Is there a Windows alternative to Mainframe FileAID?

Question

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?

Answer 1

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:

File Display:

Record Display:

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

Related question

• Binary Mainframe Cobol Files
• RecordEditor Layout Wizard

Answer 2

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:

This lexer even highlights "wrong lines" with red.