Unisys Corp has gone to Hitachi Ltd for object technology aimed at its 2200 Series mainframe user base. Unisys will license Hitachi’s OOCobol object Cobol compiler front-end for Windows NT workstations, class libraries, object browser, file/record designer and Cobol editor. And under an associated development pact, the two companies will collaborate on the joint development of an object-oriented Cobol compiler for the Unisys Clearpath HMP IX system, the new name for the 2200 Series. The goal is to interconnect Hitachi’s front-end compiler with Unisys’ back-end compiler technology, which includes language extensions and a universal compiling system, to produce a new object Cobol for the ClearPath boxes. It is all part of a software modernization effort for ClearPath HMP IX users, and Unisys says that a whole library of tools and utilities from various vendors will follow. The resulting product will use both NT workstations and the Intel node of the ClearPath systems for Cobol development and first phase compile. Hitachi claims to have been the first company in the world to produce an object-oriented Cobol implementation back in 1994, and has been selling it integrated into desktop software development systems. While Cobol 85 is still the standard version of Cobol, an object-oriented specification has been under development since 1990. Both Unisys and Hitachi have been contributing to the spec.
