IIRC, this was related to the use of UNIX to prepare code for the GECOS (laterGCOS) mainframe that was also in use.

After all that's where there was a GECOS field in the password file, to carry job/user related info as part of the batch submission.

I wasn't at Bell, but I was at Honeywell in the late 70s/early 80s as a student intern. Strangely enough, one of the things I used was the COBOL68 (and later COBOL74) compiler for a student project for the Boy Scouts.,

Did you know that in the first release of the GCOS COBOL74 compiler - if you mis-spelled ENVIRONMENT in the ENVIRONMENT DIVISION statement, that the compiler would crash and coredump?

It's the only reason I know how to spell "environment" to this very day.

--tep

On Sat, Sep 7, 2024 at 8:14 AM Marc Donner <marc.donner@gmail.com> wrote:
Aside: by 1982 there was a COBOL compiler for the PC from Microsoft: https://archive.org/details/ibmpccobol

I bet it was cheaper than the COBOL "lint" you mention :-)


On Sat, Sep 7, 2024 at 12:50 AM segaloco via TUHS <tuhs@tuhs.org> wrote:
So I was flipping through a System V software catalog from Fall 1984 and among
the many AT&T Bell Laboratories items is the "COBOL Syntax Checker".

From the text:

---QUOTE---

The COBOL Syntax Checker allows programmers to edit and check the syntax of COBOL
programs before they are transmitted to mainframes for compilation and execution.
The software increases the chances of a 'clean' compilation and execution and
reduces the chance of a program being rejected due to syntax and simple semantic
errors.  As a result, expensive mainframe CPU time is reduced.

The COBOL Syntax Checker processes a COBOL source program and produces three
listings:

1. a diagnostic listing,

2. a cross-reference listing,

3. a source listing.

---END QUOTE---

There are two distributions listed, a C binary distribution for SVR2 for the
3B20 for $2000 and a C source distribution for SVR2 for the VAX 11/780 for $7500,
both listed as released 2Q84.

Some quick Googling only offers up additional catalog and magazine mentions.
To me this sounds like a linter with some extra bits.  Does anyone have any
recollections of this software or know if there's much likelihood of the software
itself or any documentation surviving?

Thanks for any insights!

- Matt G.