Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Join COBOL's Next Generation

Posted by timothy on from the enjoy-your-tab-diet-beverage-too dept.

jfruh writes "COBOL, it's finally becoming clear, isn't going away any time soon; there are far too many business-criticial applications written in it that work perfectly well for that to happen. This reality could be a career boon for IT staff. Need to learn the ins and outs of COBOL? Your employer may well pay for your training. Just getting started in IT? COBOL can provide a niche that gets you a first job."

6 of 276 comments (clear)

  1. Nothing does by geekoid · · Score: 4, Interesting

    what COBOL does as well as COBOL does it.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    1. Re:Nothing does by Nerdfest · · Score: 3, Interesting

      If you mean solving business-related information technology problems in a concise and maintainable way, I think you're very, very wrong. COBOL is a horrible, wordy language. If you mean wearing out developer's keyboards, you are more correct. COBOL is too verbose to be easily legible. I'm of the opinion that there is an ideal level of information density when it comes to conveying the intent of a piece of software. At one end is assembly, and at the other is COBOL. neither are good. C approaches it from one end and probably something like Python from the other. Both are for more usable, maintable, and flexible languages.

      I'm of the opinion that if you enjoy writing code in COBOL you either haven't used anything else or you're a masochist.

    2. Re:Nothing does by macraig · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It didn't have to be that way. When I was still in school a millennium ago and took my one and only COBOL course, I recall devising a pseudo-structured way of using the language that the instructor had never seen before, yet my code was no less capable than the more typical approach(es). It obviously caught him quite by surprise by his reaction, which I've never forgotten (I've forgotten every detail about my technique). Perhaps it made my code more modular and maintainable.

    3. Re:Nothing does by mwvdlee · · Score: 4, Interesting

      It sure does!

      On the other hand, I got out of COBOL programming after some ~12 years because the only thing COBOL does well is what COBOL has done thousands of times before.

      It's a boring platform to develop for; very few interresting (from a technical perspective) projects ever come along.
      Safe and secure life as a developer; yes. Actually enjoying your safety and security; no.

      --
      Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
  2. The reason it is still used is simple. by mindmaster064 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    COBOL is one of the few languages that is completely standardized. IO, formatting, everything works the same EVERYWHERE. Certainly, the column nature of coding in the language is annoying, but not much more than BASIC was with it's numbering scheme. As far as the programs that chug through industrial-sized databases go few touch as many records as COBOL does.

  3. we need more by Toshito · · Score: 3, Interesting

    At my work we're just starting a multimillion dollar project, mostly in COBOL, on a mainframe. And I'm not talking about modifying old code, we're developing a new system. So we'll need about 30 new COBOL programmers very soon. It's far from dead!

    --
    Try it! Library of Babel