Open PL/I

For Rehosting PL/I Applications on Open Systems

Open PL/I is a robust and flexible development system for PL/I applications.  Open PL/I is the only proven multi-platform Linux, UNIX and Windows PL/I solution in the marketplace today.

Managed Risk
Open-PL/I supports many mainframe PL/I language features to help minimize the number of code changes required during any re-hosting project. This dramatically reduces risk compared with re-writing PL/I applications, as the functionality and business logic of these core mission critical  applications is essentially re-used. Applications which primarily use ANSI standard PL/I features usually compile with only minor source code modification on the target platform.  A full product 30-day evaluation is provided upon request for any organization who would like to understand the extent of the changes that would be required when moving to Open PL/I.

Controlled Cost  
Transition costs are low. Future development, processing, and support budgets are less in the new client/server environment.  

Protected Investments  
Investments in mission critical applications are preserved, and existing personnel skills and experience are leveraged without the need for expensive retraining.  

Portability Across Platforms
Maximum portability means applications can run on a variety of platforms, according to end-user needs.

Open-PL/I Key Features

File Handling and Relational Data Base Support.
VSAM data is accessed using standard PL/I record I/O statements. To support the re-hosting of applications which access  VSAM files, Open PL/I includes a C-ISAM file handler so such applications can be moved with minimal changes to further mitigate risk.  

Relational data is accessed using EXEC SQL statements. To support the re-hosting of applications which access such databases ,  an optional EXEC SQL pre-processor is available for use with either DB2 or Oracle on popular UNIX platforms.

Macro Preprocessor
Open-PL/I provides a powerful macro preprocessor as an addition to ease the conversion of mainframe PL/I to open systems. 

Command-Line Driver 
Open-PL/I includes a command-line driver which invokes the compiler, macro preprocessor, SQL and CICS pre-compilers, and the linker, reducing the commands needed to generate executable files, and easing the use of makefiles. 

Performance and Libraries
Open-PL/I provides outstanding runtime performance through various compiler optimizations levels, and reduces code size and improves system performance through the use of shared libraries on Unix systems.

CodeWatch Debugger Support

Open-PL/I includes CodeWatch, a powerful GUI source code debugger. CodeWatch allows testing and debugging of programs using the conventions, syntax, and symbols of the PL/I language. Standard PL/I expression evaluation is fully supported, including builtins, arrays and array slices, and PL/I data types.