If you will be testing Kobol on an MS Windows based system, then you will also want to download and install the "cygwin" package, this provides the compiler components required for the compile and debugger to actually work.  Kobol currently installs to the C:\ drive on Windows.  If you are using Windows then download and install any .exe files you see in this directory, any .rpm or .tgz files would be for Linux, the rest of the files should be self explanatory.

Kobol is also very project oriented.  To a large degree a Project and a Workspace are used interchangably, but they are not the same, and this will become more apparent as time goes on and more features are added to the product.  

If you want to get started with Kobol, you need to first make a Project/Workspace, and then you can add source files to that.  This can be by opening an existing file, or creating a new one.  

A Workspace will have a file extension of .kbl - when you create a Workspace, you can give it a directory to keep all the work files, this must be an already existing directory (a future version will make this selectable).

Adding an existing file, select Project ->Scan for files.  This will allow you to pick one or more files to import into the project.

You can then load a file into the project, or create a 'new' source wizard.  When you save the source file, the program will ask you if you want to add it to the current project.

In all cases a project needs a 'main' source file, this is the outer block.  When you are creating a new source file in a new project for the first time, Kobol will try to set this one as main.  A main file is indicated by a 'star' on it's icon in the project list view, sometimes this doesn't show up until you close and re-open Kobol if the setting has been done automatically, this is currently a bug.  To specifically set a file as main, right click on its name in the file list and select the menu option for it.

We've included a user submitted zip file of various examples that is very helpful, it is called KOBSmmdd.ZIP where mmdd is the month and day of the latest set of samples, they are being added to over time.  The \kobsamp\instkob.bat should install the source to a C drive, create the directories, copy necessary files, and compile, run, and display the actual kobol screens. The c:\kobsamp\kobol\source\printxp.cob demonstrates the printing in xp without using copy files. To compile you can use the IDE to find c:\kobsamp\kobol\source\printxp.kob or run c:\kobsamp\kobol\instkob.bat then cd c:\kobol\source and enter printxp.  The batch file should compile and link. 


If you have any questions or problems, then email demo-support@thekompany.com