Automating the Modernization of Legacy Applications

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Many large retail and pharmaceutical companies, financial and insurance institutions still run their main operations with applications for very old AS/400 machines. The software is written in RPG code, a direct successor of programming using punch cards. It is therefore very hard for developers to understand the logic of the written code that encodes complex business rules. Our partnering company, Fresche Legacy, modernizes RPG applications by reverse engineering them into Java applications. However this transformation of RPG legacy code is very complex, time-consuming and error-prone. Furthermore, expertise in RPG is disappearing. The goal of this project is to automate the reverse engineering process as much as possible to reduce the development effort. We propose to reverse engineer RPG code into a Synon/2E model, then translate the Synon/2E model into an intermediate domain-specific model, and finally generate Java code from the model. The collaboration of Fresche Legacy, withholding Synon/2E and RPG expertise, and the PI's team, withholding expertise in model-driven engineering, makes this research and development project ideal to initiate in this Engage. This collaboration will directly impact the development process at Fresche Legacy. This project is at the root of many challenges the company is currently facing technologically. In the long run, when this solution is perfected and proven effective, this modernization of AS/400 legacy applications approach will solve many of the maintenance problems in all clients of Fresche Legacy in Canada, but also at a global international level.