| ### Use remote edit/compile/debug

Even if you do not have your source on the workstation, you can make your year 2000 changes on the workstation by using the VisualAge COBOL remote edit/compile/debug facility, which allows you to work with your host applications on your workstation and save critical time. You can leverage the workstation's responsiveness and graphics capabilities, in this case the language-sensitive COBOL editor, which presents your COBOL source as highlighted, colored text that is easy to read and modify.

If it wasn't done for analysis, define a COBOL project to include the files you want to work with, probably all those in a partition. These can be on the host, on the LAN, on the workstation, or some combination. You can view these files with different views:

- details (default)
- tree
- icon ( to see a screen image)

#### Modify source code

All files are viewed as objects, whose types have inherent actions to perform on them. For a COBOL file, one such action is editing with the COBOL editor. Another is compiling.

As a syntax-driven intelligent editor, the COBOL editor greatly assists in understanding the displayed information by formatting it according to its syntax and by assisting with syntax information when modifications are made. You may know immediately when you enter erroneous information and not have to wait for a compile to discover syntax errors. to see a sample.

Work through your partition source making the changes that were specified during your analysis work. Use the Year 2000 Analysis report to get the locations of data definitions, then bring up the source in the editor, where you can position it to the definition. to see these views side-by-side. If these specifications were encapsulated into editor macros, the changes may be as simple as running the macros from the editor and ensuring that the programs compile cleanly.

From this same project view, you can do a local "checkout" compile to quickly get the initial set of "finger checks" out of the way. Next use the project view to select and submit the jobs needed to build the application on the host. Plus you can get context sensitive editing of your JCL and submit it from the editor with or without saving it. Use the job status monitor to check on your jobs and look at the output while you continue.

#### Modify source to call bridges

You will have to modify source to call your bridge programs, by coding calls to the programs from the associated application programs in lieu of direct I/O statements on the file or database being bridged to or from.

These are the wrapper style bridges and interface programs, where one program calls another and sends/receives data through memory, in either a batch or an on-line environment.

You may have to modify many application programs for invocation of a simple bridge program. When you burn the bridge (after all involved partitions are modified), you will have to decide whether to replace it with a common I/O module or re-modify the calling programs to revert to direct I/O. This involves a trade-off between application performance and additional development time, and your decision may vary from application to application.

Since bridges may perform extensive processing (file conversion, scrubbing, . . .) in addition to date translation, you may have to add more error handling than before (due to additional conditions).

Tip: Copybooks for data declarations and standard error-handling routines can significantly reduce work effort and defects.

#### Compile modified source code

Compile all modified source code and all code that uses modified copybooks. You can even submit MVS batch jobs from your COBOL project, so the compiles can be done on MVS. Fix all syntax errors and find any components that are still missing.

Link the cleanly compiled results and populate the build libraries. You might decide that you need not unit test these programs:

- Little, if any, new function has been introduced
- It requires considerable time, time better spent on the testing yet to come (see How to Test Year 2000 Fixes).

However, if you have not been able to resist the temptation to tweak and polish while making your year 2000 modifications, definitely test those changes as if they were done during regular maintenance.

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