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

[Mayuresh Kathe]

On Sun, Nov 01, 2015 at 08:38:28PM +0100, Davide Grandi 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?
> 
> 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 ...

davide, your points for style are simply fantastic.
let me think through the whole thing after i have mastered 'cobol' well.
btw, would it be kind of nice if the whole system be menu driven instead
of the usual toolkit approach as prefered by unix/bsd/linux systems?

thanks for taking the time to write in your response, much appreciate
your efforts.

warm regards,

~mayuresh