Migrating COBOL Apps

Course details

Despite the arrival of myriad new and modern languages, COBOL still rules many government and legacy computing systems. Many of these systems are due to be retired, and the organization's applications must be migrated to a modern environment. In this course, learn about the ways in which developers can migrate legacy COBOL applications, the challenges in doing so, and techniques and tips for succeeding in a smooth transition. Discover various techniques and tools you can use to analyze legacy COBOL source code. Explore how to use visualization to better understand legacy code; how to extract code into a subprogram; how to effectively refactor code; and more. Get insight into some automated migration tools that streamline the process. Plus, instructor Malcolm Shore steps through the process of migrating some legacy-style COBOL application demonstrating key tools and processes along the way.

Concepts

0. Introduction

01 - Succeed with a COBOL migration
02 - What you should know

1. The Case for Migrating COBOL

03 - COBOL today
04 - GAO, legacy systems, and COBOL
05 - Approaches to legacy migration
06 - Reasons for migration success and failure
07 - Migrate to the cloud

2. Using COBOL

08 - Install a Linux subsystem on Windows
09 - Run GnuCOBOL on Linux
10 - Look at code from the past
11 - Measure code complexity
12 - Different dialects of COBOL

3. Challenges for the Migration

13 - Self-modifying code
14 - Dynamic calls to subprograms
15 - Understand XA transactions
16 - The buried update
17 - The deadly embrace
18 - Legacy control flow
19 - Challenge - Trace the control flow
20 - Solution - Trace the control flow

4. Analysis of COBOL Source Code

21 - Lehman's laws of software evolution
22 - Reengineer and the horseshoe model
23 - Classification of legacy data
24 - The reengineering process
25 - Visualization of legacy COBOL code
26 - Create COBOL flowcharts with Visustin
27 - Navigate code visually with Visual Studio

5. Refactoring and Resizing

28 - Prepare to refactor code
29 - Refactor the DESR application
30 - Remove redundant labels
31 - Resize applications
32 - Make code segments generic
33 - Challenge - Refactoring
34 - Solution - Refractoring
35 - Introduce structure through subprograms
36 - Remove dead code
37 - Refactor data
38 - The challenges of migrating to a relational database
39 - Refactoring, continuous integration, and self-testing
40 - Observations on the paradigm shift
41 - The refactoring catalog

6. An Exercise in Migration

42 - P6 application
43 - Select the migration option
44 - Understand the P6 application
45 - Introduction to QWICS
46 - Explore the online QWICS demonstrator
47 - Migrate P6 into QWICS
48 - Start the P6 PRIMA migration
49 - Architecting the P6 database
50 - Migrate the P6 data
51 - Create the data access layer
52 - Migrate the P6 code

Conclusion

53 - What's next