Current Events > So, today i learned the backend of my primary work program is written in COBOL.

(+) Yeah! (+)

I only know this because my coworker encountered an obscure error message that explicitly mentioned a COBOL exception.

Suddenly everything quirky and obsolete about the software makes sense now.

kill me

RIP

Not a programmer myself, but I have lots of friends who are. COBOL seems like some arcane shit from the way they've described it.

all past cobol devs i've known have been very defensive of the language, like some sort of developer stockholm syndrome

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TheMikh posted...

all past cobol devs i've known have been very defensive of the language, like some sort of developer stockholm syndrome

Sounds like Lisp programmers

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COBOL is why the unemployment system is fucked

COBOL isn't terrible, but it's as if it was designed by an overly-strict professor.

IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
PROGRAM-ID. HELLO.

PROCEDURE DIVISION.
DISPLAY 'Hello World'.
STOP RUN.

Any other language (except maybe C++ or Java, which need a bunch of includes first, and a thin wrapper function) would just be the DISPLAY 'Hello World'. line

The problem with COBOL is more that it's been superseded by Java and now other language stacks as the primary business solution. Nobody goes to school to learn COBOL, so the pool of developers is primarily composed of old heads and the occasial upstart that was pushed into learning it to help maintain the system despite having no experience.

I guarantee that any COBOL code you run into is ancient and kept on life support for as long as possible to avoid switching to a new platform. Makes sense from a business perspective, but absolutely zero from a development one since it hinders new features and adaptation to new unexpected technologies like cloud computing.

treewojima posted...

The problem with COBOL is more that it's been superseded by Java and now other language stacks as the primary business solution. Nobody goes to school to learn COBOL, so the pool of developers is primarily composed of old heads and the occasial upstart that was pushed into learning it to help maintain the system despite having no experience.

I guarantee that any COBOL code you run into is ancient and kept on life support for as long as possible to avoid switching to a new platform. Makes sense from a business perspective, but absolutely zero from a development one since it hinders new features and adaptation to new unexpected technologies like cloud computing.

That's the impression I've gotten. Most of the programmers that know COBOL are super old/retiring and hardly anyone new wants to learn it (for obvious reasons). Seems like a disaster waiting to happen.

There's money in it if you do learn it, but I can't blame someone not wanting to learn an obsolete language that's all but dead.

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Master_Bass posted...

There's money in it if you do learn it, but I can't blame someone not wanting to learn an obsolete language that's all but dead.

(Again, gleaned entirely from talking to my friends) Working on legacy code that's older than you is absolutely miserable. You get pigeonholed into being the [insert crappy ancient language of choice] guy too lol

wasnt that one of the planets in BSG?

Poop2 posted...

wasnt that one of the planets in BSG?

Kobol, but yeah. Close enough

Master_Bass posted...

There's money in it if you do learn it, but I can't blame someone not wanting to learn an obsolete language that's all but dead.

Apparently most of the COBOL programmers are all very old or retired at this point, and there's not enough money in it to bring fresh blood in

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