Language Environment

                                       Language Environment

Language Environment, supplied as an element of OS/390 and z/OS, is designed to provide a common set of runtime libraries to replace the native runtime libraries that were provided with older compilers such as OS/VS COBOL, VS COBOL II, OS PL/I and C/370.

Before the introduction of Language Environment, each of the high-level languages had to provide a separate runtime environment. With Language Environment, you use one runtime environment for your applications, regardless of the programming language or system resource needs, because most system dependencies have been removed.

This common environment offers two significant advantages:

1. You can mix all the languages supported by CICS in a single program.

2. The same Language Environment callable services are available to all programs. This means, for example, that:

l         A linked-list created with storage obtained using Language Environment callable services in a PL/I program can be processed later and the storage freed using the callable services from a COBOL routine.

l         The currency symbol to be used on a series of reports can be set in an assembler routine, even though the reports themselves are produced by COBOL programs.

l         System messages from programs written in different languages are all sent to the same output destination.