COBOL Program Performance

Hi, We are using Microfocus COBOL to compile batch programs that run on our HP-UX server (HP-UX 10.20) to access an ODS database (ODS 7.23UC6) throug= h the ESQL/COBOL runtime program. We have always thought that our run times= were high but as data volumes have been small this hasn't been a problem until recently. Through a misunderstanding, a developer ran a program tha= t did not perform any database access using the ESQL/COBOL runtime program.= It ran for around 16 hours. When we realised there was no database access= , the program was rerun on its own. It finished in 20 minutes. I have looked at the precompiler output and the only change made to the program is the addition of the SQLCA and a few other working storage variables. So what are we doing to cause our programs to run 50 times slower under the ESQ/COBOL runtime program? I appreciate that the runtime= environment uses the .int file where as the program run on its own runs a= s a standalone executable. Is the '.int' version of the program run as some= sort of interpreted code rather than as a real executable? Martyn Hodgson Senior Database Designer Eagle Star Insurance Cheltenham UK