Abstract
The emergence of the Internet and the need to support
on-line transactions have compelled companies to consider
discarding legacy applications which have been developed
over the course of many years.
At the same time, educational institutions turn out
programmers who have learned the latest technologies
and languages while ignoring the ever-growing need
for legacy application maintenance or enhancement.
Consequently, companies increasingly find their own
programming staffs become Balkanized into programmers
with knowledge of the older, procedural-based languages
(most popularly COBOL, PL/I, RPG) on the one hand
and the newer Object Oriented (OO) languages and technologies
(such as C++, Java, XML and VB) on the other. And
as those older software engineers retire or move on,
companies find it increasingly harder to find replacement
programmers with similar skills.
Having identified the desirability of a heterogeneous
set of programming skills in a newer language environment,
thus allowing for a fuller exploitation of open systems
and integration into the Web, it is tempting for companies
to consider simply discarding existing applications
and writing new solutions from scratch. Apart from
the huge outlay of time and money, this approach loses
all the accumulated value of the legacy software.
Mission critical applications are never "off-the-shelf".
Custom modifications are always added, sometimes over
years and at great expense, to handle specific accounting,
inventory, ordering or shipping issues specific to
an industry or firm. Tax and legal issues may also
need to be specified by industry or geography. Recreating
all of these features in a new program is like paying
twice for the same product. And that assumes all features
and modifications of a legacy system are known or
documented and can, therefore, be mirrored within
the new code.
Additionally, legacy software has the distinct advantage
of having been used over time, and defects have been
found and fixed. In short, the software is proven
to operate in a mission-critical environment. Creation
of any new complex application from scratch carries
with it no guarantee of being free from defect, or
of even working at all. (On average, today's professional
coders make 100 to 150 errors in every 1,000 lines
of code they write, according to a multiyear study
headed by Watts S. Humphrey of Carnegie Mellon University’s
Software Engineering Institute.)
For most companies with functional legacy software
in need of modernization, the best solution can be
found in the use of language conversion tools that
translate legacy source code into newer languages.
Such tools, when properly designed, allow companies
to bridge the gap between the need to maintain and
improve legacy code and the knowledge and skills of
the software engineers a company can realistically
employ.
Through the use of language conversion tools, future
software maintenance and enhancement becomes easier
and less costly. The modernized and re-engineered
source code is usually more compact and structural,
and the code is therefore easier for future programmers
to understand and reuse.
Description
Our Source Translation Utility (STU) tools are designed
to exactly replicate output generated from a program
written in one language within another program written
in another language. Often this requires massaging
the standard output associated with a particular language
through special formatting functions to replicate
the data. Input and internally defined variables may
also have to be massaged, as different languages support
different variable types.
From a logic standpoint, however, the newly translated
source version is functionally equivalent to the original
source. In other words, a flowchart description of
both source versions would contain identical execution
sequences along all paths and cycles.
The CVTRPGFREE RPG to /FREE Format
STU offers the following features:
Enables
conversion of fixed-format AS/400 RPG IV code
directly into the new /free format syntax available
as of V5R2.
Makes
your source code more readable and easier for
future programmers to modify or enhance.
The COBOL/400 to Java STU and
COBOL/400 to C/C++ STU offer the following features:
Enables legacy AS/400 COBOL code to be converted
with little or no changes directly into 100% pure
Java source or C/C++ source. This new source code
can then be compiled and executed on any platform
supporting a Java Virtual Machine.
Any JDBC/ODBC compliant database can be accessed
using SQL, including Oracle, Sybase, DB2, MySQL.
Interfaces with IBM's Webfacing Tool to convert
a program's original AS/400 display files into
platform-independent HTML, JavaServer Pages (JSP)
and JavaBeans while still continuing to support
the DDS display source files. This allows migration
to an entirely new platform or continued use of
the new Java or C/C++ code on the AS/400 via either
5250 or Web-based interface...or both!
The RPG to Java STU and RPG to
C/C++ STU offer the following features:
Enables legacy AS/400 RPG code to be converted
with little or no changes directly into 100% pure
Java or C/C++ source. This new source code can
then be compiled and executed on any platform
supporting a Java Virtual Machine.
Any JDBC/ODBC compliant database can be accessed
using SQL, including Oracle, Sybase, DB2, MySQL.
Interfaces with IBM's Webfacing Tool to convert
a program's original AS/400 display files into
platform-independent HTML, JavaServer Pages (JSP)
and JavaBeans while still continuing to support
the DDS display source files. This allows migration
to an entirely new platform or continued use of
the new Java code on the AS/400 via either 5250
or Web-based interface...or both!
The COBOL/400 to RPGLE STU offers
the following features:
Enables legacy AS/400 COBOL code to be converted
with little or no changes directly into RPGLE
source. This new source code can then be compiled
and executed on your AS/400.
The RPGLE programs can continue to utilize existing
display files and DB2 files without modifications.
Any JDBC/ODBC compliant database can be accessed
using SQL, including Oracle, Sybase, DB2, MySQL.
Has the ability to interface with IBM's Webfacing
Tool to convert a program's original AS/400 display
files into HTML, JavaServer Pages (JSP) and JavaBeans
while still continuing to support the DDS display
source files. This allows continued use of your
legacy programs on the AS/400 via either 5250
or Web-based interface...or both!