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  • 1.  Writing Cobol and running it as Java on zIIP's

    Posted Tue February 09, 2021 05:04 PM
    has anyone experience with continuing to develop in Cobol, but have some tooling to have it "cross-compiled" to run it as zIIP eligible / (e.g. Java) load on zIIPs? This just to have the cost benefits of exploiting zIIPs with minimal impact on the standing organization.

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    Herbert Voskuil
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  • 2.  RE: Writing Cobol and running it as Java on zIIP's

    Posted Fri March 19, 2021 02:57 PM
    Edited by Scott Fagen Mon March 22, 2021 11:56 PM
    It might be helpful to explain what product or service is cross-compiling the COBOL into Java or Java Bytecode.

    Thanks,
    Scott


  • 3.  RE: Writing Cobol and running it as Java on zIIP's

    Posted Mon March 22, 2021 05:31 AM
    Thanks for your response  Scott. We're currently looking into CloudFrame's "Relocate" offering: Cloudframe.com - products  and I was wondering whether there are similar products / solutions on the market.

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    Herbert Voskuil
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  • 4.  RE: Writing Cobol and running it as Java on zIIP's

    Posted Mon March 22, 2021 11:56 PM
    Edited by Scott Fagen Mon March 22, 2021 11:56 PM
    Ok.  I'm not familiar with that tool, other than what they have to say on their website, and it does not appear that they are a "COBOL to Java Bytecode" compiler, rather they seek to "compile" your COBOL programs into Java which can then be run on a JVM on any platform.  While not stated outright, I infer from their website that they provide a set of connectors to get to your Db2/VSAM data (this would be thought of as "lock-in" to their product) from your newly created Java programs.

    There are significant differences in the approach taken to writing COBOL programs (top/down, structured) compared to writing Java programs (class based, object oriented), so I am wondering what sort of programs are emitted in Java and if an experienced Java programmer would want to deal with a Java program that was built/structured like a COBOL program.  Or, perhaps they provide a level of expertise to guide the code conversion into a set of classes, constructors and functional programs - a more sustainable approach.

    If the goal is to get to zIIPs, I'd suggest an approach that goes after a small part of the COBOL application at a time - you can do the "conversion" yourself or use tools.  I write about such an approach here:  Mainframe MIPS:  Management or Madness.

    If you find out more, I think there are many in this community who would be interested in understanding the process and what the outputs are.