From experience, i have seen cobol code stashing entire copybooks into char/varchars, along with some binary switches to select the appropriate copybook. Unless

From experience, i have seen cobol code stashing entire copybooks into char/varchars, along with some binary switches to select the appropriate copybook. Unless you have the copybook or a translated version, it's pretty much unreadable. In general it's useful if only to interface with those old parts you don't want or can't change.