FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Progress^® 4GL to Java^TM Conversion Service Results in a Drop-In Replacement Application

First of its kind automated conversion process changes the economics of switching away from the Progress 4GL.

February 5, 2007 - Atlanta, Georgia, USA - Golden Code Development today announced it has begun offering a unique service to convert Progress 4GL applications into functionally identical, drop-in replacement applications written in Java. This service offering preserves large Progress application investments while delivering new technology options and capabilities that are otherwise unavailable.

Until now, organizations leaving the Progress 4GL market did so either by rewriting their applications or by purchasing a replacement software product. Both of these approaches are extremely expensive. Beyond the obvious costs of such approaches, there are typically substantial implementation costs such as user re-training and business process re-engineering. The risks associated with traditional migrations are high and many such projects have failed over the years.

To the degree that automation and analysis tools may have been used in the past to generate replacement code for a 4GL application, the resulting code has never before resulted in a working application "out of the box". Such efforts always have relied upon significant manual editing and rewrites of the generated code to create a working application. This may give a head start in a rewrite, but the majority of the work is not eliminated. Invariably, any result that is manually written cannot feasibly be made compatible with the vast amounts of complex and often hidden behavior of the original application.

Golden Code Development's Progress 4GL to Java conversion service takes a new approach. A set of unique tools are used in a "hyper-pipelined", automated process to analyze and transform every aspect of the 4GL application during thousands of sequential steps. Major improvements are made along the way, such as the separation of an application's user interface from its business logic. The process ultimately generates pure Java application code which requires no subsequent hand editing to be functional. The database schema is converted and all data in the Progress database is migrated into the relational database of the customer's choice.

A functional, post-conversion, database-enabled application would be quite an achievement in itself. However, Golden Code Development has taken the additional step of ensuring that the converted result is a drop-in replacement application which looks, behaves and processes exactly as the original. While the source code is re-factored and transformed into a completely different form, the users of the application cannot tell the difference. Accordingly, the service reduces migration risk and eliminates retraining and process re-engineering costs.

This unprecedented level of compatibility is enabled in part by the rigorous analysis and intelligent transformations during the conversion process. A comprehensive runtime library provides Progress 4GL compatible behavior, semantics and services to the converted application. The compiled result executes in a pure Java environment with no dependency upon technology from Progress Software Corporation. This is the source of major cost savings and other advantages.

"To our knowledge, this is the first time such an accomplishment has been achieved in the Progress 4GL market", stated Greg Shah, President of Golden Code Development. "Moreover, the methodology, tools and runtime were designed to be re-used repeatedly. Coupled with our focus on automation, this will allow us to deliver consistent, high quality results to diverse customers running a wide variety of applications".

The pilot project for this service is a sizable (approximately 840,000 lines of 4GL code) Symix^TM derivative application with several thousand active users. The application had been heavily customized over many years by diverse developers. It has a character-based user interface and uses a wide range of language and database features. The converted application has been proven to have 100% fidelity to the original application. This was verified by an automated test suite of over 1,000 tests, including user interface and report conformance on a byte for byte basis.

Because of its approach, Golden Code Development is able to offer this service at a reasonable fixed price and with an elapsed time to completion measured in months rather than years. There are no on-going payments to or dependence upon Golden Code Development Corporation. To ensure self-sufficiency, the customer receives a source license to the runtime environment as part of the conversion project. As a result, this unique service offering profoundly changes the economics of switching away from the Progress 4GL. It is now feasible for a very large percentage of Progress 4GL customers and ISVs to eliminate the high ongoing costs and dependence upon Progress Software Corporation.

Please visit http://www.goldencode.com for more details.

About Golden Code Development

As a technology consulting and services firm, Golden Code Development applies technical talent and engineering creativity to solve its clients' most difficult business problems. For more than a decade, we have provided service to some of the world's most respected companies, including Bank of America, IBM, Intel, SunTrust, and Scientific Atlanta. Our experience and enthusiasm, combined with a disciplined design and implementation methodology, make Golden Code Development the ideal technology partner for the enterprise customer.

Contact Information

Golden Code Development Corporation
5450 McGinnis Village Place, Suite 101
Alpharetta, GA, 30005
USA
+1 770-360-9755
http://www.goldencode.com
info@goldencode.com