Re: i4gl question.

Gauker, > I've got a fairly large system written mainly in cobol and fortran > on an old vax/vms machine. I have to transfer it to a unix machine > and estimated time to transfer in cobol is 6 to 9 months. > Now I have to make a decision if to do it in cobol or i4gl, so what > I would like to know is; what is your experince in the time of developing > such systems? (Or the time of developing in i4gl generally?) > There are many various types of reports to be made from > very simple ones to very complicated. > >From the description given I would have to suggest staying with Cobol unless there are other considerations apart from getting the same functionality operating under Unix. Having worked with both Cobol and Informix I can say that writing in I4gl is approx 4-8 times faster depending on program complexity. BUT you will have to effectively start from scratch. First doing a full database design as the Cobol flat file version is unlikely to meet relational requirements plus systems design to get the module structures and functionality before starting the coding and then you will have to do full unit, integration, systems and acceptance testing of the new package. If you say that it will take 6-9 months to port the Cobol it must have taken 2-3 years to write the software in the first place. Even with all the functional requirements available to you the design process before starting I4gl coding will take 3-4 months. If it took 12-18 months to write the original code you might get it written in Informix in 2-4 months, longer if this is your first Informix application (double it and you will need to employ experienced Informix people), plus you will probably have to rewrite all the fortran into C, which will take approx as long as it took to write the fortran programs in the first place (Say 2 months), plus 2-4 months testing and debugging. This gives a grand total of 9-13 months for the development in Informix. All the above is based on your estimate of doing the port. Depending on the Cobol used under Unix it may take less than you expect (I was surprised when I did it) and my figures are based on the 2-3 year estimate of original system production. Also if the application is still dynamic in its requirements this may still be an excellent opportunity to move to Informix so as to clean up the design and prepare the system for future enhancements which would of course be a lot easier in Informix than Cobol. Informix saves time in the coding stage and the enhancement and bug fixing stage. It also allows a level of proto typing to be done but it doesn't save time in the design, testing or implementation stages which should account for around 80% of a project time span. Hope this helps, Cheers, Jim Ps Tony, I've tried but it bounces have you got a uunet address? -------------------------------------------------------------------- Name: Jim Gordon Internet: jgordon@ssf-sys.DHL.COM Company: DHL Systems Inc Phone: (415) 358-5911 (Direct) Address: 1700 S. Amphlett Blvd. (415) 574-4197 (Switch) San Mateo, CA 94402 Fax: (415) 571-6429 --------------------------------------------------------------------