PRIMA Computing - what we stand for and our primary areas of business

PRIMA provides software products, consultancy, and general support and advice on IT management and software development.

The company was first registered in Europe in 1983 but has moved to be NZ based and registered. PRIMA is a "virtual software house". We have connections to many subject matter experts around the world and there is a frequent flow of information in and out of the Company.

Our primary interests are as follows:

Modernizing COBOL legacy code (Migration Toolset)
Modernizing the data resources (Flat files to RDB)
Bespoke software components and systems
Bringing your applications to the Internet/Intranet
Business relationships with small/medium companies, looking for maximum value

... of course, we are happy to talk to you about any IT support you may require.

July, 2012 - now you can SEE the PRIMA Toolset in action! Watch as legacy data is used to create a new optimized Relational Database in 3rd Normal form, and the new database is then loaded with legacy data. Real data, to a real database, in real time! In under 10 minutes the Toolset creates an optimized RDB, loaded with current legacy data. Take the 5 cent DATA Conversion Tour and see this process end-to-end! Click here!

But that's not all! It also creates a series of Data Access Layer objects which can be used by both Legacy and New Technology so there can be a common data resource between the old and the new, and then it transforms the entire Legacy codebase to utilise this DAL layer, so that legacy processing continues against the new RDB, EXACTLY as it did against the old flat files! Take the 5 cent CODE Conversion Tour and see this process end-to-end! Click here!

PRIMA has a long association with COBOL, which was the primary development language for the company since its inception in Europe in 1983, but, with the advent of network based systems and the emergence of the Object Oriented paradigm as the dominating IT development model, the decision was taken to convert the company's systems to C# and .NET.

During the course of this Migration, a great deal of experience was gained and this, along with feedback from clients, has been incorporated into the unique PRIMA Migration Toolset.

Pete Dashwood, our CEO, is on record in a statement outlining PRIMA's approach to modernizing COBOL, posted in the Usenet COBOL group (comp.lang.cobol),on 24th October, 2009 (there are some new links added to this, 2012):

See what he said...

What you will find on this site, and other PRIMA connected sites...

The free COBDATA COBOL structure analyser Tool	This is an example of standard COBOL running on .NET. The underlying engine was written by Robert Wagner as standard procedural COBOL. See how it is easily converted to OO COBOL and wrapped as a COM component. Finally, a presentation layer is added in C# and the whole application becomes a .NET assembly. Follow the link for full details and download of the tool itself, the COBOL sources (both standard and OO), and the C# source. You MUST view the Freeware Licence for this tool before you can download it.
The Fujitsu COBOL Projects Manager Tool	Tired of waiting on archaic DOS batch to build your application executables? If you are using Fujitsu COBOL (NetCOBOL and/or PowerCOBOL) to create application packages, this tool can save you huge amounts of time and money. Typically, an application package may be comprised of more than 50 Fujitsu Projects, each project producing multiple .DLLs or .EXEs. Building a Release is a painstaking process. This tool uses multithreaded compilation of Fujitsu Projects, running in a full .NET GUI, so you can see what is happening, what succeeded, what failed, and what is being currently processed, all in real time. This is a single Management Console that not only integrates your Fujitsu Projects but also allows each individual project to be managed with one or two mouse clicks. Reports are comprehensive and show exactly what happened, including COBOL diagnostics for projects that fail. Take a look and find out more by clicking the link to the left.
The free "String2Num" component	This is a function originally written for an IBM System 360-40 in 1974. If you are an old-time mainframe programmer, this page will bring back some memories. If you are not, it will give you insight into how COBOL sites looked 35 years ago. The component was moved to PCs soon after they were invented, and has seen life on a number of different platforms. There is an interactive demo where you can test the component yourself. You can download and embed this function into your own applications. It will tell instantly if a string presented to it represents a valid number, floating point, or currency, and provides a number of alternate formats for the number, if it is a number...
Information on migrating standard COBOL to .NET	This is a link into the PRIMA sponsored "COBOL21" web site Migration page. The COBOL21 site is dedicated to helping COBOL people update their skills and find out more about COBOL in the 21st century. This page gives a description of the things likely to be encountered when migrating COBOL to .NET. There are free downloads of documents and background information, based on our experience in this area. The page also links to the PRIMA Migration Toolset page for more details on what the Toolset is and what it does.
NZ postal address validation	Try our Address Validation Software (AVS) for New Zealand postal addresses. Type (or paste)a NZ postal address into the left pane and see our AVS engine (running as a Web Service) validate it, format it and assign a correct postal code to it. You can buy the engine and attached DB for inclusion in your own software, or you can use the Web Service, from your own software, for a small monthly rental. (This will include updates to the DB) This is NOT the NZ PAF database, but it is derived from the same sources. The PAF costs over $3000 annually; AVS costs $100 once...) The AVS engine is written in OO COBOL as a COM component. It uses a C# wrapper to run as an ASP.NET Web Service.
Link to COBOL21 site	COBOL 21 is a site with free components, downloads, documents, tools, source code and information on COBOL for the 21st century. Although we don't advocate continued development in procedural COBOL, we don't advocate throwing the baby out with the bath water, either. Wherever it makes sense to salvage working code (in COBOL or any other language), we would support doing that. Converting existing functionality to OO COBOL and wrapping it as COM components can extend the useful life of existing code by a number of years.

Thank you for visiting our site. Please contact us (remove the "removethis" from the mail address before posting) if you have any questions, comments, or would like more information about any aspect of our Company or products.

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Quick points:

This Web site was created to raise the profile of PRIMA Computing, (NZ) Ltd. The company has high levels of expertise in software development and some new and innovative approaches to the problem of leveraging legacy code into modern technical environments.

Our "flagship product" is the PRIMA Migration Toolset which is quite unique in what it does. Developed over years to meet our own needs and the needs of other people wishing to remove dependency on COBOL, the Toolset has received glowing approbation from clients. It is being continually extended and enhanced.

PRIMA is a small busines with a keen understanding of the problems of small business. Our clients do not have large IT budgets and our products are priced to reflect this fact. We provide high levels of consultancy and support, for a fraction of what it would cost to buy the same from household name IT companies. If you buy our products, we are committed to helping you succeed and we are interested in your experience so we can reflect it in our products for others. We treat every site as a referral site.