The advice I gave to anyone who would listen INSIDE IBM was: Publish information on the kinds of transformations ABO does. That would help build CONFIDENCE.
My advice to anyone using it, which echoes what's been said here is: Test the ABO output to the extent you can. Of course ABO might get a reputation for reliability or otherwise; Time will tell. Cheers, Martin Sent from my iPad > On 17 Oct 2016, at 00:25, Peter Relson <[email protected]> wrote: > > <snip> > No, that is not what I meant. > > It goes back to this: "[ABO] ... produces a functionally equivalent > executable program", which is a claim somewhere within the ABO site. OK, I > can see a search-box at the top of my screen (sorry, "page"). It is in the > User's Guide for ABO. > > That is either some snake-oil marketing-speak, or something underlies it. > I assumed the latter, and that now seems to be borne out by further > research. > > To me it amounts to "we can show that the program we produce, works in the > same way as the program we started with, it just does it differently". > This is a very different thing from the mythical program which can test > any given program. > </snip> > > I cannot agree. That sort of statement in marketing material that I know > of (my knowledge of such material is admittedly very limited) amounts to > "that is our intent; if that is not the case then we will consider that a > bug that we may fix". > > <snip> > My interpretation is this: "If the program is written in such a way that > it complies with what is explicitly documented for the version of > Enterprise COBOL that the program was last compiled with, that > documentation being the appropriate Language Reference, Programming Guide > and Migration Guide, and that all the data referenced by the given program > "complies with its PICture", then that will work in an identical manner > with Enterprise COBOL V5+." > </snip> > > And that sounds to me like the intent of the product. And when the intent > is not met, it is a bug that we may fix. > > You seem to be looking for a guarantee of program correctness. If I am > correct, a vendor (including IBM) cannot in ordinary circumstances offer > that; they/we can offer only a warranty that defects will be dealt with. > > Peter Relson > z/OS Core Technology Design > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN >Unless stated otherwise above: IBM United Kingdom Limited - Registered in England and Wales with number 741598. Registered office: PO Box 41, North Harbour, Portsmouth, Hampshire PO6 3AU ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
