Is there a Windows alternative to Mainframe FileAID?

For work, I'm on a team that is migrating a system from Mainframe to AWS. Part of the work I do is using FileAID to work on fixed-width files with custom layouts (here, if anyone is curious) What I'm wondering is, is there any sort of a desktop application that has similar file layout display features similar to FileAID?

2 Answers

Two Optioms

  • Microfocus Cobol has an editor
  • RecordEditor can display fixed width file.

RecordEditor

The RecordEditor can display Binary Mainframe or PC / Linux text files.

For File Description the RecordEditor can:

  • Use File Descriptions entered into it
  • Imported Cobol Copybooks
  • Cobol Copybooks directly (Single Record File types)
  • Xml File Descriptions

Entering filename and Cobol Copybook:

Entering Cobol Copybook

File Display:

enter image description here

Record Display:

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Note: When first starting the RecordEditor make sure you select the schema and also the Cobol option

Related question

CudaText editor (free, cross platform) has rich lexer engine, so it's easy to write a "lexer" which supports such formats.

For example, "Intel HEX" is a file format with fixed columns, and lexer "Intel HEX" is present in CudaText addons. It looks like this:

CudaText with Intel HEX

This lexer even highlights "wrong lines" with red.

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