The quest for more applications for Unix is leading to a plundering of the base of Cobol programs written for proprietary operating systems, and conversion toolkits are proliferating. One such new toolset is Conveyor/X, which has just been launched by Dortmund-based Infosoft GmbH, and, reports Computerwoche, enables programs for IBM DOS, VSE and MVS, Bull’s GCOS 7, Hewlett-Packard’s MPE V/XL and Nixdorf’s Nidos to be converted to run under Unix.Plans for versions for Siemens’ BS2000 and DEC’s VMS are also afoot. The largely automated software conversion, according to the developer, encompasses everything from software architecture and data access to the elimination of Cobol incompatibilities. Infosoft is currently talking to other software houses that want to offer their standard software for other computer environments, as well as to user sites that want to tread the Unix path.
