One of the biggest challenges with legacy code is helping developers understand it who aren't familiar with the languages or frameworks. With Copilot Chat, you can explain the background you have and ask for an explanation.
Example scenario
Consider the following COBOL code. If you're a Python developer (as an example), you might not be familiar with COBOL, so you could ask Copilot Chat to explain the code to you.
IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
PROGRAM-ID. INSERT-RECORD.
ENVIRONMENT DIVISION.
DATA DIVISION.
WORKING-STORAGE SECTION.
01 WS-STATUS-FLAGS.
05 WS-DB-STATUS PIC X(2).
88 WS-SUCCESS VALUE "00".
05 WS-SQLCODE PIC S9(9) COMP.
05 WS-ERROR-MSG PIC X(50).
LINKAGE SECTION.
01 LS-PARAMETERS.
05 LS-PERSON-RECORD.
10 PERSON-ID PIC 9(6).
10 PERSON-NAME PIC X(50).
10 PERSON-AGE PIC 9(3).
05 LS-RESULT PIC X.
88 SUCCESS VALUE 'T'.
88 FAILED VALUE 'F'.
PROCEDURE DIVISION USING LS-PARAMETERS.
PERFORM INSERT-AND-VALIDATE
GOBACK
.
INSERT-AND-VALIDATE.
EXEC SQL
INSERT INTO persons (id, name, age)
VALUES (:PERSON-ID, :PERSON-NAME, :PERSON-AGE)
END-EXEC
IF SQLCODE = 0
EXEC SQL COMMIT END-EXEC
SET SUCCESS TO TRUE
ELSE
EXEC SQL ROLLBACK END-EXEC
SET FAILED TO TRUE
STRING "DB Error: " SQLCODE
DELIMITED BY SIZE
INTO WS-ERROR-MSG
DISPLAY WS-ERROR-MSG
END-IF
.
Example prompt
You can ask for an explanation of the COBOL code from the point of view of a Python developer.
I'm a Python developer. Help me better understand this code. Please provide analogies.
Example response
Note
다음 응답이 예제입니다. Copilot Chat 응답은 비결정적이므로 여기에 표시된 응답과 다른 응답을 얻을 수 있습니다.
Copilot provides a high-level overview of the code, before walking through the various operations and explaining them in a way that Python developers can understand. It uses analogies to make the explanation more accessible. The response might start with the following:
Let me explain this COBOL code using Python analogies:
High-Level Overview
This is similar to a Python function that inserts a person's record into a database with error handling.
# In Python, the COBOL divisions would be like:
# IDENTIFICATION DIVISION = module/file name
# PROGRAM-ID = function name
def insert_record():
pass
# DATA DIVISION would be like declaring these variables:
class WorkingStorage:
db_status = "" # WS-DB-STATUS
sqlcode = 0 # WS-SQLCODE
error_msg = "" # WS-ERROR-MSG
# LINKAGE SECTION is like function parameters
class PersonRecord:
def __init__(self, person_id: int, person_name: str, person_age: int):
self.person_id = person_id # PERSON-ID
self.person_name = person_name # PERSON-NAME
self.person_age = person_age # PERSON-AGE
self.success = False # LS-RESULT