Slashdot Mirror
IBM Takes System/z To the Cloud With COBOL Update
hypnosec writes "IBM is taking its COBOL server platform to the next level by updating the mainframe platform in a bid to extend and enable its mainframes to host cloud based applications and services. The latest update is looking to add XMLS Server as well as Java 7 capabilities to the System/z COBOL platform and this update would extend the overall lifespan of COBOL by taking it up a notch and gearing it towards the cloud computing arena."
The damned thing's immortal.
And C is so much different? COBOL may be 54 years old, but C is not exactly a kid at 44. Sure we've had updated versions and C++, but so has COBOL (COBOL 2002 is OO). BTW, I've loved C since I first started using it, and I'm not sure I'd even recognize COBOL if it fell on me (not just a figure of speech if you're using big card decks), but just saying.
Old programming languages never die (at least once entrenched), but this zombie effect wasn't appreciated when COBOL was first spec'd, because HLL's hadn't been around long enough. The fact that in 1959 COBOL was supposed to be just the first of three successive language definitions is instructive. From Wikipedia:
it was decided to set up three committees: short, intermediate and long range (the last one was never actually formed). It was the Short Range Committee, chaired by Joseph Wegstein of the US National Bureau of Standards, that during the following months created a description of the first version of COBOL. The committee was formed to recommend a short range approach to a common business language. The committee was made up of members representing six computer manufacturers and three government agencies. ... The intermediate-range committee was formed but never became operational. In the end a sub-committee of the Short Range Committee developed the specifications of the COBOL language.