applications can be converted  automatically and readily to sound native mode AS/400 applications.
  If you've spent a lot of time and effort (not to mention money) developing and perfecting your computer applications to meet your specific business requirements. you're probably glad to hear that you don't have to throw away your existing S/36 business software and start from scratch when you decide to make the transition to native mode.

Why Convert?
The main difference between RPG applications on the S/36 and native mode RPG/400 applications on the AS/400 is that native mode gives you the advantage of maintaining your programs in a relational database setting.  In the relational database environment, record descriptions are held as external definitions and need not be coded into the RPG programs that use them.  This cuts down on the coding requirement during new program development, and it ensures record-format integrity (all programs use common record definitions, much like when you use copy members for S/36 file descriptions).
  Upgrading your applications to use a relational database does not, however, require a major code rewrite. You can automatically extract the model for the relational database directly from the existing RPG II internal record descriptions and use this model to generate the DDS for  the converted database files: no record format remapping is required.

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