Modernize Legacy Cobol [closed]

Question

I am constantly reading about how much Cobol code is still in production. And the main reason that it hasn't been updated into am more modern language is that it would take too long/cost too much.

My question is: If there was a tool that converted Cobol to, say, Java, would any organizations find it useful? Or would they rather continue maintaining what they know already works?

Answer 1

Currently, a large volume of the COBOL code (I'd estimate well over 90%) is untestable.

No one knows what it really does.

They know that -- minimally -- it does the expected job most of the time. And when it doesn't, the bugs are known.

Worse, some percentage of COBOL is just workarounds for bugs in other parts of the COBOL.

Therefore, if you subject it to any scrutiny, you'll find that you don't know what's really going on. You can't create test cases.

Indeed, you'll find that most organizations can't even agree on what's "right". But they're willing to compromise on what's available.

The cost and risk of examining the core business processing is unthinkable.

Answer 2

Any conversion tool would have risks associated with it, and the resulting code would have to undergo a lot of testing.

Given that a lot of these systems are in use daily to run a business, a lot rides on the continuing operation. So it is not just "how long" or "how expensive", but can we trust it to work 100% the same.