Mantis to Cobol Conversion
Using ITCS Mantis conversion tools, a Mantis system can be converted into standard Cobol language programs.In the conversion process a number of Cobol copy files are generated for all system entries. Like (in Mantis terms) files, screens, interfaces, DL/I segments, etc. Then the actual programs are converted. The copybooks of the objects used in each program are then inserted by the tool in the programs to get standard form and well structured Cobol programs.
All this is done fully automatically by the conversion system according to selected options.
The conversion is a one-time job and further system development and maintaining is like for any regular Cobol system.
The main conversion options is for now
- Conversion to CICS environment
The default user-interface option for now is CICS using BMS macros. For each Mantis screen a BMS macro is generated. All screen I/O is done in one common copybook. No any CICS of screen I/O is included in the program itself and thus other user-interface methods are more easy to apply. There are such under consideration at the moment (2005). Ask for more details.
For database and file handling all CSP options are available:
1) SQL - command level SQL-statements are generated in the code
2) DL/I - command level DL/I statements are generated in the code
3) VSAM - file I/O in a common copybook
4) SUPRA - ask for more details.
For VSAM files, no any CICS-statement are included in the program code. Thus it is more easy to change for more advanced file systems or to an other environment than CICS.
As to the program structure, the customer can define which copybooks are expanded in the code and which are left unexpanded.
Run mode options are conversational, pseudo-conversational. In the latter option (default) the run mode is defined dynamically by a switch just like in Mantis.
There are more options as well. Please, ask for more details.
The conversion process is quite fast. Typically, including compiler checking of the results, up to 200 applications per week.
The results can be installed rigth-away for immediate test runs on the customer's environment.
By considerable experience, they should run ok as they are. However, there are some limitations, like CONVERSE with dynamic coordinates, which need some consideration after the actual conversion. Ask for more details about these.
The best way to check this is to run old version in Mantis and the new version in Cobol side by side. They should run equally.