CodeTurn Assembler to Java/C#

Astadia Assembler to Java or C# Transformations

The CodeTurn Assembler to Java or C# transformation provides an automatic transformation of legacy Assembler to functionally equivalent C# or Java programs that run on Open Systems. The generated C# or Java code is of an unprecedented quality in the field of Assembler transformation and enables the migration of applications that were previously considered to be unfit for migration.

For the longest time, Legacy Applications with a substantial portion of business logic written in Assembler (IBM z/OS, z/VSE or BS2000/OSD) were sentenced to eternal life on the legacy platform. The main points preventing their migration to Open Systems:

• The manual redevelopment of large amounts of Assembler code in C# or Java is not realistic (financially nor technically) due to the lack of proper functional documentation of the existing source code, and lack of skills to manually reverse engineer them;
• The quality of automated Assembler conversion tools was too low, leaving too much manual analysis and development so that using said tools did not significantly reduce the cost and risk of the migration project.

With the development of the CodeTurn Assembler Migration tools finally a viable option is provided for this type of applications.

How Does It Work?

Usually, CodeTurn's Assembler transformation operates on the application source code, as that is where the real business logic can be found. For the Assembler to Java or C# migration this is slightly different as this starts exclusively from the expanded Assembler compilation listings – as can be generated with the assembler on the mainframe.

This chosen approach avoids the need to emulate both the Assembler Directive and Macro (directive) behavior at runtime on the target platform, and allows an elegant conversion of the Assembler source code.

Any negative impact the expansion of the User Macro’s might have on the readability of the migrated source code, is mitigated by the migration tool.

Key Features

Complete Solution

The migration solution covers each of the following elements of a mainframe's Assembler applications:

• Assembly instructions
• Assembler instructions (directives)
• User defined macro definitions (inline)
• User defined macro invocations (inline & copybook)
• Invocations of system defined macros
• SVC calls

Generated Artefacts

Every mainframe assembly program is converted to a corresponding C# program or Java program.

Additionally, the Assembler conversion tool generates all the files that are required to maintain and build the converted code with standard tools in the chosen environment.

Output Parametrization

The generated C# or Java code can be parametrized on multiple levels to optimally blend in with customer standards in these technologies:

• Package names used in the source code;
• Identifier Casing in the source code

Comment Preservation

The original application comments are preserved in the target source code to enable future application maintenance

Integration

Typically, the Assembler logic is only one part of the complete customer legacy data code. Astadia has developed mainframe migration solutions to C# or Java for the most commonly used technologies, and the migrated Assembler code seamlessly integrates with them.

Manual Assembler Migration?

Although the preferred approach is to work with the fully automatically converted code, in some particular cases a manual rewrite of a particular piece of Assembler code can be preferred. Such selective, limited scope rewrites can be performed and easily integrated in the automatically converted code as well.

Automated Testing

No Assembler conversion project can succeed without the confidence that the migrated system is ready for production and this confidence can only be built by testing the migrated system extensively and repeatedly.

For this reason, Astadia has developed two products specifically designed to reduce the time and effort spent in testing:

• TestMatch is used to record-and-replay the behavior of on-line and transaction based applications. It can compare screens and messages produced by the original and the converted applications, revealing any differences in functional and non-functional behavior.
• DataMatch is a similar tool focused on data-centric and batch applications. It validates that the converted application has the exact same effect on the relational database than the original application had on mainframe.

Both tools help in greatly reducing manual effort, by eliminating the need to write out test scenarios, and by enabling the autonomous replay of the recorded scenarios. They effectively limit the business-user involvement to just the acceptance testing.

Learn more about TestMatch and DataMatch.

Visit our Case Studies to see how we use automation to help organizations accelerate digital transformation.

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