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Microsoft Makes Push for COBOL Migration
geoff313 writes: "It would appear that Microsoft
is making a real push for the migration of existing COBOL applications to Windows and their .Net platform. Micro Focus, a company who makes
COBOL migration products and last year became a member of Microsoft's Visual
Studio Industry Partner (VSIP) program, announced their Net
Express with .Net product, a plug-in to Microsoft Visual Studio .Net
2003. It allows for COBOL code to be integrated and manged with other code in Visual Studio. In an interview with eWeek he declares that 'Micro Focus and Microsoft are bringing the mainframe to Windows and .Net'. This makes me wonder, are there any Open Source projects working to provide for this eventual migration? Gartner estimates that over 75% of business data is processed by an approximately 200 billions lines of COBOL, so
this seems like a huge potential market to lose to Microsoft."
Requesting more links in the story; Not enough blue clicky things.
Microsoft Visual COBOL++.NET 2003
Available 3rd quarter 2005. Look for Visual COBOL# in 2007.
His name was Robert Paulsen.
It allows for COBOL code to be integrated and manged with other code in Visual Studio.
I think the correct spelling is mangled.
Isn't that about 20 lines of C++?
There is no reasonable defense against an idiot with an agenda
:wq
This is just going to result in the resurgance of COBOL! Not the migration away from it! BASIC was literally almost DEAD until microsoft came out with Visual Basic. What do you think this will do for COBOL!
I DO NOT want to have to debug visual COBOL!
I don't know, that paper clip was pretty damn innovative. I mean, who else would think to make something like that?
...allows for COBOL code to be integrated and manged...
.NET for ALL your COBOL needs! Want your COBOL code to be hairless, oozy, and irritated? Then .NET is for YOU!
That's right, folks!
COBOLScript in the next version of IE?
Maybe they are rewriting Virtual PC to run on the IBM 360.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
From dictionary.reference.com:
Manged:
adj. Refers to anything that is mangled or damaged, usually beyond repair.
Gotta love a binary shreader...
I don't know, but something about all of Microsoft's recent announcements make me wonder if I am not having one great big lucid dream experiences.
I guess it started with the active directory thing that starts to move everything about an individual user back to a central server. Then grabbing the Citrix technology to essentially turn a PC into a dumb terminal. Now all of a sudden they no longer want to hide the Command Line Interface and are coming out with a new one with supposedly decent scripting capabilities. Now this!
Well, you know you can sort of steer a lucid dream anywhere you want to go, so here is what's coming out soon from Redmond:
Punch Cards: No more worrying if that last CD backup you did of your system is really readable. Now anything on your system can be easily converted to 80 column Hollerith format. The new WinPunch will attach to a standard USB port and allow for both punching and reading of standard IBM punch cards. Special programs will allow your keyboard to be used to directly punch these cards, or you can program your own virtual IBM 029 drum card to speed up repetitive tasks.
Paper Tape: For you PDP and other non-IBM users there is WinPT which will have similar I/O capabilities but use either roll based paper tapes or the much preferred fold style. Thanks to new fabrication techniques and years of work by the Microsoft R& D lab much higher densities will be available than those you remember.
WinHenge: Tired of using those old techniques to figure out when the summer solstice will begin?.....
It allows for COBOL code to be integrated and manged with other code in Visual Studio.
Did the author intend to say managed or mangled ?
The difference between Canada and the USA is that in Canada healthcare is a right and gun ownership is a privilege.
If it keeps you in a job, don't fix it completely.
Windows, .NET *and* COBOL? Looks like Dante missed a circle.
www.sjbaker.org
On the eve of the New Year 2000, an old programmer went out of his house to go to a party, but was run over by a bus before he could get there. His vision went dark, but then he saw wonderful white light and people in white clothes leaning over him.
"Where am I?" he said.
As soon as he spoke, everyone started cheering and congratulating each-other.
"What is going on?" he said, amidst the brouhaha.
"You see, this is many thousands of years after your time," told him one man in a white labcoat. "The medicine has made huge advancements, and now we are able to revive people who have died millenia ago."
"Wow," said the old programmer, "this is really great. But why me?"
"Well, you see, this is the year 9999 -- we are facing the Y10K problem, and your resume said that you know COBOL..."
If you open yourself to the foo, You and foo become one.
> Aren't most COBOL applications deployed on big iron?
They're anticipating that you'll have to have a mainframe on your desktop to run the next release of Windows...
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
000100 IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
000200 PROGRAM-ID. COBALISTEHL33T.
000300
000400*
000500 ENVIRONMENT DIVISION.
000600 CONFIGURATION SECTION.
000700 SOURCE-COMPUTER. RM-COBOL.
000800 OBJECT-COMPUTER. RM-COBOL.
000900
001000 DATA DIVISION.
001100 FILE SECTION.
001200
100000 PROCEDURE DIVISION.
100100
100200 MAIN-LOGIC SECTION.
100300 BEGIN.
100400 DISPLAY " " LINE 1 POSITION 1 ERASE EOS.
100500 DISPLAY "What they think they d0ing?! C0b0l is teh l33t! Someone tell microsoft to go back to the crap 86, we don't need him with our cool VT100 world!"
LINE 15 POSITION 10.
100600 STOP RUN.
100700 MAIN-LOGIC-EXIT.
100800 EXIT.
~UltraSkuzzi
This comment is liscensed by SCO.
Yes, both of us for whom this is relevant have tried these programs.
It's called "ADD ONE TO COBOL GIVING COBOL."
(Yes, this joke is at least 15 years old...)
The stability of Microsoft combined with the elegance of COBOL.
Yet Another Web Site
That reminded me of a web page I saw once, which took a lot of Googling to find.
In some perverse sort of way, this .NET web page using x86 assembler is beautiful :)
It all goes downhill from first post