COBOL to Python Live Demo: Paste Your Code, See the Result

1. Why a Live Demo?

COBOL modernization is a high-stakes decision. Organizations managing millions of lines of mission-critical code cannot afford to evaluate tools through slide decks and marketing promises. They need to see the output.

That is why we built the KIVUMIA.CODE live demo. It runs the same semantic translation engine that powers our production service — not a simplified version, not a mockup. You paste COBOL, you get Python. The same engine, the same accuracy, the same output quality.

2. How It Works

The workflow is deliberately simple. There are no forms to fill, no accounts to create, and no sales calls to schedule first.

What you see in the demo is what production delivers. The engine performs full four-stage semantic translation: parse the COBOL grammar, extract the business logic, generate idiomatic Python, and validate structural equivalence.

3. What the Engine Handles

The demo runs our full Parser v5.2 and Codegen v5.2 engine with 104 translation skills. This is not a toy parser that only handles simple programs. It handles the constructs that make real-world COBOL difficult:

4. A Concrete Example

To illustrate the quality of the output, consider a typical COBOL batch program that reads a file, computes totals, and writes a report. Here is what the translation looks like for a payroll computation:

       IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
       PROGRAM-ID. PAYROLL-CALC.
       DATA DIVISION.
       WORKING-STORAGE SECTION.
       01  WS-SALARY        PIC 9(7)V99.
       01  WS-TAX-RATE       PIC V99 VALUE 0.30.
       01  WS-NET-PAY        PIC 9(7)V99.
       01  WS-BONUS          PIC 9(5)V99.
       PROCEDURE DIVISION.
           COMPUTE WS-NET-PAY ROUNDED =
               WS-SALARY * (1 - WS-TAX-RATE) + WS-BONUS
           DISPLAY "NET PAY: " WS-NET-PAY
           STOP RUN.

from decimal import Decimal, ROUND_HALF_UP

# PAYROLL-CALC
salary = Decimal("0.00")
tax_rate = Decimal("0.30")
net_pay = Decimal("0.00")
bonus = Decimal("0.00")

net_pay = (salary * (1 - tax_rate) + bonus).quantize(
    Decimal("0.01"), rounding=ROUND_HALF_UP
)
print(f"NET PAY: {net_pay}")

Notice what happens here: PIC 9(7)V99 becomes Decimal (not float — floats cause rounding errors in financial calculations). COMPUTE ROUNDED becomes quantize() with ROUND_HALF_UP. DISPLAY becomes an f-string. The output is Python that a Python developer can read, maintain, and extend.

5. The Numbers Behind the Engine

The live demo runs the same engine that has been validated across a large-scale enterprise corpus:

These are not cherry-picked benchmarks. The corpus includes 24 distinct COBOL repositories spanning banking, insurance, payroll, reporting, and transaction processing. It includes the AWS CardDemo benchmark (39 programs, 100% converted), the NIST COBOL-85 test suite, and enterprise-grade programs with EXEC SQL, EXEC CICS, nested copybooks, and complex control flow.

The engine runs at 390,000 lines per second in production configuration. A million-line COBOL portfolio can be translated in under three seconds. This speed makes iterative validation practical: translate, review, refine, re-translate.

6. What Makes This Different

Most COBOL conversion tools on the market produce one of two things: line-by-line transliterations that read like COBOL written in Python syntax, or AI-generated approximations that look plausible but contain subtle logic errors.

KIVUMIA.CODE does neither. It performs semantic translation — understanding the business intent behind COBOL constructs and expressing that intent in idiomatic Python.

Not line-by-line

A STRING operation with three DELIMITED BY clauses does not become a ten-line pointer manipulation. It becomes an f-string or a str.join(). A PERFORM VARYING with an ADD does not become a while loop with a counter. It becomes a for range(). The output is Python that Python developers want to work with.

Not AI hallucination

The engine is deterministic. The same COBOL input always produces the same Python output. There are no probability distributions, no temperature parameters, no "it works most of the time" caveats. The 10,082 certified tests run on every build, and every single one passes.

Banking-grade precision

Financial calculations use Decimal, not float. COMPUTE ROUNDED uses quantize() with the correct rounding mode. COBOL's fixed-point arithmetic semantics are preserved exactly. We have validated output to the centime against GnuCOBOL-compiled executables on payroll, banking, and reporting programs.

7. Who Is This Demo For?

The demo is built for the people who need to make or influence a modernization decision:

• CTOs and IT Directors evaluating COBOL modernization strategies — paste a representative program and assess the output quality before engaging with any vendor
• Enterprise Architects designing migration roadmaps — understand what semantic translation produces versus what you get from line-by-line tools
• COBOL Developers who want to see how their code translates — verify that the business logic is preserved, not just the syntax
• Python Developers who will maintain the translated code — confirm that the output is idiomatic, readable, and follows Python best practices
• Consulting firms and integrators building modernization practices — evaluate KIVUMIA.CODE as a technology partner for client engagements

8. Try It Now

The demo is available at kivumia.ai/code/demo. No account required. No email capture. No trial expiration. Paste COBOL, get Python.

If you do not have COBOL code handy, the demo includes sample programs you can load with one click — from simple batch programs to complex EXEC SQL/CICS transaction processing examples.

For organizations ready to move beyond the demo, KIVUMIA.CODE provides enterprise-grade COBOL-to-Python modernization as a service. You send your COBOL. We return production-ready Python. Every engagement starts with your code, not our slides.