The EBCDIC extract of your migration, read with its copybook.

Your files and copybooks never leave this machine: the only network call is the licence check. Activation needs one connection to api.gumroad.com (through your VS Code proxy settings); after that, Pro works offline. The licence check carries the key and the product identifier, never a file, a copybook or their content. No telemetry.

No. The extension reads a file on a disk of this computer, with its copybook, inside VS Code. Nothing to install besides the extension, no connection to z/OS.

Reference: IBM Enterprise COBOL for z/OS. Every decoded value is shown with its bytes in hex, so you can check it. Records F, FB, V, VB, RDW and BDW; COMP-3, zoned, binary, COMP-1, COMP-2, NATIONAL; REDEFINES, OCCURS, OCCURS DEPENDING ON (Pro beyond the table), level 88, nested COPY; 15 EBCDIC code pages.

Not covered in this version: raw VSAM clusters (flat unloads, such as a REPRO to a sequential file, are read); Micro Focus and GnuCOBOL file headers, little-endian COMP-5 and COMP-X; RECFM U; DBCS (PIC G); PL/I and assembler (DSECT) layouts; files on remote or virtual file systems (copy them to a folder on this computer); repairing a file transferred in text mode (it is detected, not repaired); editing files; connecting to the mainframe. SYNCHRONIZED alignment is not applied: a warning says that the following fields may be shifted, and the hex lets you check. Level 66 RENAMES is ignored, with a warning. A layout of more than 20 000 fields once its OCCURS are expanded, a record of more than 16 MiB, or a PICTURE of more than 100 000 characters is refused with a message (never shortened); COPY statements nested more than 10 levels deep are not included, with a message. In a comparison, a CSV row longer than 1 MiB stops the comparison with its row number and byte. On screen, the grid cuts a value after 256 characters (“…”; fewer for a layout of more than 2 048 columns), the detail does so once 524 288 characters of values of a record are shown and lists at most the first 2 000 fields of a record (fewer when their values are long, with a note), and the text and hex dump of a record stop after 64 KiB; “Copy record (tab-separated)” copies whole values.

Free reads fixed-length files with their copybook, lists variable records, finds invalid values and counts the differences between two files. Pro reads files with several record types, cuts VB records and OCCURS DEPENDING ON into fields, details each difference of a comparison (matched by key, with tolerance and ignored fields), filters the grid and exports to CSV and JSON.

One key for one person, on up to 5 machines. A machine is counted the first time the key is activated in a VS Code installation: a new computer, VS Code reinstalled with its data erased, or a non-persistent virtual desktop whose identifier changes. Entering the key again, trying again after a network error, removing and re-entering it on the same installation, or updating the extension uses nothing. New computer or VS Code reinstalled? Write to support@novair.app with your purchase e-mail and we reset the count.

The price is EUR 74.17 + VAT where applicable; Gumroad, merchant of record, shows the exact amount for your country at checkout. Need an invoice? Use the “Generate” link at the bottom of your Gumroad receipt: enter your name and business address, add what your accounts need under “Additional notes”, and download the PDF. An EU business that paid VAT can enter its VAT number there: Gumroad refunds the VAT and the invoice shows no VAT. Gumroad cannot change an invoice afterwards.

Updates come through your extension store (VS Code Marketplace or Open VSX); a later version never takes away what your key unlocks.

Activation needs one connection to api.gumroad.com, through your VS Code proxy settings. If it cannot get through, the free version keeps working, and you can ask for a refund within 14 days at support@novair.app.