PL/I Conversion to REXX/COBOL

Lauren · Posted: Tue Dec 01, 2009 7:31 pm

Hi,

Does anyone know of a tool that converts PL/I to REXX/COBOL??

PeD · Posted: Tue Dec 01, 2009 7:47 pm

What is REXX/COBOL ?

You mean REXX or COBOL?

prino · Posted: Tue Dec 01, 2009 9:36 pm

Why in the world would anyone convert PL/I to Cobol?

Lauren · Posted: Wed Dec 02, 2009 12:35 pm

I want to convert PL/I to REXX actually, but COBOL would be my second choice, can anyone help??

PeD · Posted: Wed Dec 02, 2009 1:42 pm

Which kind of project? One program? 10 programs? 100 programs?

Just 20 lines of code?

Full of I/O?

Strange requirement.

Please tell us more.

Lauren · Posted: Wed Dec 02, 2009 1:48 pm

I have approximately 40 programs, each with about 100 - 300 lines of code.

The tasks vary, but mainly do housekeeping, checking of backups, monitoring and reporting errors.

dick scherrer · Posted: Wed Dec 02, 2009 10:49 pm

Hello,

Suggest you consider "mapping" the functionality of the existing modles and re-code at the functional level (rather than trying to re-code line by line). I suspect that many of the functions are repeated in the various modules and once re-coded can be adapted for multiple new modules.

With so few modules, it is probably not worth the time and money to write a tool or buy one (if one that meets your specific needs even exists).

MBabu · Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2009 1:11 am

As others have mentioned, what is the reason for doing this? PL/I is a very easy language to learn -- much easier than COBOL in my opinion -- and it is much more flexible. I'm not trying to dissuade you from doing conversions, but I'd like to know why it is needed.

I once offered to convert a complicated system written in Pascal to a decent language and was turned down. The group spent many years (to this day) and arguably hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to maintain that Pascal code base that would have been much easier for them to do after a conversion because of the skill set of the staff, the awfulness of Pascal, usage and support contracts to the Pascal vendor, compiler changes, vendor changes, etc, etc, but hey - they thought saving $100K in one year was better than saving $100K's (actually several million now) over many years. Sometimes these conversions do make sense.

prino · Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2009 1:35 am

Lauren · Posted: Tue Dec 08, 2009 1:11 pm

Because we only have 40 PL/I programs currently running, we have decided not to renew our PL/I licence, at the moment we cannot compile any PL/I programs, and therefore it is pretty urgent to replace them, because if there is an error on one of these programs we cannot fix it and recompile. I can rewrite them at a functional level, but I dont have a lot of time.....hence the reason for a converting tool.....

dick scherrer · Posted: Tue Dec 08, 2009 8:34 pm

Hello,

Hopefully, re-coding has been going on for the last week. . .

Something that might be a possibility is finding some other system where you could compile an emergency fix. . . . Often, an arrangement ca be made. Completely company/relationship specific.