IBM Z® Open EditorIBM Z Open Editor is an extension for Visual Studio Code that provides language support for the IBM® Enterprise COBOL, PL/I, HLASM, REXX, and JCL languages.
Note, Z Open Editor version 3 has some breaking changes that require manual migration steps. See this dedicated user documentation page for details. This extension provides language support for the IBM Enterprise programming languages for z/OS®. It supports COBOL v6.4, PL/I v6.1, and High Level Assembler for z/OS 2.5 and TSO/E REXX. This also includes capabilities for embedded statements in COBOL and PL/I for CICS 6.1, IMS 15.1.0 and SQL DB2 for z/OS 12.1. Earlier versions of any of these components will also work. IBM Z Open Editor realizes its language support by implementing fully functional language servers together with additional editor enhancements that enable IBM Z developers to utilize features such as:
Note, that the current early releases for HLASM and REXX only support a subset of the capabilities available for COBOL and PL/I. For the Job Control Language (JCL), the extension only provides syntax highlighting. To learn more about the IBM Z Open Editor extension's capabilities, we suggest that you walk through our documentation and try it with the example repository provided on GitHub. To interact with z/OS, this extension also automatically co-installs the Zowe Explorer VS Code Extension. This extension can be used to edit COBOL, PL/I, HLASM, REXX, and JCL files opened on z/OS MVS™ and USS using the Zowe extension's Data Sets and USS views. It can even run JCL jobs via right-click and let's you download and browse job spool files. Note, that since Z Open Editor version 2.0.2 version 2.0.0 or newer of Zowe Explorer is required. Table of contents
Privacy notice for feedbackThe IBM Z Open Editor is provided free of charge, but we ask you to provide us feedback via the various means available such as submitting an issue in our GitHub repository, providing review in the VS Code Marketplace as well as keeping the built-in telemetry and crash reports enabled. This editor uses Microsoft VS Code's Telemetry solution that collects telemetry data, which is used to help understand how to improve the product. While we appreciate the insights this data provides, we also know that not everyone wants to send usage data and you can disable telemetry as described in Disable Telemetry Reporting. You can also read IBM's General Privacy Statement to learn more about our policies. This current release of IBM Z Open Editor will collect anonymous data for the following events:
Such events are logged with the following information:
PrerequisitesReview the IBM Z Open Editor License Agreement and Third Party Notices before downloading. Here are the prerequisites for installing this extension in Visual Studio Code:
If you are looking for some COBOL, PL/I, HLASM, REXX or JCL sample code that you can use to explore the editor features then you can use samples that we maintain on Github. Assuming that you have Git installed, create a work directory somewhere on your machine and clone the sample repository:
Then once you finished installing the IBM Z® Open Editor extension open the directory Configuring JavaThe COBOL, PL/I, HLASM, and REXX language servers utilized by IBM Z Open Editor were implemented using the Java programming language. Therefore, a Java Runtime is required to be available via settings or the program path to start in VS Code. The IBM Z Open Editor extension utilizes VS Code Settings properties, which can be added to VS Code user settings, to configure which and how Java should be used. These settings allow you to select the specific installation of Java to pick, in case you have several installations, as well as set parameters such as how much memory you want the extension to use. Selecting the Java installation to useBefore starting a language server the language server clients in the IBM Z Open Editor VS Code extension try looking in different places to find a matching Java installation. They will look in the following places in this specific order and pick the first Java installation they can find that is at least Version 11 and 64-Bit. If it finds a Java that fails the test against these criteria it will continue searching:
As you can see user settings always take precedence over the other options listed, which enables you to specify a different Java version for IBM Z Open Editor than the default on your computer in case you have installed multiple version. If you used the recommended Visual Studio Code for Java Installer the If Java cannot be located check the VS Code Output view's Z Open Editor tab for any error and try to fix the problem by either setting the To define a user setting use the Preferences > Settings menu and either locate the setting in the graphical editor under IBM Z Open Editor or edit the setting json file directly by adding an entry as follows using an absolute path name to the Java installation directory. On Mac:
On Windows:
Configuring the Java memory allocationBy default, the language server clients that start the language servers for COBOL, PL/I, HLASM, and REXX allocate a maximum of 512 MB of memory for each. In other words, they start using much less memory in the beginning, but you might run out of memory when working on large program files; or your computer might not support such a large amount of memory in the first place. To have more flexibility in how much memory the language servers are allowed to allocate, the following VS Code Setting is provided to specify the maximum value. When you use both COBOL and PL/I, you need to double the amount specified.
Language Server Protocol capability examplesThe following animations just give you glimpse of the capabilities available in IBM Z Open Editor. We are showing you different examples using different programming languages, but most of the features shown here are available for all four languages: COBOL, PL/I, HLASM, as well as REXX. Outline view explorerYou can use this view to:
Here is an example showing an Outline View for an High Level Assembler program listing and providing rapid navigation to CSECT, DSECT, and MACRO instructions: Outline view searchSearching for identifiers within the outline by pressing Code and variable completionWhen you start typing a command, a selection list of commands and code snippets are displayed automatically or by typing There is also code completion and documentation hovers for High Level Assembler commands and variables. Here is an example showing how new commands are added and how the hover can be used afterwards to check back on the syntax: Declaration hoversTo see the working storage definition or DCL definition and the parent group of a variable or a paragraph name, move your mouse cursor over to the variable or paragraph name. Peek definitionClick on a variable or a paragraph name, right-click for menu, and choose Preview copybooks and include filesTo preview the contents of a copybook or included file, move your mouse cursor over the copybook name in a Peek referencesSelect a variable or a paragraph name, right-click for menu, and choose Summary of keyboard shortcuts
User BuildThe User Build feature helps COBOL, PL1, and HLASM developers to leverage IBM Dependency Based Build (DBB) toolkit right from their local VS Code or Eclipse Che development environment. A developer who is working on a COBOL, PL1, or HLASM applications can run a User Build to compile and link programs before the code is ready to be exposed to the repository for others to use. With User Build, you can compile your program without having to perform commits or pushes. User Build automatically does the following when you click to run a build:
User Build allows developers to do their zOS development locally using modern tools without context switching. See our Z Open Editor documentation for details. |