This function is useful when you migrate the code of a Program generated in VA Pac to RDz. It positions warnings on the lines which correspond to the Program's design wherever it detects discrepancies between the code generated in VA Pac and the locally-generated code.
The PDP LPEX editor, in which you open the Program .cbl file, differentiates the generated code (which comes from the Program's design) from the specific code.
Moreover, it also detects discrepancies on the code lines which are generated from the Program's design, when they have been generated both from VA Pac and from the local generator. It marks the corresponding lines as specific code lines (i.e. modified by the user).
The migration help function sets warnings on the lines where such discrepancies have been found. It enables you to ensure that both generations (in VA Pac and RDz) were identically performed (from the same library/package, the same instance, with all the required Macros...) and draws your attention to discrepancies which might be caused by the change of generator.
Other discrepancies, due to the change of generator, may be also detected by the PDP editor (for example because the Macro dispatching is not identically managed in the VA Pac generator and in the local generator). The migration help then puts warnings on the specific lines which are maked as such because the COBOL output by the RDz local generation is not strictly identical to that output by the VA Pac generation.
In VA Pac, you must generate, besides the usual .cbl file (which contains both the code generated from the design and the specific code), another .cbl file which only contains the code generated from the design. This file, named the control file, is generated via the MIA1 VA Pac batch migration procedure.
If the Program calls Macros, you must generate them in VA Pac and import the corresponding .cblgen files into your local workspace.
You must then fill in the migration help wizard which you open by right-clicking on a Program in the Design Explorer view and by selecting the Migration help choice in the contextual menu.
The migration help function copies both the VA Pac generated .cbl files into your local workspace, launches the RDz local generation (which outputs the code corresponding to the Program's design) and compares the VA Pac control file with the locally-generated file. It puts warnings wherever it detects discrepancies.
The warnings are displayed until do you fix them or generate a new code.