Databorough Helps System i Shops Maximize Legacy Investments

For more than 20 years, Databorough has provided documentation tools for the System i. When the company first entered the midrange market, the AS/400 had just come out, and developers were still adjusting to the powerful new box. Fourth generation programming language (4GL) tools, such as those offered by Synon, promised to reduce programming effort, development time, and costs, but there were no tools to help companies maintain legacy software at the same productivity levels. Databorough recognized this need and worked to provide a tool that could match the development productivity on legacy code that was enjoyed by 4GL developers, says Mark Tregear, Databorough’s founder and chairman.

Databorough has worked tirelessly to satisfy new needs as they have arisen in the System i community. There have been many changes over the years, the most striking one being the final acceptance and demand for Web browsers as a standard user interface on legacy applications, Tregear says. But despite these changes, some needs have stayed the same: As technology has advanced, application documentation, whether it be for normal System i development, e-business, re engineering, or support purposes, has become an even more important issue for System i shops.

The primary objective of documentation is to help those involved in System i development who are not currently familiar with an application to understand its design and logic so that when problems arise or enhancements need to be made, the sections of code that require modification can be located and understood quickly. Up-to-date documentation is critical if a company