Btrieve 5.1 files and MF Cobol won't work 1

[tomathawl]

I think I may be trying to do something that is impossible, but I'm sure you can tell me if that's true or not.
I've been asked to rewrite an old MF Cobol application I wrote back in the 1986-1996 time period. The major portion of the file structure is Btrieve, and I used V5.1. The MF Cobol used was also an old one, version 1 from 1985-88. So now I'm trying to meld MF Cobol V3.2 to my V5.1 Btrieve and can't even open a file! I load Btrieve externally in this way: btrieve /m:64/p:4096/f:15. It loads OK, which I know because a butil -stop command unloads it in the normal manner. But when I try to open one of my btrieve files, I get error 20 "btrieve not loaded".

If I have a total incompatibility, what do I need to do? New Btrieve? Go to SQL? Forget the whole thing? (I've tried to see how MF btr2xfh or xfh2btr would help, but I don't see it.)
Incidentally, it's a DOS application I'm trying to migrate to Windows.

 

[mirtheil]

First, if you're trying to use a DOS version of Btrieve v5.1 with a Windows application, it's not going to work. Especially if the Windows app is 32 bit.
You should upgrade to the current version of Btrieve (called Pervasive.SQL V8). Your old DOS app should still work, you can read and write to the old data files (although I would strongly recommend rebuilding the files in the V8 format) and your new Windows app should be able to find the engine.


Mirtheil
Certified Pervasive Developer
Certified Pervasive Technician
Custom VB and Btrieve development.

http://www.mirtheil.com

 

[tomathawl]

Thanks for your quick response. I should give you a little more information, tho. The ultimate goal is to migrate my old DOS application to Windows 98/XP/2000, but I'm going step-by-step to avoid arriving at an insurmountable tipping point. Right now, the only change I've made is to use MicroFocus Cobol v3.2 and the same Btrieve files and calls as I did with the older MicroFocus version. I know that if I'm going to complete the migration I'll have to use SQL 8, which is fine, but my testing is dead in the water because I can't get MF Cobol to recognize that Btrieve is loaded! Without that, I can't test any of my code changes that convert Btrieve calls to MF Cobol calls, and the project dies. Don't know if you can help with that, but if you have an idea, I'd like to hear about it.

 

[mirtheil]

I'm not familiar with MF COBOL v3.2. Does it generate DOS executables? If not, then you are stuck. If it's a Windows App, try downloading the trial version of Pervasive.SQL V8 (

http://www.pervasive.com)

and on a test machine copy your data, the program and install Pervasive.SQL V8 and try it.


Mirtheil
Certified Pervasive Developer
Certified Pervasive Technician
Custom VB and Btrieve development.

http://www.mirtheil.com