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Solve : A growing need for Cobol programmers ?? |
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Answer» I was listening to IT Conversations with Jeff Papows (ex-CEO of Lotus) was discussing his new book Glitch. He discussed how computer issues can cost a company millions and reviewed reasons for these problems including a lack of well-trained programmers. He states that all the COBOL programmers are starting to retire and COBOL is not a sexy enough to draw in new programmers. http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail4677.html I'm a new student and wondered if this would be a good language to learn a little about. QUOTE I'm a new student and wondered if this would be a good language to learn a little about. Not much use in learning a little about any programming language, whole HOG or nothing. As for learning Cobol, only if you are expecting another Win 2k debacle. The only retro language I'd RECOMMEND is Assembler. Good luck. ASM is not a "retro" language. It's still used extensively, on it's own as well as linked in with object modules from other languages, as well as MODERN programming languages even providing a way to insert ASM directly into their source files. COBOL,FORTRAN, APL, etc and other older high-level languages are, for all intents and purposes, dead. (not sure what a win2k debacle is). Visual Basic Classic (1 through 6) surpassed COBOL as the language with the most estimated lines of code written, and over three quarters of the installed COBOL systems had been replaced with VB5 or 6 business objects. Now, Visual Basic 6 is dead as well, and those components are being replaced with .NET components. Although some die-hard advocates have created things like COBOL.NET that works with the .NET run-time, it's still held back by it's relatively ancient roots in mainframe programming. It's always good to learn about the history of programming languages. As well as what they brought to the table. But there will not be a need for COBOL programmers. The fact that the COBOL standard is continuing to be revised and there are development cases where COBOL is chosen is not a precursor to some world-wide COBOL craze. COBOL is still playing catch-up with modern languages, in many ways. As far as history is concerned, As I noted, it's important to know what they brought to the table; Haskell, for example, was one of the first languages to support functional programming. COBOL was the first high-level language to support self-modifying code. Perl essentially single-handedly put regular expressions on the map in terms of programming; before that it was usually just used in shell-scripts. It's good to at least read a few paragraphs about a vast number of programming languages, to see features they all have in common as well as where they differ; it's important to recognize the strengths that each language has, and how such strengths have essentially been nullified since that languages inception. I'm always amazed to find how much FORTRAN and COBAL are still in use. These are mostly older systems that companies are trying to get one more year out of. I thought they were totally dead years ago, but some how they keep on grinding away. But at some time in the near future they will be gone. In the short term, there will be a need for programmers who understand COBAL, and are able to put band aids on older programs, but the long term outlook is bleak. But then I also heard that same comment 20 years ago so I really don't know.COBOL, not COBAL DOS is still used extensively in some places, too. because it works. Quote from: BC_P not sure what a win2k debacle is I had a long tough day - for Win 2k read Y2k. |
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