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My company is trying to "port" COBOL code containing Report Writer. Has anyone tried this and what problems were encountered. The source code currently resides on a Digital VAX (personally, I wish the team attempting this good luck!). Report writer may be the least of their problems but who wants to listen to an AS400 guy anyhow?
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Report Writer
A long time ago, COBOL was considered the universal write once run anywhere language. This was strenuously put to the test at the company I worked for at the time. In one large room was a mainframe, where the code was originally developed. In another large room resided a System/34, a System/38, a DEC VAX, a Univac 90, a Honeywell DPS-6, a Burroughs something or other, a Prime 550, and an HP-3000. My team's job was to take the mainframe software, and make it work on the "minis". Exactly as it had worked on the mainframe. Well, I don't know about the BUNCH guys, but it was a chore on the IBM minis. The S/34 had a 64k program limitation, and it was necessary to overlay everything. The S/38 (This was a model 3 in 1979) was so different from everything else, that only for this machine, was the software redesigned. I was convinced early on that each box has particular strengths, and it was important in any project to emphasize those strengths. Consequently any language on platform "A" does not translate effectively into the same language on platform "B". In some cases a little pushing and pulling is necessary. In other cases the redesign is so radical, that you might as well start over from scratch. I wonder today, if the JAVA guys feel the same way. Dave
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