HI, I running a Dos command from WIN 98 SE. It is a menu program where the user selects a program to run. However, I need to know what 'dept' the user is in> I ask for it, 3 ch. and want to 'set dept= abc' I need it to last throughout the session and all following sessions after an exit back to Windows. It will last for one session, now but must be reentered if the user went back to Windows and started again. The program is in MF Cobol, old DOS edition. I think I am the only one still doing this Cobol. Thanks, Len

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Maybe you can it to rewrite DOSSTART.BAT or set it in the Batch file that can be executed in the properties section of the MS-DOS Prompt box.

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Hi Len, Sorry, but I don't understand exactly what you want to do. I try to outline what you posted: In a DOS box under Windows 98 SE, the user types a command to display a menu from which then he choose an application. In doing so a COBOL program asks him to enter a three chars code to capture dept code. The department code must be stored into a variable and retained untill the session is exited closing the DOS box. In other words the initial screen is something like the following: Dept Code: XXX 1) Application A 2) Application B ................ where Dept (and may be the Menu itself) is displayed by your COBOL program and the response accepted by that. Please correct or confirm what I wrote; I think your need may be satisfied.

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Ivo nad others. Thanks for your help. Yes, more or less, that is correct. However, like I said,it is very easy to accomplish for one DOS session from Windows. I just ask for the variable and use it. BUt what I need is to retain it in a 'set' variable so that it need not be entered for each subsequent Dos session. The user(s) may exit the menu many times from the DOS session, go back to Win and later that user a different user come back to the Dos menu. That is why 'DOSSTART' will be no good as who knows what user is then using the system. Hope that explains the problem a bit. Len

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Your program's behavior is not yet exactly clear to me, but if you want to retain the content of a variable across sessions, where "session" stays for opening-running-closing a Windows DOS box, it can't be accomplished setting a variable via the Set command, as in Win 98 SE each DOS box acts like a child process, that limiting the scope of variables. Instead you should use a "flag" file bearing the user code acting the current session (e.g. Uxxx.flg where xxx stays for Dept Code and the file is stored in root C: - content is no mean, one blank). On opening the session your COBOL program checks for the presence of flag file and if not found queries for Dept Code generating the file. On Closing the user has to choose a "Quit" option from your menu that displays a warning message like "Are you sure to leave ..." and in response to an affermative entry will ask for the Dept Code for sake of safety. Then the flag file will be erased; otherwise if the user simply wants to close the window to restart later, then he will choose an "Exit/Suspend" option to close the box without erasing the flag. That is the way I would design the application, but someone else may give you a better hint.

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IVO, I used to use that approach, but had to remove it due to some other issues. If I knew assembly language programming, I could write a small program to execute from the COBOL program that would permently set the 'set' variable for all sessions. But, I don't anymore. Plus I don't know what area of ram to place the data. Anyway, thanks for all your help. L.

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