Applying Patches

Adapt and apply patches to only one set of COBOL source code—non-Unicode source. It is much easier to write COBOL programs without having to remember to use national data items as you go. Once your adaptation or patch is complete and you are ready to compile the program, first run it through the COBOL Unicode conversion utility, then compile it. This approach has several benefits over customizing the converted code:

• You maintain a single source tree for all of your COBOL—the non-Unicode source.

  This way you don’t run the risk of accidentally adapting both the non-Unicode COBOL programs and the Unicode-converted COBOL programs and potentially losing the modifications to the converted programs the next time you run the converter.

• Although PeopleSoft tests all delivered COBOL programs and patches in both Unicode and non-Unicode environments, only non-Unicode versions of the source are delivered.

  Therefore, any time you apply a PeopleSoft COBOL patch to a Unicode system, you must run the patched source code through the COBOL converter. If you had already modified the post-converted source, converting again would obliterate your modifications.

Under very limited conditions, you may still need to customize your COBOL source code after the conversion and maintain the Unicode version of the source. In this case, you may need to manually apply patch delivered by PeopleSoft to your source code.