Migração de Aplicações de um ambiente Informix 4GL baseado em caracteres para um ambiente gráfico, utilizando a Four J’s Business Development Language (BDL)

Abstract

The evolution of computing, in recent decades, revolutionized the way the user interacts with the computer (user interface) in order to take advantage of the greater processing capabilities of computers and integrate more human capabilities. The adoption of the Graphics User Interface (GUI) technology allowed finding a solution for the character-based interfaces of the Informix 4GL (I4GL) applications, as is the case of the interfaces in the Information System for Public Finance Management (Sis- Public) of the company EXI (Engineering and Marketing of Computer Systems) and other systems of companies in the national or international market. This study proposes to provide the necessary information to provide a solution that meets the need for application interface migration, from an I4GL environment based on characters to a graphical ("nice") environment, using the Four J's Business Development Language ( BDL) acquired for this purpose. In view of the above, technologies were applied that transform the character-based interfaces of I4GL applications to graphical or Web interfaces, keeping the original applications unchanged and existing functionality, thus preserving investments and legacy applications. The theoretical approach was based on the study of concepts on Systems Evolution, Information Systems Reengineering, Systems Modeling, Systems in a Unix environment, Client/Server Architecture and Migration Tools (Freedom, Informix Dynamic 4gl and Four J's Business Development Language (BDL)). When using the Evolution of Systems, Interface Migration was applied, which is a result of Software Reengineering, since the costs and risks of replacing the system are high, and continuous maintenance does not convert the system interfaces. The implementation of the obtained model increased the system's life cycle, ensured the "niceness" of the interface and the best cost-benefit ratio of the investments made, as well as bringing benefits to EXI and its customers by incorporating a quality item (graphical interface ) to applications in Sis-Pública. And the evaluation of this implementation made it possible to confirm the applicability of the migration tool (Four J's BDL) that was chosen among the three mentioned.