Anyone know of Assembler to COBOL conversion tools?

[dallasdino]

Who knows of a solid Assembler to COBOL converter?

I have some experience converting mainframe assembler to COBOL for business applications.

I am in the early stages of writing some conversion utilities to fully automate a large part of most business assembler applications with the rest to be completed by a skilled programmer. The conversion will be written in COBOL.

Before I reinvent the wheel here I want to see what is available.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

[balachandar]

Hi Dallasdino,
I would like to know more in detail about Assembler to Cobol conversion. Currently we are in the process of converting a set of assembler programs to Cobol. If you can guide us by providing inputs on the following, It wouuld be helpful to us.
1. General Strategy.
2. Issues involved (Data Types, Looping, Decision Making)
3. Availability of tools.
4. Problmes that frequently occur.

Is there any document on the strategy of conversion ?

Thanks and Regards
Balachandar Ganesan.

 

[converte]

We have software/service to convert Assembler to Cobol.
Take a look at

http://www.converte.com

 

[PeterLorbeer]

Hello

I have developed a new conversion tool and 300 000 lines of Assembler code converted to COBOL and many times improved the conversion tool. For more details look at my homepage

http://www.assembler-cobol-konvertierung.de

in German and English. Please ask for a free conversion of a small program.

PeterLorbeer

 

[WMK]

Doesn't the "answer" to this question sort-of depend on WHICH assembler (IBM mainframe, pc x-88, etc) is the input - and which COBOL is the output?

Bill Klein

 

[PeterLorbeer]

Hi WMK

Thank you for your question.

The Assembler source input was Unisys OS/3 Assembler and the output was Microfocus COBOL on HP-UNIX. If you now think, the tool is not usable for IBM or Siemens, you are wrong.

I have tested an IBM 600 lines Assembler subprogram on Unisys OS/3 and it runs fine without any corrections. That means, the instruction set of Unisys Assembler is the same, to IBM, the DTF ’s are the same and if some macros have other names, but the same function, it will be easy to modify the tool.

For the most programs, the converter does not convert 100 %. If the tool should generate 100 %, the codes will be not good readable und not good for maintenance. In the normal case the code generated by the converter is correct. The rest, converted by the programmer has a higher risk of errors. This causes the need of the COBOL output in mainframe COBOL and UNIX COBOL. The mainframe COBOL is needed to test the Assembler version and the COBOL version on the mainframe and to compare all new or updated files of each executed program. After a successful test, the COBOL program goes in production on the mainframe. If there is still a problem, you can change back from COBOL to Assembler and than fix the problem. This is an importent point or you will run into trouble.

The conversion from mainframe COBOL to UNIX COBOL is easy to do by a small tool. By testing the converted programs on the UNIX system, you run in the next problem: “Unpacked numeric fields on the mainframe can contain blanks without causing any problems, on UNIX are blanks not allowed in numeric fields. The EBCDIC to ASCII translation can cause a difference in sort, test for numeric and other problems. To move a program from mainframe to UNIX and back without doing any changes, the client decided to use copy’s for all parts, which are different on both systems. This was importent, to have on all systems the latest version.

The Unisys OS/3 system is cancelled, but the Assembler COBOL conversion tool is and I would like to find someone, who will test my tool on an other system and I will modify the tool, if there is a need.

PeterLorbeer

 

[JBChennai]

Do we have any third party tool for Assembler to COBOL conversion for Assembler, which is offered as a packaged product, and which can be used with a license fee or so...?

Boopathy

 

[PeterLorbeer]

PeterLorbeer
At this time my tool is not to rent. If you send me your programs for converting, only my time will be charged and not the tool (a fix price will be possible).

 

[gazolba]

How do you get around the problem of the things that can be done in Assembler but not COBOL, such as dynamically reserving and releasing memory. That is beyond the capabilities of COBOL.

 

[PeterLorbeer]

If we had Assembler functions in the program, which are not available in COBOL, we must change the design of the program. But this is a very, very small part of conversion.

PeterLorbeer

 

[WMK]

The example of dynamic storage allocation (and freeing) is EASILY solved if this is a conversion to IBM COBOL. Simply use the appropriate LE callable service. Similarly, bit "twidling" can be done with LE callable services.

This is NOT to imply that there aren't SOME things that can be done in (z/OS) Assembler that can't be done in COBOL - but as the years go by (and if we are talking IBM mainframes) the number of such things grows smaller and smaller.

Bill Klein