Porting COBOL Programs Using a Transformational Approach

Abstract

Transformation systems have been applied in several areas of software engineering. This paper describes the use of the transformational engine Draco-PUC in porting COBOL programs. We describe the porting strategy for going from COBOL to C/C++ and give examples of such a strategy applied to a radar application and also to a payroll system. Although targeting an object-orientated language, we do not claim to generate code that strictly follows the OO guidelines. This paper gives special attention to the knowledge structure we have been using to help guide the transformation process as well as to help in the process of design recovery. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. J. Software Maintenance 9: 3–31, 1997