Acucorp^® Solutions for HP e3000 MPE/iX Systems
Frequently Asked Questions

Acucorp offers development and deployment technologies that allow you to more easily extend, modernize, and rehost your applications. Our core development system, ACUCOBOL-GT®, supports single source development with object code portability to hundreds of platforms. ACUCOBOL GT's extensions to COBOL support such capabilities as development of a graphical user interface, transaction management, multi-threading, and more. Additional Acucorp® technologies provide the ability to access a variety of data sources, implement client/server architectures, enable applications for the Internet, and improve programmer productivity.

Specifically for HP COBOL developers, ACUCOBOL-GT provides extensive compatibility with HP COBOL II/XL. On the HP e3000 in the MPE/iX and POSIX environments (MPE/iX Version 5.0, and later), ACUCOBOL-GT can compile HP COBOL II/XL programs that use HP proprietary extensions, HP intrinsics, macros, VPLUS forms, KSAM, and IMAGE data sources. In some cases, compilation with ACUCOBOL-GT will require changes to the application code. A successfully converted program can, in most cases, be tested with the ACUCOBOL-GT runtime on the HP e3000, however the runtime is not intended to provide a deployment environment. Off of the HP e3000, ACUCOBOL GT can compile HP COBOL code, just as it does on the HP e3000, but its ability to run the application depends on the presence of technologies that support HP intrinsics and other HP e3000-specific technologies. For a detailed description of ACUCOBOL-GT's compatibility with HP COBOL and for a discussion of application migration issues, read our white paper: COBOL Solutions for HP e3000 Business Systems in Transition.

Acucorp offers the HP e3000 community many unique advantages:

• We are solely focused on providing technologies that extend and enhance mission critical business applications.
• We offer stable, proven, and effective technologies. Our customers attest to that claim. Ask a Sales representative for a list of references.
• We consistently deliver customer service that exceeds expectations.
• We are an HP e3000 Transition partner and an active member of HP's Developer and Solution Partner Program (DSPP). Acucorp is the only COBOL vendor featured in HP's Transition Tool Promotion Program launched in November of 2003. We also have relationships with many technology and service vendors to ensure a complete migration solution. These partners include Oracle, Microsoft, BEA, IBM, Sun, Transoft, Ordina Denkart, Speedware, Managed Business Solutions, MB Foster, Lund Performance, Marxmeier Software, ScreenJet, Unicon Conversion Technologies, iMaxSoft, and many others.
• We have more than four thousand customers, and more than one million end-users in 75 countries.
• We were founded in 1988 by COBOL developers for COBOL developers.

The ACUCOBOL-GT COBOL development system offers:

• Extensive HP COBOL II/XL compatibility to help facilitate migration.
• Technology designed specifically for application portability. ACUCOBOL GT's unique COBOL Virtual Machine™ allows you to write your application once and run it anywhere.
• Support for emerging platforms. ACUCOBOL-GT was the first COBOL on Linux Itanium2, HP-UX Itanium2, HP-UX 11i, AIX5L 64-bit, SPARC 64, and all IBM eServer servers running Linux.
• Extensions to COBOL that are consistent with COBOL constructs and methods, making them easier to learn and use.
• Support for transaction management, multi-threading, graphical interfaces, ActiveX/COM, XML, and much more.
• Broad and innovative complementary technologies that support RDBMSs, distributed processing, client/server deployments, service-oriented architectures, and more.

Support for HP COBOL II/XL extensions and the call interface to HP e3000 MPE/iX intrinsic functions is built directly into the ACUCOBOL GT compiler and runtime. ACUCOBOL GT supports KSAM, TurboIMAGE/IMAGE, and VPLUS via the HP e3000 intrinsic functions specific to those components. KSAM can also be used directly with standard COBOL I/O statements.

Note that the CALL interface to system intrinsic functions is not specifically limited or restricted. However, Acucorp has not validated support for every HP e3000 intrinsic function. In particular we have not tested functions that are uncommon, or that take unusual or undocumented parameter types.

Acucorp can help you analyze, plan, and execute your migration. Our Sales and Systems Engineering professionals will work with you to gain a complete understanding of your situation, needs and objectives, and then we will propose a solution, including products and services, that is tailored to meet your needs and objectives.

Acucorp is pleased to have existing partnerships with key migration specialists, including Lund Performance, Managed Business Solutions, Ordina Denkart, Pathway Pacific, Speedware, Transoft, Unicon Conversion Technologies, and others. As a result of these partnerships, these migration specialists offer solutions based on ACUCOBOL GT that ensure the best migration outcome possible.

Your options depend on the technologies available on the target platform. If there is support for VPLUS emulation on the target platform, you may not have to do anything to your VPLUS screens and code. If full VPLUS emulation is not available or not desirable, you will have to convert your VPLUS screens. There are several options for accomplishing VPLUS conversion. One such technology allows you to convert VPLUS forms into a format that can be used with the AcuBench® Screen Designer (AcuBench is Acucorp's integrated development environment). The converted screens can then be deployed in conjunction with an optional VPLUS API. This combination allows you to leave your existing VPLUS procedural code in place. Other approaches require conversion or replacement of VPLUS forms, as well as removal, emulation, or replacement of VPLUS intrinsic calls. For a complete discussion of HP COBOL migration issues, read our white paper, "COBOL Solutions for HP e3000 Business Systems in Transition."

