Path: utzoo!mnetor!ghp!tom
From: tom@ghp.UUCP (Tom Huras)
Newsgroups: comp.object
Subject: Object-Oriented COBOL?
Keywords: OOA OOD OOP financial systems
Message-ID: <694@ghp.UUCP>
Date: 6 Nov 90 02:40:13 GMT
Organization: Gellman Hayward & Partners Ltd.
Lines: 34

Has anyone managed to work object-orientation into a traditional data
processing environment?

Our client is developing a software product.  The domain
will be a financial system.  The language of choice is COBOL.  The
analysis of the system is currently expressed in entity-relationship
diagrams and structured processes.  The target platform is initially
a combination of PCs and IBM mainframes.  A relational database will be
used.

Our client recognizes the benefits of OO for lower long-term
maintenance costs and wants to be ready to take full advantage of OO
when the technology (ie. object-oriented COBOL) arrives.

The most pragmatic approach to meet these requirements seems to be:
-  Express the conceptual design in OO terms.
-  Use some COBOL language tricks to simulate messaging.

I don't know if anyone has done this before.  If no one has, is it
because the problem domain is not suitable to OO treatment?  Or is it
that no one has been gutsy enough to try it?  Or is it just because the
technology is not yet there?

I'm typically enthusiastic about the OO approach (because it works well) but
I'm not too sure in this case.

Any comments or encouragement will be appreciated.  In the rare event
that there is a body of experience out there, I'll summarize...
-- 
"Wisdom is supreme;          | Tom Huras, Gellman.Hayward & Partners Ltd.
  therefore get wisdom.      | 33 Yonge St., Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5E 1G4
Though it costs all you have,| (416) 862-0430
  get understanding."        | UUCP:tom%ghp@mnetor.uucp
               Proverbs 4:7  | Disclaimer: These are only my opinions...