We have an information system written on the mainframe using Cobol, CICS and VSAM. Most of the information has been migrated to a new system written in PHP with PostgreSQL. Most of the data was converted to new formats in PostgreSQL, but not all of it. Our organization is trying to figure out if there's a way to port the old system, especially the data, to another platform (possibly MVS 380 with Hercules emulator or Windows or Linux) using Open Source tools in case we need to access something for backup purposes after the mainframe is eliminated. We have GNUCobol built with Cygwin (including pdcurses) on Windows and have done some initial testing with it. Could build it with MinGW if needed. We also have OpenCobol downloaded via package manager on a Debian Linux system. Would appreciate any suggests on migrating/porting. At the moment we're still trying to figure out the best way to get the information in the VSAM files off the mainframe. We're investigating using ftp and even looked at trying to pkzip the VSAM files and then ftp to a PC. Does GNUCobol handle files in VSAM format or will they need to be converted to another format? Does GNUCobol handle ODBC and are there any decent VSAM ODBC drivers around that someone would recommend? Is there some documentation on combining C code/libraries with GNUCobol in case we try accessing the VSAM with a custom C library and want to use that with the Cobol programs? Has anyone looked into porting GNUCobol to Hercules/MVS 380/tk4-? If not, could one just take the C output from GNUCobol and use that on Hercules with gccmvs? Would it be easier to just port the Cobol code to Windows or Linux instead of trying to get things working with the Hercules emulator? My biggest concern is trying to get the data over in a format that will be accessible. I read some posts about GNUCobol and Open Kicks. Does anyone have any information on Open Kicks or other CICS alternatives to use with GNUCobol or automated ways to convert CICS to screen? Tried to contact the company that makes Open Kicks, but haven't heard back yet. My background is C programming on Windows and Linux systems so working with mainframe software and file formats and Cobol is very new for me. Would greatly appreciate any help or pointers in the right direction. Thanks.
