How to convert Reporting Mode files to Structured Mode

Tushar1 · February 4, 2011, 8:58pm

Is there any utility that migrates Reporting Mode files to Structured Mode.

Matthias1 · February 4, 2011, 9:12pm

http://tech.forums.softwareag.com/viewtopic.php?t=7048

… sounds like Natural Engineer does something like that.

system · February 7, 2011, 3:01am

Yes, Natural Engineer (NEE) has a “Mode Conversion” Utility which converts Reporting Mode to Structured Mode …
http://techcommunity.softwareag.com/ecosystem/documentation/natural/nee621/pdf/mfr/uti.pdf
.
But of course, one must purchase NEE

Tushar1 · February 9, 2011, 11:41am

Thanks for the reply.

It is possible to use this Natural Engineer on library loaded in Natural for windows.

Ats · February 9, 2011, 12:56pm

Yes Tushar,

Natural Engineer 6.2.1 is the latest version for Windows, but I suspect it has a trial version :?: . Need to purchase.

John_Smith · February 11, 2012, 2:40am

Hi,

does anyone know if there is other software instead of nee that convert “automatically” report to structure mode?

tks.

system · February 11, 2012, 9:07am

I am not aware of any, but you do not need to buy NEE, you can just offload the
sources and Software AG will do the conversion for a nominal fee.

Steve_Robinson · February 12, 2012, 1:09pm

There is the question of why the code is being converted in the first place.

steve

John_Smith · February 12, 2012, 1:53pm

Hi Steve,

one of the reasons to convert is to be prepared to use with other tecnology. Almost all software for this purpose work only in structured mode.

I would like to know/have other companies/solutions options.

tks

system · February 12, 2012, 2:10pm

What is the problem with having Software AG do the conversion for you ?

How many report mode modules are we talking about here ?

Steve_Robinson · February 13, 2012, 12:11pm

John, what type of technology are you referring to? Object code, of course, does not distinguish between report and structured mode. Thus, the only software I can imagine that would work with only structured mode is software that only works with source code.

steve

John_Smith · February 13, 2012, 12:27pm

Hi,

I am talking about 100,000 objects, and 70% of them are in report mode.

Almost all software that propose to migrate the applications to other technology, such as Natural to Cobol, Natural to Java, Natural to .net…, uses source code to do the process to migrate it, and the sources would need to be in structured mode.

tks.

system · February 13, 2012, 7:23pm

Good luck in converting such a large system to “something else”.

I don’t understand why shops, rather than building on that solid
foundation and enhancing it, throw away their assets and dive into
something that I have never seen to perform anywhere near what
was there before, but anyway, not my business, not my money

Looks to me like you’ve got two options:

Let Software AG convert these 70k objetcs for you
Ask the vendors of “other software” to understand report mode

Steve_Robinson · February 14, 2012, 11:46am

If you use one of the “converters” you mentioned, you wind up with bad Cobol code, or bad Java code, or bad .net code.

Check around with shops who have tried this. They will tell you no self respecting Java programmer (to use just one example), would ever write code produced by such a converter. You will wind up with a maintenance nightmare.

Ask a vendor to convert a few objects for you. Then turn them over to a good programmer in the target language for a critique. You will get quite an earful.

steve