Calling 1959 from your Web code: A COBOL bridge for Node.js

Have you ever wanted to just cut and paste some of that legacy COBOL code from mainframe applications into your latest Web application? No? Well, Romanian Web developer Bizău Ionică has developed a way to do just that, creating a COBOL bridge for Node.js, the JavaScript-based cross-platform runtime environment that has become a go-to technology for server-side Web development. The plugin is an attempt to breathe new life into the programming language derived from the work of computing pioneer Admiral Grace Hopper.

Published under the “Kindly” license (as in, if you want to use it in a commercial application, you should “kindly ask the author”), Node COBOL requires you install GNUCobol along with it. COBOL code can then be embedded in JavaScript. Here’s an example provided by Ionică:

// Dependenciesvar Cobol = require("cobol");// Execute some COBOL snippetsCobol(function () { /*       IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.       PROGRAM-ID. HELLO.       ENVIRONMENT DIVISION.       DATA DIVISION.       PROCEDURE DIVISION.       PROGRAM-BEGIN.           DISPLAY "Hello world".       PROGRAM-DONE.           STOP RUN.*/ }, function (err, data) {    console.log(err || data);});// => "Hello World"Cobol(__dirname + "/args.cbl", {    args: ["Alice"]}, function (err, data) {    console.log(err || data);});// => "Your name is: Alice"// This will read data from stdinCobol(function () { /*       IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.       PROGRAM-ID. APP.      *> http://stackoverflow.com/q/938760/1420197       ENVIRONMENT DIVISION.       INPUT-OUTPUT SECTION.       FILE-CONTROL.       SELECT SYSIN ASSIGN TO KEYBOARD ORGANIZATION LINE SEQUENTIAL.       DATA DIVISION.       FILE SECTION.       FD SYSIN.       01 ln PIC X(64).          88 EOF VALUE HIGH-VALUES.       WORKING-STORAGE SECTION.       PROCEDURE DIVISION.       DISPLAY "Write something and then press the  key"       OPEN INPUT SYSIN       READ SYSIN       AT END SET EOF TO TRUE       END-READ       PERFORM UNTIL EOF       DISPLAY "You wrote: ", ln       DISPLAY "------------"       READ SYSIN       AT END SET EOF TO TRUE       END-READ       END-PERFORM       CLOSE SYSIN       STOP RUN.*/ }, {    stdin: process.stdin  , stdout: process.stdout}, function (err) {    if (err) {        console.log(err);    }});// => Write something and then press the  key// <= Hi there! // => You wrote: Hi there!// => ------------

Ionică notes on his GitHub page that Node COBOL is ready for use in production—though he knows of no one who is doing so as of yet.