MPE to HP-UX (and Linux)a Case Study

Rick Gilligan

Sr. Software Specialist at CASE since 1980

Tools Developer from 1980-1983

Architect and Product Manager for ABLE from 1983-2001

Migration Manager for MPE to HP-UX Project 2001-2007

ABLE - the Asset-Based Lending Environment

Initial design started in 1983

Ran exclusively on MPE until 2002

First production use on HP-UX in October 2007

Goals

Minimize impact on client operationsMinimize cost of migrationMinimize distractions to ABLE

developersEffectively manage the time

available for conversion

Risks

HP COBOL support by non-HP vendors either minimal or buggy (still in development and shake-out)

ScreenJet converter still in development

Software Tools

HP COBOL/IIVPlusSPL/Splash!TurboIMAGE/3000Qedit for MPESuprtool for MPEInternally developed tools in Splash!

and COBOL

User Interface

Vplus using terminals (historically) and Reflection terminal emulator Maintenance functions Report and Processing function selection

Batch reporting and processing producing HP PCL5-formatted spooled output and RightFAX

Limited intranet/Internet HTML output selected from HTML forms (Apache 1.3)

Migration Target

Original: HP-UX on PA-RISCFinal: HP-UX on ItaniumCaveat: ALL tools to also support Linux

and WindowsCaveat: FEWEST third party toolsAll reporting and processing functions

web-based with PDF outputNo spooler or batch job support

Third Party Migration Tools

ACUCOBOL-GT, Acubench and AcuConnect Thin Client best HP COBOL support, including macros lower run time costs than MF

Eloquence TurboIMAGE plus more

ScreenJet Vplus emulation

Open Source Migration Tools

JavascriptGnu bashGnuPGApache 2.0OpenSSL

Internally Developed Tools

PDF output directly in COBOLauto font scalingline drawingshadinglogo imagesfont color, style

Migration Process

Migration occurred first on MPE - remove MPE-specific code

Start with frozen version of ABLECOBOL dialect converter that migrates

code to ACUCOBOL runs nightlyParallel development of enhancements to

ABLE product on MPERetrofit four years of enhancements to

MPE product to HP-UX product