that you must provide. For example, if a command asks you to type filename, you must type the actual name of the file. Italic is also used for emphasis in the text and to indicate the titles of other guides.
Oracle8 database		The database component of Oracle8.
C:\>	C:\> ORANT\DATABASE	Represents the Windows NT or Windows 95/98 command prompt of the current hard disk drive. Your prompt may differ and may, at times, reflect the subdirectory in which you are working. Referred to as the MS-DOS command prompt in this guide.
Backslash (\) before a directory name	\DATABASE	Indicates that the directory is a subdirectory of the root directory.
Oracle home	Go to the ORACLE_HOME\DATABASE directory.	Oracle home is represented as the hard drive letter and the top level directory where your Oracle software is installed. In this guide, the convention ORACLE_HOME is used to indicate your Oracle home directory, which may be: C:\ORANT for Windows NT C:\ORAWIN95 for Windows 95 or whatever you may have called your Oracle home.
Symbols	period . comma , hyphen - semicolon ; colon : equal sign = backslash \ single quote ` double quote " parentheses ()	Symbols other than brackets and vertical bars must be entered in commands exactly as shown.

Documentation Library

This guide is part of a larger library of Oracle documentation. The Oracle documentation library consists of two types of documentation:

Documentation Type Describes...

Operating System-specific

Installation, configuration, and use of Oracle products in a Windows NT or Windows 95/98 environment. Operating system-specific documents are occasionally referred to in the generic documentation set. These documents are easy to identify because they always mention their specific operating system in their title.

Generic

Oracle database, Oracle networking, and Application Programming Interfaces information that is uniform across all operating system platforms. The majority of documents in your documentation set belong to this category. While reading through the generic documentation set, you are occasionally asked to refer to your platform (or operating system) documentation for procedures specific to the Windows NT or Windows 95/98 operating systems.
To easily identify where these generic documentation references are described in your operating system documentation, see the index of this guide for the following entry:
generic documentation references
All generic documentation references described in this guide appear under this index entry.

Documentation Type	Describes...
Operating System-specific	Installation, configuration, and use of Oracle products in a Windows NT or Windows 95/98 environment. Operating system-specific documents are occasionally referred to in the generic documentation set. These documents are easy to identify because they always mention their specific operating system in their title.
Generic	Oracle database, Oracle networking, and Application Programming Interfaces information that is uniform across all operating system platforms. The majority of documents in your documentation set belong to this category. While reading through the generic documentation set, you are occasionally asked to refer to your platform (or operating system) documentation for procedures specific to the Windows NT or Windows 95/98 operating systems. To easily identify where these generic documentation references are described in your operating system documentation, see the index of this guide for the following entry: generic documentation references All generic documentation references described in this guide appear under this index entry.