when i try to compile my cobol programs i get this error messege:

"define entry point" and i tried opening my input and output files before compiling. Can anyone help?

I have no idea where a cobol program starts, but it sounds like it's missing.

Man you not helping

Cobol is like Fortran , right ? I dont know , a guess. MY suggestion is you , like me move from the old to the relatively new. Althought Fortran 95 is cool , it suppports both C and Fortran. So my suggestion - learn C or find a better compiler. And at least state which compiler !

-Vlad

Can you paste some code (Just a little)? Preferably near the start?

i'm using cobol 97. so it's not that old.

We can't help you if you just give us vague answers to specific questions.
Also, vlad had a very valid suggestion: learn C.

Your Compiler is fairly recent. What Vlad means is that the language is in its old age. (Soon to die)

FILE SECTION.
000170 FD SOFTWARE-FILE.
000180 01 SOFTWARE-RECORD.
000190 05 ORDER-INFO.
000200 10 ORDER-NO-SR PIC 9(5).
000210 10 ORDER-TYPE-SR PIC X.
000220 10 CUSTOMER-SR PIC X(16).
000230 05 PURCHASE-INFO.
000240 10 QUANTITY-SR PIC 9(3).
000250 10 UNIT-PRICE-SR PIC 9(3)V99.
000260 10 DATE-SR PIC 9(8).
000270 05 PROG-INFO.
000280 10 PROG-ID.
000290 15 PROG-NO-SR PIC 9(4).
000300 15 PLAT-CODE-SR PIC X.
000310 15 PROG-NAME-SR PIC X(16).
000320 15 VENDOR-SR PIC X(16).
000330
000340 FD PRINT-FILE.
000350 01 PRINT-LINE PIC X(80).
000360
000370 WORKING-STORAGE SECTION.
000410
000420
000430 01 PROGRAM-SWITCHES.
000440 02 NO-DATA-REMAINS-SWITCH PIC X(1) VALUE SPACE.
000450 88 NO-DATA-REMAINS VALUE "0".
000460 88 DATA-REMAINS VALUE "1".
000470
000480 01 TODAYS-DATE.
000490 02 T-DAY PIC 99.
000500 02 T-MONTH PIC 99.
000510 02 T-YEAR PIC 99.
000520
000530 01 TEMP-VARIABLES.
000540 02 PAGE-NUM PIC 999 VALUE 1.
000550 02 WS-EXT-PRICE PIC 9(4)V99 VALUE ZEROS.
000560 02 WS-UNIT-PRICE PIC 9(5)V99 VALUE ZEROS.
000570 02 TOT-VEND-QUANT-TV PIC 9(4) VALUE ZEROS.
000580 02 TOT-VEND-PRICE-TV PIC 9(5)V99 VALUE ZEROS.
000590 02 TOT-CUST-QUANT-TV PIC 9(5) VALUE ZER

is this enough code or u need more?

GAH!!! what the hell is that?

That looks like a logfile to me , Cobol is a specific language. More specific that Fortran. You seem to be using functions that have been declared previously , nore code would be welcome.

-Vlad

Know what Vlad, I'm still starting to program so stop making me look dumm, help where u can or don't. pls
I started three months ago i was in Mkting so either u help or not. peace.

What we're trying to get accross to you in the nicest way possible is that we don't code in COBOL, and it is on it's way down... why not try and use a different language? One that will be useful to you in the long run... something like C?
Take a look at the C Quickstart Guide on the front page.

And further, vladimir was not making you "look dumm(sic)", he was in fact making a perfectly valid comment -- we cannot tell you what is wrong with your code by looking at the compilation errors, we need to see some actual code. It's kind of like trying to determine exactly what the problem is with a car that doesn't start without actually having a look under the hood. We can only speculate (as vladimir did by suggesting the you may be using undeclared functions), but without further information we cannot help. So please pull your head in and be nice.

No, COBOL isn't on it's way out. It is and never was very "cool," but it's definately very much so around and isn't going anywhere for a long time. COBOL sucks, but it can be quite valuable as a career trait. I've worked with plenty of people that didn't have college edumacations or almost any programming expeirence- but the company moved them up from work in the call-center, trained them in COBOL, and <bam> they have a higher paying job programming. More interesting too, even though it is COBOL. Hell, if you learned it on your own, you could probably get a job on that alone... no one with a CS degree wants to program in COBOL, so they take anyone who will do it. :) Have fun!

So can anyone tell me where i can find a good C compiler for FREE, and recommend some site that can hepl me.

GCC (the GNU Compiler Collection) is a great Free (speech and beer) C, C++, and Java compiler. You can get it from gcc.gnu.org. You could also get the free (beer) Borland C++ compiler, but GCC is probably better. You can get GCC 2.95.x as part of cygwin (cygwin.com) which gives you a complete POSIX system on top of Windows, and then (if you want) compile GCC 3.1 (no real need to unless you are doing C++). For an IDE I would listen to the other people here that actually use Windows (I use Emacs on my Debian box).

I managed to crash GCC's Java compiler for a simple class, so I don't think it's quite out of the beta stages yet.....

You should file a bug report. GCJ with GCC 3.1 should be able to compile Swing now, so things are getting better. Gcj with GCC 2.95 just plain sucked, so make sure you are using the latest version. The lack of a good Java VM is the one part that sucks about using GNU/Linux...oh wait (hah! no annoying java applets for me!). There are a lot of jvm compilers (e.g. kaffe) but no free vm!!! Agh!