Cobol Software Modernization

Nowadays, billions of lines of code are in the COBOL programming language. This book is an analysis, a diagnosis, a strategy, a MDD method and a tool to transform legacy COBOL into modernized applications that comply with Internet computing, Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and the Cloud. It serves as a blueprint for those in charge of finding solutions to this considerable challenge.

Most organizations rely on complex enterprise information systems (EISs) to codify their business practices and collect, process, and analyze business data. These EISs are large, heterogeneous, distributed, constantly evolving, dynamic, long-lived, and mission critical. In other words, they are a complicated system of systems. As features are added to an EIS, new technologies and components are selected and integrated. In many ways, these information systems are to an enterprise what a brain is to the higher species--a complex, poorly understood mass upon which the organism relies for its very existence. To optimize business value, these large, complex systems must be modernized--but where does one begin? This book uses an extensive real-world case study (based on the modernization of a thirty year old retail system) to show how modernizing legacy systems can deliver significant business value to any organization.

Companies around the world are trying to solve a critical IT conundrum: How do they harness and integrate long-standing, core business systems, written in COBOL, with a new era of Java-based technologies and modern IT architecture? Those who are successful have learned how to tap into the power of their existing applications and have transformed their IT systems into first-class citizens of the digital world. Underpinning this transformation are new tools from Micro Focus that offer the ability to compile COBOL directly to Java Byte Code and seamlessly integrate with modern Java architectures. With Visual COBOL: New Application Modernization Tools for the Java Developer, you will discover how to bridge these two worlds using REST architectures, containers, and Cloud-and from within a familiar development toolset. Re-imagine software development and application modernization using the power of Visual COBOL. Brought to you by Micro Focus, the leader in COBOL development tools, this book is written for you-the Java developer. Key features include: A real-world example to illustrate key concepts An explanation of the Java object model for the COBOL developer A quick getting-started guide to the COBOL language-designed for the Java developer Patterns and practices to help Java developers bridge COBOL and Java Free access to the student edition of Visual COBOL About the author: Paul Kelly worked at Micro Focus for over 20 years before joining Pivotal Labs to work as an architect helping clients with digital transformation. Paul worked on Visual COBOL between 2002 and 2012, initially on Visual Studio development and later on Eclipse, before changing roles to develop a cloud-based SaaS offering for Micro Focus. In 2017, Paul authored a new book for developers titled Visual COBOL: A Developer's Guide to Modern COBOL. In his spare time, Paul likes experimenting with different ways of making coffee and learning to play the guitar.

Beginning COBOL for Programmers is a comprehensive, sophisticated tutorial and modular skills reference on the COBOL programming language for established programmers. This book is for you if you are a developer who would like to—or must—add COBOL to your repertoire. Perhaps you recognize the opportunities presented by the current COBOL skills crisis, or are working in a mission critical enterprise which retains legacy COBOL applications. Whatever your situation, Beginning COBOL for Programmers meets your needs as an established programmer moving to COBOL. Beginning COBOL for Programmers includes comprehensive coverage of ANS 85 COBOL features and techniques, including control structures, condition names, sequential and direct access files, data redefinition, string handling, decimal arithmetic, subprograms, and the report writer. The final chapter includes a substantial introduction to object-oriented COBOL. Benefiting from over one hundred example programs, you’ll receive an extensive introduction to the core and advanced features of the COBOL language and will learn to apply these through comprehensive and varied exercises. If you've inherited some legacy COBOL, you’ll be able to grasp the COBOL idioms, understand the constructs, and recognize what's happening in the code you’re working with. Today’s enterprise application developers will find that COBOL skills open new—or old—doors, and this extensive COBOL reference is the book to help you acquire and develop your COBOL skills.

This book focuses on software architecture and the value of architecture in the development of long-lived, mission-critical, trustworthy software-systems. The author introduces and demonstrates the powerful strategy of “Managed Evolution,” along with the engineering best practice known as “Principle-based Architecting.” The book examines in detail architecture principles for e.g., Business Value, Changeability, Resilience, and Dependability. The author argues that the software development community has a strong responsibility to produce and operate useful, dependable, and trustworthy software. Software should at the same time provide business value and guarantee many quality-of-service properties, including security, safety, performance, and integrity. As Dr. Furrer states, “Producing dependable software is a balancing act between investing in the implementation of business functionality and investing in the quality-of-service properties of the software-systems.” The book presents extensive coverage of such concepts as: Principle-Based Architecting Managed Evolution Strategy The Future Principles for Business Value Legacy Software Modernization/Migration Architecture Principles for Changeability Architecture Principles for Resilience Architecture Principles for Dependability The text is supplemented with numerous figures, tables, examples and illustrative quotations. Future-Proof Software-Systems provides a set of good engineering practices, devised for integration into most software development processes dedicated to the creation of software-systems that incorporate Managed Evolution.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the International RuleML Symposium on Rule Interchange and Applications, RuleML 2007, held in Orlando, Florida, October 2007. The papers are organized in topical sections on Business Process, Policy and IT Service Management and Modeling, Rule Languages and Interchange Standards, Business Rules, Rule Engines and Applications, RuleML-2007 Challenge, Rules, Reasoning, and Ontologies and Reaction Rules and Rule Applications.

Software engineering has advanced rapidly in recent years in parallel with the complexity and scale of software systems. New requirements in software systems yield innovative approaches that are developed either through introducing new paradigms or extending the capabilities of well-established approaches. Modern Software Engineering Concepts and Practices: Advanced Approaches provides emerging theoretical approaches and their practices. This book includes case studies and real-world practices and presents a range of advanced approaches to reflect various perspectives in the discipline.