Mary asks some questions:
>1. My COBOL program needs to interface with this
>   external software  and read certain Objects.
>   Currently it is all working with a CALL statement
>   But the data read is being read into a 1k Buffer.
>
>   call SOMECALLABLE
>      using My-BUFFER  and other parameters.
>
>
>  where
>  01  My-BUFFER   PIC  X(1024).
>
>   But the test scenario might most likely be,
>   a 1 meg or 2 or 4 MEG.
>
>   can I define
>   01  MY-BUFFER   PIC (40001024).

You can easily define a pic with 4mb or even ~ 39mb as
your example indicates (4mb == 4,194,304; 40mb = 41,943,040).

The size of your nmprg is influenced by the amount of working
storage so don't make it much more than you really need or you
will get a huge binary which will take a long time to load.

> Issue  #2:
>    Can I define the file I want to write to at
>    RUN Time.  Again COBOL.
>    Or is the FILE my COBOL code would write to
>    is fixed  at COMPILE TIME as defined in the
>    FD  and FILE SECTION.

You have 3 choices here.

a. SELECT MY-FILE ASSIGN TO "MYFILE".

   Prior to running your program issue a file equation
   which equates FILE to your file of choice.

   For example:

   :FILE MYFILE = XFILE

b. Use the same 'select', but programmatically issue a file
   equation in your program prior to opening the file.

c. SELECT MY-FILE ASSIGN USING WS-FILE-NAME.

   In working storage define a variable WS-FILE-NAME and
   prior to opening the file move your filename into this
   variable.

   01  WS-FILE-NAME               PIC X(30) VALUE SPACES.

   ...

   DISPLAY "File to use?" WITH NO ADVANCING.
   ACCEPT  WS-FILE-NAME.

   OPEN INPUT MY-FILE.

   Be sure to use either the 'optional' phrase in the 'select'
   or assign a 'file status' variable to the file so you can check
   status on the file existing. Otherwise your program will crash
   when doing the open.

Duane

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