Profound Touts Native Modernization Chops in Code Shoot Out

Published: December 13, 2011

by Alex Woodie

Profound Logic was one of six vendors of IBM i application modernization tools that participated in the recent Application Modernisation Code Shoot-Out, which took place at a user group conference in the U.K. What made Profound's solution stand out was the capability to completely modernize the UI screens in HTML, and to do so using "native" IBM i technologies, the company says.

The Shoot Out, which was hosted last month at the COMMON GB event put on by National iSystems User Group (NiSUG), pitted six vendors and their application modernization tools against one very tired 5250 application that was in dire need of a UI overhaul. In addition to Profound Logic (which was represented by the U.K. company Logicmate), the lineup consisted of Attachmate, CoralTree, mrc, SpaceTec , and Utilties400.

Each vendor was given 30 hours to complete the task of converting as many of the green screens to a GUI as possible, and adding as much new functionality as possible. There were no official winners or losers, but that didn't stopped the participants from debating the merits of the different approaches they employed. For example, Chicago-based mrc insists that entirely re-architecting the system with its Java-based power tool was the best way to go.

Profound Logic respectfully disagrees with mrc's approach. "Some vendors at the event chose to 'screen-scrape' the legacy application. Others opted to re-engineer the application from scratch with all the potential inherent problems such an approach entails," stated Logicmate director Nigel Lothian in a press release. "Profound UI takes a different approach. We make it possible to reproduce the sample application as a modern Web application in seconds, thus providing customers with a fast, native solution that is complementary to their skill set and comfort zone."

Shoot-Out moderator Steve Bradshaw had this to say about Profound Logic's approach. "Profound Logic goes beyond simple screen-scraping to provide a solution for true 5250 modernisation. Logicmate's modernisation of the sample application using Profound UI was excellent and presented an approach with which RPG developers will be comfortable."

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