HP 3000 Manuals

Micro Focus COBOL System Reference, Volume 1

Chapter 13  File Handling 

One of the main benefits COBOL has to offer as a language is its built-in
data file handling capabilities.  Files of sequential, relative and
indexed organization can be handled from the COBOL syntax with relative
ease.  This COBOL system handles ASCII text files as line sequential
organization.  Additionally, files can be stored in compressed form to
save disk space.

MPE/iX 5.0 Documentation