Code Generation

When faced with the need to modernize, re-engineering with automated code writing, aka code generation is one option.  There is always some hand work to be done, because the code generators handle all the routine code, and some additional functionality will need human attention.

There are a number of vendors who promise to take your old code (HTML, COBOL, Visual Basic / VB, ASP), and give you back new code using a wholesale, line-by-line conversion into a new language. And, it will usually work, but the translated code retains the structure and naming from the old code. But unlike wholesale code translators, the ResQSoft® tools write fresh, commented, high quality Java or .NET code that is maintainable by any good developer.

Our technology is not limited to modernizing a fixed body of legacy software: we also handle new development, enhancements, modifications, and maintenance.

We give you 3 options:

1. At agreed intervals (usually once or twice during the project), we can take your change documentation and a new legacy baseline and rerun our tools, which allows us to identify the changes made.  We then simply substitute any affected generated components and make any associated manual changes; or

2. Because our completion date is predictable, you can decide to make the enhancements directly into a branch of the modernized source code baseline while modernization is ongoing.  We (or you) can simply take the spec for the enhancement and produce the new functionality, using our tools.  The benefit is that changes can typically be implemented at least twice as fast (and at half the cost); or

3. The maintenance tasks can be worked separately from the modernization, but using the same tools and technology, and then are handled as the first update or “maintenance release” after the finished system is deployed.

ResQSoft® works with you to make the appropriate decision, taking into account the level of effort and urgency.

Unlike a wholesale translation approach, our technology handles code changes with ease.  “No code freeze” is just the beginning.  We can take updated baselines into the project, and we can also implement maintenance functionality in the new source code as an integrated or as a parallel task.  Either way, you save time and money.

For example, on one project, the customer wanted to incorporate a workflow solution.  Users of the legacy system had lost significant time over the years navigating up and down a menu structure to do the next step of their work, and wanted to incorporate their workflow into the software so that they could go directly to the next step of their work if desired.  Using Option 2 above, we gave them exactly what they wanted and did not charge them for the 2 weeks of effort it took to do it.  The same change in the legacy environment would have taken months or years, so delivery would have been more expensive and taken longer than our approach.

ResQSoft® Engineer Gives You Maintainable Code Generation

In the ’70s and ’80s, we did not believe that we were writing legacy systems when we developed large business applications in COBOL.  Yet, that’s what happened.  So, how do you avoid creating another such situation?  What happens in six years if, the modernization language you choose today becomes unsupported and some new language is the new platform of choice? Well, if you modernize with Engineer, you will save dramatically on making further platform changes, because your code is properly structured and completely standardized – and chances are we will support the new platform and can re-generate the bulk of your code to fit.

Please contact us to discuss your specific requirements, and how ResQSoft® Engineer and our staff of experienced software engineers can migrate your system to the Web – the right way.