COBOL is still the most common computer language on Planet Earth. Published estimates indicate that over half the computer programs running in the world today were written in COBOL!

Unisys Corporation (formerly Sperry Univac) was one of the very early mainframe computer companies, and their COBOL complies with the applicable ANSI standards. Unisys COBOL systems are often built with DPS-1100 for screen handling (UI) and DMS-1100 for database support. However, Unisys COBOL programs may use a proprietary screen handler, such as the one from Tominy, or they may contain internal screen "maps" consisting of data structures that include binary commands for Unisys proprietary terminals such as the DP-60. They may even just do line at a time input and output, using PRINT and DISPLAY statements.

Many COBOL programs on Unisys hardware use the DPS-1100 screen management software to display screens of information to users and get data from them. DPS-1100 has a schema (set of maps) that defines the structure of the screens and the input and output areas. Our paid projects include development of over 700 screens from DPS-1100 input, creating equivalent Java Server Page (JSP) layouts and mapping the data elements from the DPS-1100 input fields.

Unisys mainframes support a proprietary database called DMS-1100, which is NOT a relational database management system (RDBMS). We have successfully read database definitions from DMS-1100 using our Engineer toolset, creating an equivalent relational form of the database structure. While this initial relational version is usually further tuned by hand, it is an ENORMOUS time and cost savings to be able to create this initial version automatically. An engineer familiar with a legacy DMS-1100 database reviewed our relational version and said, "this is the best approach I've seen". In fact, we also created Entity Relationship Diagrams (ERDs) from the relational version of the DMS-1100 database that could be browsed, as an aid to further database refinement.

when many people think of mainframes, they think of IBM. IBM mainframe computers offer several different compilers, of which VS COBOL is one of the most popular. IBM's COBOL complies with the applicable ANSI standards. IBM COBOL systems are often built using IBM's Customer Interface Control System (CICS) for screen handling (UI) and a variety of different options for file storage, including flat files, indexed sequential (ISAM or VSAM) files, and a number of databases including non-relational (for example, IMS) and relational (DB2, ORACLE) variants. IBM COBOL programs may contain internal screen "maps" consisting of data structures that include binary commands for IBM or other proprietary terminals. They may even just do line at a time input and output, using PRINT and DISPLAY statements. Our parsers read IBM VS COBOL.

IBM's Customer Interface Control System (CICS) was widely used in the 70's and 80's because it provides transaction control and effective support for interactive terminals in the IBM mainframe environment. Basic Mapping Support (BMS) is the most usual way that interactive screens are defined in the IBM CICS environment. The Engineer toolset can reverse engineer the BMS and CICS COBOL code to rapidly populate our repository and serve as the basis for modernizing these applications.

Micro Focus has emerged as the leading "small COBOL" vendor, with the ability to run COBOL programs on Unix server and PC hardware. Micro Focus COBOL is reliable and we can easily modernize it.

AccuCOBOL is another "small COBOL" vendor, with compilers that run on Unix server and PC hardware. AccuCOBOL was acquired by Micro Focus, reflecting the trend of consolidation that we often see in the computer marketplace. Our parsers can read AccuCOBOL COBOL source code, and we can readily modernize AccuCOBOL applications.

Realia, along with AccuCOBOL and Micro Focus, was probably the third best known "small COBOL" vendor. They have been bought by Computer Associates (CA). Their products include Real CICS, which implements the then-current IBM CICS environment for COBOL on PC class hardware, and a COBOL which was also very close to IBM's VS COBOL. The platform is dead, as most people would use the term, but we can modernize these applications. We have copies of Realia COBOL and Real CICS from the early 1980's, before the CA acquisition. Realia was also the basis for development of the SCREENIO screen handling package, and we can modernize that code too.

Wang Laboratories was one of the original minicomputer companies, along with Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), Hewlett Packard (HP), and Data General (DG). Wang's minicomputer line included proprietary terminal hardware. Wang released COBOL 74 and COBOL 85, with extensions to support full interactive operations with the Wang terminals and with Wang's proprietary data storage such as XDMS and PDMS for COBOL ReSource on Unix.

Our standard COBOL parsers can read Wang COBOL. The question of whether to support the terminal I/O and other Wang extensions is made on a case by case basis; in general, if the project is large enough, we will add parsing support for those features, but we are able to work quite well from other electronic sources for the screen and report information.

Digital Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) was one of the original minicomputer companies, along with Wang Laboratories, Hewlett Packard (HP), and Data General (DG). Our standard COBOL parsers can read DEC COBOL, and we can readily modernize your applications.

Data General (DG) was one of the original minicomputer companies, along with Wang Laboratories, Hewlett Packard (HP), and Digital Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). Our standard COBOL parsers can read DG COBOL, and we can readily modernize your applications.

PowerBuilder, originally from Powersoft corporation, is a rapid development environment for building client server applications. PowerBuilder includes its own programming language, Pawar script, as well as rich facilities for building graphical user interfaces (GUI). Powersoft was acquired by Sybase, and PowerBuilder is rapidly disappearing as a development language ; one only has to look at the decline in user groups and other resources on the web to verify that this is true.

Our modernization facilities for PowerBuilder are extensive. We have legacy language analyzers that assist with estimating and resourcing the modernization project, as well as reverse engineering capabilities that extract the meta data from the old application for the engineer repository . On a project with BoozAllen at the Pension Benefit Gguaranty Corporation (PBGC), Booz Allen measured the productivity improvement across the development team to be a factor of four.

Oracle Forms is a client server development environment from oracle corporation, the largest vendor of database management software in the industry. Oracle forms includes a development environment for graphical user interfaces which is primarily oriented toward implementation of business forms . Business logic in these systems is frequently implemented within the form itself, by means of a form's trigger, or as stored procedures in the Oracle database. We have many tools for working with oracle forms, including legacy language analyzers and rewriting assistance for the PLU SQL programming language . We've successfully completed a number of large Oracle Forms modernization engagements.

Oracle's programming language, PL/SQL, can be used to implement business logic or it can also be used to implement an entire user interface , effectively replacing the older oracle forms product. One of the engineers options, Point Translation Option (PTO), provides function level translation capability for PL/SQL code.

ADABAS is a proprietary, none relational database management system sold and supported by Software A.G. in addition to the database capabilities, software AG also offers the natural programming language and development environment, which can be used to develop interactive user interfaces as well as business logic. Natural is a 4GL with a great deal of power and flexibility.

The Engineer tool set includes software that can be used to convert the database to a relational form, and analyzers that provide information about the legacy system. Our parser solution also extracts information from the legacy source code to populate the engineer database. We can rapidly modernize ADABAS and ADABAS Natural applications to a modern Java web system.

there are many varieties of the BASIC programming language; the term stands for Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code, and the name reflects the original intent to produce a language that was easy to use. Visual Basic (VB) is Microsoft's implementation of BASIC, and it has been carried forward to the .NET environment as Visual Basic for .NET. VB uses a "forms file" for screen handling operations, and BASIC procedural code to implement business logic. Engineer's parsers handle VB, and we can rapidly modernize your VB applications including duplicating most of the important features of the Graphical User Interface (GUI). An important benefit is gained in moving to the security and stability of the Java platform, as well. Perhaps you have a mix of languages: some VB, some PowerBuilder, and some Oracle Forms. We are the only vendor we know of whose automation solution can take all your languages to a single Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) platform, with a common application program architecture and an Enterprise database.

Active Server Pages (ASP) is Microsoft's legacy Web environment. ASP and JSP are not that different in concept, but they are very different in execution.