Migration tools

[jeeves]

Hi,

1. Are there any tools to generate ECL code from COBOL or JCL?

2. If anyone here has been part of a migration from mainframe to HPCC and has some insights to share it will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
-David

[flavio]

David,

There are no automated code migration tools from COBOL or JCL, that I know of. In the majority of the cases (and every situation we encountered) is significantly more efficient to re-implement the logic in ways that it can be more optimal, concise, readable and easier to maintain, rather than trying to copy the code semi-verbatim.

Several people in our team have participated in migrating applications and code from Mainframes to HPCC. The best people to speak about their personal experiences are, possibly, David Miller and John Holt.

Let's see if they can chime in and tell us a bit about their insights.

Thanks,

Flavio

[miller]

I did a significant amount of COBOL to ECL. The only thing I automated was creating ECL record definitions from COBOL definitions. I did this with some PERL and not very well (written to the coding standards used in the COBOL I was porting). The records were used for porting data from the COBOL system to the ECL system.

A proper port involves understanding the COBOL and what it accomplishes, then laying it out in ECL. The procedural COBOL does not translate directly into ECL.

[jeeves]

Thanks Flavio and Miller. This really helped!

[swapna]

Hi Miller,

We are also working in migration from Mainframe to HPCC.
Could you share the PERL Script for converting COBOL(copy book)definition to ecl record layout? which help us a lot.

Thanks,
Swapna