I am looking for expressions of interest from sites who currently use
PowerCOBOL but need to get their existing applications onto .NET.
Purchasing Fujitsu COBOL for .NET may not be a solution...
1. It is expensive.
2. It doesn't implement the full COBOL standard, or even the standard
implemented by PowerCOBOL, so some existing constructs may not work.
3. It ties you in to COBOL at a time when you may want to be moving away
from it.
4. Have you used Fujitsu support recently?
WHAT I'M PROPOSING:
1. Convert existing PowerCOBOL apps to the .NET framework using C# as a
wrapper. (C# Express and Visual Studio Express are currently free; this
probably won't last for ever...The Express editions are quite adequate to
maintain your converted apps.)
2. Event and script processing would still be in your existing COBOL and
could be maintained by your existing programmers using your existing
NetCOBOL compiler. A conversion tool will extract and isolate all of this
code into COM components which you can maintain with NetCOBOL. These
refactored COBOL components would simply be wrapped and viewed by .NET as
unmanaged code. (I have done some extensive experiments in this area and
got
it working. It is feasible and viable.)
3. Your existing PowerCOBOL Forms would be converted to .NET forms and the
event processing would be wrapped and run by C#.
4. Your existing ISAM data can be converted to Relational Database as part
of the .NET conversion.
5. You may need to tailor your exising ISAM Access to SQL. I can assist
here but cannot undertake full code conversion (unless you pay me
significant sums of money... :-))
The end result is an existing application running in .NET with full
database
access and GUI. It should be viewed as an interim system while your team
learn C#... On an ongoing basis you can replace COBOL script components
with
whatever language you want (I recommend C# but you COULD use Java...or
anything else that can do the required functionality.) So your existing
PowerCOBOL application gets moved into the 21st century, and you have a
growth path for further development.
..NET apps can be easily Web enhanced; PowerCOBOL apps can't be.
I would like to see this being done for a few hundred bucks per
application
(PowerCOBOL Project), but it obviously depends on how many Projects are
candidates for conversion.
WHAT I NEED:
Before undertaking to build the tools needed for this conversion I need to
know that it is worth doing. The larger the potential customer base, the
cheaper the solution will be...
If you are thinking about modernizing your existing PowerCOBOL apps.,
please
email me with the number of PowerCOBOL projects you would be looking at
migrating to .NET, and an estimate of the number of ISAM files that are
involved.
I'll hold this offer open for two weeks. At the end of that time, I'll
mail
everyone who responded, with a ballpark price for doing their migration,
and
an estimate of when the code could be available. There is no obligation.
You
either proceed or you don't, no problem.
Obviously, your confidentiality will be respected and nobody except
yourself
and me will know whether you responded or not.
Think about it, and mail me.
Pete.
--
"I used to write COBOL...now I can do anything."
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