Re: [open-cobol-list] cobol : legacy to open [systems] : an opportunity for gnucobol!

[Davide Grandi]

> the way for a migration of a whole lot of systems from 'ibm' to
> standard x86-64 based hardware.

> what capabilities be expected off such a system platform?

I've worked on the java-html-web services side of a such ibm -> x86-64
system (a "local" italian ERP).

They started with a MVS COBOL system, then ported it to  AS/400 COBOL.
With screen-scraping libraries came a web application with "hooks" for
host spools and SQL queries management (job queues were handled on host).
After that they added (aside TN-5250 and TN3270 channels) a custom
communication channel for windows COBOL programs (coding screens,
function keys, field contents) and an architecture for jobs, job
queueus and spools (mainly in XML).

It was a big task, but it still work well today after maybe 20 years.
There are (still today) 4 platforms : mainframe spanning from VSE to
zOS, AS/400, windows and linux, and the core is written in a "portable"
COBOL (and bulk of customers run their system from ONE web server on
the cloud !!!)

Back to your question, you need (not in that order ...) :
1) a web interface
2) a channel from COBOL to web
3) maybe a screen converter from video maps to interface programs
   (with some common area in between)
4) a job system architecture
6) a spool architecture

"And after a while, you can work on points for style" :
- database query system
- web interface "bell and whistles"
- xml batch jobs
- web services

Watch your step : a drawing of the whole system filled a kitchen
table ...

Best regards,

    Davide Grandi


On 30/10/2015 21:27, Mayuresh Kathe wrote:

> the way for a migration of a whole lot of systems from 'ibm' to standard
x86-64 based hardware.

> what capabilities be expected off such a system platform?

--
Ing. Davide Grandi
email  : address@hidden
mobile : +39 339 7468 778