As with other HP e3000-specific technologies, your options depend on the technologies that are available on the target system. On many platforms, IMAGE-compatible technologies can provide a straightforward migration path. To varying degrees, these technologies allow IMAGE-related code in the COBOL program to be left in place. Technologies that do not specifically provide compatibility with IMAGE will most likely require conversion of IMAGE data and replacement of IMAGE-related code. Also, you will need to make provisions for non-COBOL applications that access your IMAGE data. For a complete discussion of HP COBOL migration issues, read our white paper, "COBOL Solutions for HP e3000 Business Systems in Transition."

Again, your options are constrained by the technologies available on the target system. HP e3000 intrinsic functions must be either emulated or replaced. Several emulators are available for a variety of platforms. If an emulator is not available or will not be used, intrinsic functions can be replaced with a combination of ACUCOBOL GT runtime library routines, ANSI 89 COBOL intrinsic functions, host system functions, and, if necessary, custom functions. For a complete discussion of HP COBOL migration issues, read our white paper, "COBOL Solutions for HP e3000 Business Systems in Transition."

We know that it is essential that you be able to use the database and indexed file systems required by your business. Therefore, Acucorp technologies provide a breadth of options.

• Indexed file systems: On all platforms except OpenVMS/VMS (where the native RMS file system is used), ACUCOBOL GT comes with the fast and reliable Vision indexed file system. If you prefer, you can use another ISAM file system including Pervasive.SQL, KSAM, and C-ISAM (where those file systems are available on the host system; products licensed separately).
• RDBMSs: Via our Acu4GL® technology, your application's standard COBOL I/O statements can go against the world's most popular RDBMS data sources, such as Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, and DB2, as well as a variety of ODBC-compliant data sources. With our AcuSQL® technology, you can embed SQL queries in your COBOL programs, giving COBOL applications SQL-based access to DB2, SQL Server, and other ISO/ANSI SQL92 compliant data sources. We support Oracle's Pro*COBOL ESQL for embedded SQL access to Oracle data sources.

ACUCOBOL-GT applications can also read, process, and write eXtensible Markup Language (XML) documents. ACUCOBOL GT includes a developer utility that creates File Descriptors (FDs) and SELECT statements from existing XML files. The ACUCOBOL GT runtime includes a file system interface called AcuXML that reads XML data and transparently converts it to sequential files for COBOL processing. The AcuXML interface also converts COBOL output data into XML format as required.

AcuXML and XML support are included in ACUCOBOL-GT. Acu4GL, AcuSQL, and the file system interfaces are separately licensed products.

Yes. ACUCOBOL-GT can be used with Eloquence on the HP 9000 and other platforms on which both products are available.

ACUCOBOL-GT works with many HP e3000 third-party tools such as Robelle's Qedit, ScreenJet, WRQ's Reflection, and MiniSoft's WS92. To confirm support for other third-party tools, please contact an Acucorp Sales representative.

In general we recommend against deploying converted applications on the HP e3000. ACUCOBOL GT's extensive HP COBOL compatibility and its support of HP e3000-specific technologies (such as VPLUS and IMAGE) on the HP e3000 make it the best COBOL for preparing your applications for a move to another platform. These capabilities minimize the code conversion effort and allow you to perform some initial testing on the HP e3000. This approach reduces some of the risk typically associated with migration. However, on the HP e3000 the execution performance of most converted applications will not be comparable to that provided by native HP COBOL.

ACUCOBOL-GT is compliant with the ANSI 85/89 standard. We are also committed to supporting the ISO/IEC 2002 COBOL standard. We intend to incrementally add support for elements of the standard in the years ahead.

The ACUCOBOL-GT development system is available via HP and HP Platinum Partners through the HP e3000 Transition Tools Promotion Program. This HP Program offers current HP e3000 customers in North America the ability to obtain ACUCOBOL-GT and one year of technical support at no charge for qualified migrations. For more information please visit www.hp.com/go/e3000/toolspromo or call HP at 1-866-888-8920.

Acucorp offers technologies that allow you to expose discrete elements of your COBOL applications for use with various Web services including J2EE and .NET. For more information, read Acucorp's interoperability solution overview.

Acucorp is a privately held company headquartered in San Diego, California, with regional offices in Europe and distributors around the globe. Our mission since our inception in 1988, has been to provide technologies that help extend and modernize mission-critical COBOL applications. Acucorp solutions can be found at the heart of successful businesses in over 75 countries. Our customers include Ford Argentina, Red Cross Belgium, L'Oréal Mexico, Diageo (formerly Seagram Americas), Siemens, The Travelex Group (formerly Thomas Cook), Tower Records, and Warner Music Group. To realize the full potential of your HP COBOL applications, contact your regional Acucorp office or distributor and ask to speak with a Sales professional.