Stuck in single user mode with 286 RM/Cobol runtime

[Bill Irwin]

I'm having a real hard time explaining to everyone why our i386/33Mz disk
caching  760Mb system will only allow one user at a time to run our  MCBA
RM/Cobol  accounting  system.  Well it all started when our supplier  for
the  RM/Cobol  runtime (Texas Instruments at the time) shipped us  a  286
version  instead  of 386.  They decided in their wisdom to continue  with
Micro Focus Cobol into the 386 and stop with RM at 286.  Great!  8^(

There  is  an  MCBA C program that needs to be included  with  the  Cobol
runtime, so you need to "make runcobol" as part of the MCBA installation.
After  getting some errors about mixing 286 and 386 stuff together  (have
you  guessed I'm not a C programmer yet?) I stumbled across the "-compat"
option for cc.  I made the cc line:

CFLAGS= -compat -Ml -F 4000

This  actually worked!  But only for one user.  The 2nd one trying to get
in  gets kicked out (actually more like getting the door slammed in  your
face, because you never really get in).

I  talked  a  support  person  at  MCBA  into  testing  this  with  their
"preconfigured"  Cobol runtimes.  The end result was that he was able  to
replicate  my  problem.   Seems like you can take a  286  Cobol  runtime,
compile  it  on  a  286,  move the executable to a 386  -  and  it  works
multi-user.   If you take a 286 runtime, compile it on a 386, try to  run
it on a 386 - you get a single user runtime.

I  was told I had two choices:  1) buy a 386 runtime;  2) recompile it on
a  286  running SCO XENIX then move the runtime back to my  386.   Anyone
know how hard it is to find a 286 these days, running SCO XENIX yet?

I  have  heard  from  one of my clients that they are  having  a  similar
problem porting some software from 286 environment and think there is a C
library missing.  I don't know enough about C to even know where to start
looking.

Do  I  really  have  to pick one of the two options  above  or  is  there
something  else  I  can do?  It really is a bummer taking  turns  in  the
accounting system.
-- 
Bill Irwin    -   TWG The Westrheim Group     -    Vancouver, BC, Canada
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