MOST's OnTarget Conversion tool set handles all the complexities relating to the conversion of NATURAL legacy applications to COBOL. At the end of the conversion process the customer is provided with a complete COBOL application that is functionally equivalent, in every aspect, to the NATURAL legacy application. Additionally, the customer is provided with the COBOL equivalent of the 4GL functions supported within the NATURAL environment.

The COBOL system delivered provides significant benefits in areas such as reuse, reliability, maintainability, scalability and ultimately improved  time-to-market in support of growing and new business needs.

Ease of maintenance of COBOL code

The COBOL code delivered is easily maintainable as a result of OnTarget's re-engineering capabilities. OnTarget generates a COBOL application that conforms to 3-tier architecture with clear separation between:

• Presentation Layer 
• Business Logic
• Data Access layer

This architecture facilitates easier maintenance and on going application enhancement as well as serving as a base for moving your legacy applications to a SOA environment.

Easy cross reference between the generated COBOL code and the NATURAL source is provided.

Features and Benefits

• Support for applications accessing ADABAS, IMS, VSAM, DB2 or ORACLE
• Handles all aspects of NATURAL syntax
• Preservation of NATURAL online transaction logic in Pseudo Conversational mode
• Support for all NATURAL 4GL functions such as Loop management, Page Control and similar
• Handles all NATURAL programming entities such as programs, sub-programs, DDM's, Maps, GDA's/LDA's
• Identification and handling of NATURAL language naming conventions that are not supported in COBOL
• Support for customer specific naming conventions
• Full access to all COBOL code delivered
• Ability to re-use elements of the newly generated COBOL code