CICS Conversions

Conversion Benefits

An MG Technologies CICS conversion can provide: Conversion of any language COBOL or COBOL II to COBOL for Z/OS or VSE and LE Conversion of macro to command Simplified maintenance Improved reliability CICS release independence Reduced storage utilization Automatic translation Improved reliability Improved maintainability Improved user interface Use of color and hilighting User "fast path" option Customized security checking Multiple sessions Conversions are performed at our site. We don't ship code until it is ready to test. This minimizes the workload on your system and saves you money!

MG Technologies' conversions consistently provide the greatest possible improvements to memory and CPU utilization, resulting in greater system efficiency and improvements in response time.

Our conversions are designed for extreme reliability and improved data integrity. We are one of the few companies that can implement recoverable systems without response time degradation.

An MG Technologies conversion can provide the following enhancements:

General

• Conversion of any system to CICS command level. CICS MACRO, IDMS/DC, WESTI, TASK/MASTER, SWIFT, DATACOM/DC, IMS/DC, custom interfaces, and other teleprocessing monitors, even custom Application Programming Interfaces.
• Conversion using any language, i.e. converting from Assembler to COBOL.
• The conversion will be performed using our universal translators to automate much of the conversion. We will manually redesign sections that may prove to be a bottleneck in the system or too difficult to maintain.
• Conversions completed in record time, freeing our programmers to concentrate on design performance and reliability improvements.
• The programs will be completely converted from non-CICS to CICS command level code. All references to non-CICS code will be eliminated.
• The source code will be CICS release independent. No changes will be required to run under new releases of CICS.

Enhancements

• Redesigned sections to eliminate bottlenecks and maintenance problems.
• Elimination of single threading or other bottlenecks through redesign.
• The converted code will contain built-in diagnostics that automatically deactivate when in production mode.
• Removal of tables or other excessive storage from COBOL working storage and placing them into their own load modules.
• Utilization of CICS recovery mechanisms. This improves data integrity and eliminates most database problems.
• All single threading will be removed. Single threading is removed as a result of the command level conversion and any other bottleneck will be eliminated through redesign.
• Converted programs will use features of the latest version of CICS.
• Easy to maintain structured source code.
• Many other technical and programming enhancements are made. Programming is greatly simplified and standardized.

Screen Enhancements

• Screen formats supplied in standard BMS source code.
• All screens use a very productive and attractive color standard. When color terminals are activated the applications will automatically use colors.

Database Enhancements

• Conversion of Database and CICS code.
• Conversion of IMS and DL/1 calls to EXEC DL1 commands, allowing interactive debugging of database calls with the execution diagnostic facility.
• Database calls may be upgraded to new release formats.

Other Enhancements

• The elimination of any bridge code will provide reduced CPU requirements, possibly resulting in improved response times.

CICS FrameWare Option

Program Flow Controller

• Program flow control logic will reduce storage requirements due to "centralized logic".
• This techniques improves maintainability by reducing the numbers of lines of source code in each program.
• Response time is improved due to reduced storage and paging.

Multiple Sessions

• The user may now have invoke and cycle through up to ten different converted applications simultaneously.

Screen Jump (Fast Path)

• The user may enter a new command and/or data on any screen. This eliminates the user from having to go to a menu or CICS once they become familiar with the command names.

Help Screens

• All commands have built-in help screens that are maintained by your staff. The user can invoke a help screen by pressing a standard PF key.

Enhanced Menu

• The user can display a list of authorized functions. The menu displays the command name, description and required data. The user may enter data on the menu and proceed directly to the requested application.

Security

• Each user must sign on once per session. The user will have a record in the user security file. The user record will contain 64 keys. Each key can specify which set of commands the user may invoke.

Alternate Screen Sizes

• 24, 32, 48 line and 132 Column screen support is handled by the controller. The programmer may request a screen size switch (this is not normally supported by CICS alone).

Field Underlining and Color

• All input fields are hardware underlined. This provides the user with visual indication of the location of input fields and their lengths.
• All screens use a very productive and attractive color standard. When color terminals are activated the applications will automatically use colors.