Veryant, the COBOL and Java technology innovator, announced new software designed to help organizations lower operational costs by modernizing COBOL assets. The latest version of Veryant's isCOBOL Application Platform Suite (APS) simplifies COBOL and Java integration, enhances the Eclipse-based development environment, and includes several improvements to make moving to isCOBOL from alternative platforms even easier.
"The Veryant isCOBOL Compiler and deployment models leverage the cross-platform portability of virtualized runtime environments like Java and .NET," Alfredo Iglesias, vice president of Veryant, tells 5 Minute Briefing. "The isCOBOL Runtime Environment is pure Java; isCOBOL applications run on any platform supporting recent JVMs, so now all the features and resources of the growing Java community are seamlessly made available to the world of COBOL, and 'Compile once, run anywhere' is truly delivered." isCOBOL's 100% Java deployment model makes it ideal for composite SOA applications, Iglesias adds. "No bridges, wrapping, or proprietary frameworks are required to integrate COBOL applications and data with open standards."
isCOBOL APS blends the optimized, business-oriented nature of COBOL with the openness, portability, and power of the Java platform. With isCOBOL 2009, COBOL programmers can automatically generate Java classes that enable Java programs to directly access COBOL data without proprietary middleware or time-consuming, risky reengineering. This feature enhances productivity and eases integration between legacy and new application environments.
The isCOBOL Runtime Environment is 100% Java, so COBOL applications can be deployed across multiple platforms using a single code base. The same flexibility is delivered with isCOBOL's Eclipse-based integrated development environment (IDE). Users can leverage one development environment across multiple platforms, including Windows, Linux, Macintosh, and Unix and switch between development projects when integrating COBOL with programming languages such as Java.
An import facility has been added to the isCOBOL IDE that allows existing projects and programs from alternative environments such as AcuBench to be automatically brought into the flexible Eclipse framework. Other IDE enhancements such as the addition of a GUI screen designer and an integrated event editor further simplify transitions to Veryant and enhance developer productivity.
The isCOBOL 2009 release offers many other new features and enhancements, including: The addition of Javadoc style comments in COBOL source code, enabling the automatic generation of documentation from isCOBOL programs. The solution also includes support for MySQL, DB2, and DB2/400 (the AS/400 version of DB2 from IBM), to include functionality such as record locking, optimization, and other database-specific features.
Since isCOBOL generates binary code for managed environments, it's conceivable that the solution will fit into .NET environments as well as Java, Inglesias says. "It is also interesting to note that, although today isCOBOL APS outputs Java binary code, a similar approach could be taken with the .NET Framework. Eventually, the Veryant tools could also generate Common Intermediate Language from the same valuable COBOL legacy source code."
isCOBOL APS 2009 is available immediately. The Eclipse-based isCOBOL IDE is included at no extra charge with the isCOBOL Development System. Veryant simplifies deployments and lower total cost of ownership by bundling the isCOBOL Debugger, isCOBOL Server (thin client and distributed processing), as well as isCOBOL ISAM Server with the isCOBOL Runtime Environment at no extra fee. Visit the Veryant website for additional details.