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<p>It's a lot easier to test a conversion than something totally new. You can run the same reports on both and confirm you get the same answers. This likely means that the testing can be automated.<br /><br />Automating the coding part of the conversion will be a disaster. For one thing, it will not really be Java. It will be COBOL with a mask. Ever read something translated by someone who wasn't fluent in both languages (a menu, for example)? It will probably end up being less maintainable than what you started with.<br /><br />--Alan</p>
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<th align="right" valign="baseline" nowrap="nowrap">Subject:</th>
<td>Re: [Hidden-tech] Rewriting SSA code in months - possible?</td>
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<th align="right" valign="baseline" nowrap="nowrap">Date:</th>
<td>2025-03-29 17:43</td>
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<th align="right" valign="baseline" nowrap="nowrap">From:</th>
<td>Tom Kopec via Hidden-discuss <hidden-discuss@lists.hidden-tech.net></td>
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<td>hidden-discuss@lists.hidden-tech.net</td>
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<div class="v1moz-cite-prefix">On 3/29/2025 1:12 AM, AI Zuckerman via Hidden-discuss wrote:</div>
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<div dir="ltr"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border-left: 3px solid #dddddd; display: block; color: #363636; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Is it possible to handle this mammoth job in a month?</span></div>
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<p>In a word, no.</p>
<p>both my wife AND my daughter have deep experience in implementing and converting large systems like this.</p>
<p>Their first question: "Where's the test plan?"</p>
<p>I get the feeling their plan is to crock up some AI to convert everything.</p>
<p>That's going to result in impossible-to-debug bugs.</p>
<p>go-live will be a total cluster.</p>
<p>Just MHO.</p>
<p>...tom</p>
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