IBM Corp. unveiled the version 3.2 release of its Enterprise COBOL development environment, which it says will make it easier for developers to integrate existing COBOL applications with Web-oriented business processes.

To that end, Big Blue says Enterprise COBOL v3.2 supports a new environment variable--COBJVMINITOPTIONS--that lets users specify options that can be invoked when COBOL initializes a Java Virtual Machine, in the WebSphere environment, this facility makes it possible for developers to automate the execution of COBOL applications that exploit J2EE client interfaces to invoke methods on enterprise beans.

Enterprise COBOL v3.2 boasts improved ...