I feel like this article ends just as it's starting to get going ;-)
In the COBOL modernization space, I want to highlight Mechanical Orchard[0]. Their analysis tools can trace the execution of individual jobs, and decompose a complex data flow graph into a series of nodes with inputs and outputs.
Once they have that, each individual node can be translated into a modern language, with every individual (input => output) serving as a sort of black-box test. That way, they can gradually rewrite a complex system, while ensuring that the semantics stay the same at each step.
(Sorry, I'm not sure if I'm using the correct COBOL/mainframe terminology, but you know what I mean.)
I feel like this article ends just as it's starting to get going ;-)
In the COBOL modernization space, I want to highlight Mechanical Orchard[0]. Their analysis tools can trace the execution of individual jobs, and decompose a complex data flow graph into a series of nodes with inputs and outputs.
Once they have that, each individual node can be translated into a modern language, with every individual (input => output) serving as a sort of black-box test. That way, they can gradually rewrite a complex system, while ensuring that the semantics stay the same at each step.
(Sorry, I'm not sure if I'm using the correct COBOL/mainframe terminology, but you know what I mean.)
[0]: https://www.mechanical-orchard.com/
Mostly when people talk about COBOL, what they mean is CICS. It would be more pertinent to say that IBM are the asbestos of platform vendors.
I remember helping UniKix rehost CICS apps onto Sun boxes in the late 90s, build web front ends with tn3270 scrapers, wild times