you should feel sorry for me!

[MsTrMind]

I have to learn COBOL.

'Nuff said.

[melchiorvester]

1959!
why do you have to learn it?

[alpenwasser]

Sorry? I envy you!

[Flojer0]

I wouldn't know but one of my teachers claimed that there is some good money out for cobol programmers. Since all of the previous ones are retiring and all of the old cobol systems need somebody to maintain them. And I'm sure there are worse languages to learn.

[MsTrMind]

1959!

why do you have to learn it?

 

Sorry? I envy you!

 

 

I wouldn't know but one of my teachers claimed that there is some good money out for cobol programmers. Since all of the previous ones are retiring and all of the old cobol systems need somebody to maintain them. And I'm sure there are worse languages to learn.

 

 

1959!

why do you have to learn it?

 

It is the language I learn at a class called "back-end programming". 

The stuff we see isn't nearly usable in real-world applications.

Fanciest stuff I can do with it is save text to a .txt file.

This is only used in the banking world overhere in Belgium. 

[alpenwasser]

It is the language I learn at a class called "back-end programming". 

The stuff we see isn't nearly usable in real-world applications.

Fanciest stuff I can do with it is save text to a .txt file.

This is only used in the banking world overhere in Belgium.

Well, saving to .txt files is mighty important. :lol:

Seriously though, it's not just Belgium that uses COBOL pretty much only for

banking, it's more or less the backbone of international finances. My mum's bf

knows a few people who still properly know COBOL and he says they get paid

ridicuously well since there are so few people who can properly program in

COBOL these days, and keeping those systems running is an absolute necessity

for the global economy. If you want to make some serious money, become a master

at COBOL, you will be indispensable for the human race. :D

[MsTrMind]

Well, saving to .txt files is mighty important. :lol:

Seriously though, it's not just Belgium that uses COBOL pretty much only for

banking, it's more or less the backbone of international finances. My mum's bf

knows a few people who still properly know COBOL and he says they get paid

ridicuously well since there are so few people who can properly program in

COBOL these days, and keeping those systems running is an absolute necessity

for the global economy. If you want to make some serious money, become a master

at COBOL, you will be indispensable for the human race. :D

Since those cobol programmers are so expensive, wouldn't it be cheaper to just change over the back-end of the banking-world? 

Step by step to something else?

I almost can't believe that the (probably) most important thing on this planet is being held together by a language that isn't updated since 2002...

It would be like the Avatar series, the whole world depending on the last surviving COBOL-programmer...

[alpenwasser]

Since those cobol programmers are so expensive, wouldn't it be cheaper to just change over the back-end of the banking-world? 

Step by step to something else?

I almost can't believe that the (probably) most important thing on this planet is being held together by a language that isn't updated since 2002...

It would be like the Avatar series, the whole world depending on the last surviving COBOL-programmer...

The problem is that migration would be much more expensive than paying those few

programmers lots of money. Even though the individual programmer might get a rather

substantial salary, the overall expense for keeping these systems up and running

is still a lot smaller than replacing everything. If you replace all this COBOL

stuff with something newer you will most likely not only have to update/replace

software, but also a lot of hardware which wasn't designed to run anything but

the things it's running now (ATMs, payment terminals etc.). Surely most of the

more modern hardware could probably be kept (I have seen payment terminals using

Linux, which will probably make it quite flexible with regards to the software it

can run, as long as the processing power is sufficient), but I think the older

stuff would need to be replaced.

I'm not an expert on this and don't know how modular these software packages are,

but depending on APIs and other stuff it might become extremely difficult to

replace that code piecemeal. Also keep in mind that the new software would need to

be running absolutely flawlessly right from the start, there is zero room for down

time error (well, there is room, but it could cost billions of USD if things go

wrong, maybe even trillions; this is the world economy we're talking about after

all).

And while one might think that using such an ancient language for such important

things is a bit stupid, it also means that said language is very stable, well

documented and has been proven to be effective and reliable at its job, which

is probably the most important thing in this case.

Besides that it might prove very difficult to find enough programmers with the

expertise to write this software. The people who work on this kind of software

need not only to be good at coding, but it also helps a lot if they are actually

familiar with the environment in which their software will be deployed. It might

prove very tricky to find enough programmers who are not only good enough to

write such critical software, but who are also familiar enough with the financial

industry to sensibly implement the whole thing (meaning you're either going to

need to spend a lot of money on training and educating them or you're going to

have to accept lots of mistakes and non-optimal solutions).

Having said that, I'm sure there's lots of stupid code in all those COBOL programs

as well, but those idiosyncrasies and bugs have been worked with for decades

and their behavior seems to be more or less familiar (at least from what I can tell).

As a side note: The golden era for those COBOL programmers was Y2K. Since everybody

was so desperate to get their ancient software Y2K-compatible they were willing to

pay absolutely ridiculous amounts of money from what I've been told. :D

[MrMiniBeast]

 

 

It would be like the Avatar series, the whole world depending on the last surviving COBOL-programmer...

 

 

Time out...

The world did not depend on the "last surviving Avatar"

There was always only one Avatar at a time, and when one was to die a new one would take their place. (The Avatars alternated from primarily Water, Earth, Fire, and Air.)

Aang was a little bit of an exception. He did become the Avatar after Avatar Roku died of poisonous gases in the volcano on Roku's Island, but he didn't want to be Avatar so ran and hid.

While he was running from his fate, there was a massive storm and eventually Aang and his flying bison, Appa, become trapped in a spherical ball of ice underwater.

Obviously, the first episode starts off 100 years later when Katara and Sokka find Aang and rescue him. From this point Aang needs to make up ground for missing 100 years and must save the world.

I'm not sure if there can be another air-bending Avatar after the next fire-bending Avatar since, well, they're extinct, but Aang is definitely not the last surviving Avatar.

 

Wow, I just went full nerd.

[DDR3RAMpager]

You just went full nerd. Never go full nerd :)

[sushisky]

I think it would be quite cool to learn COBOL. But I don't have the time OTL

[Flojer0]

Also keep in mind that the new software would need to

be running absolutely flawlessly right from the start.

 

 

I've heard is said before that the only difference between hardware and software is that hardware reliability goes down with time and software reliability goes up.

 

If anyone knows the source let me know, I can't remember :) .

[sushisky]

I might making learning cobol a small project. any tips on how to start?

[MsTrMind]

Time out...

The world did not depend on the "last surviving Avatar"

There was always only one Avatar at a time, and when one was to die a new one would take their place. (The Avatars alternated from primarily Water, Earth, Fire, and Air.)

Aang was a little bit of an exception. He did become the Avatar after Avatar Roku died of poisonous gases in the volcano on Roku's Island, but he didn't want to be Avatar so ran and hid.

While he was running from his fate, there was a massive storm and eventually Aang and his flying bison, Appa, become trapped in a spherical ball of ice underwater.

Obviously, the first episode starts off 100 years later when Katara and Sokka find Aang and rescue him. From this point Aang needs to make up ground for missing 100 years and must save the world.

I'm not sure if there can be another air-bending Avatar after the next fire-bending Avatar since, well, they're extinct, but Aang is definitely not the last surviving Avatar.

 

Wow, I just went full nerd.

 

Lol I sadly know all of this to :-D

But what I meant was that the COBOL-programmer would be something like the last airbender :)

[MrMiniBeast]

Theres nothing sad about knowing about Avatar.