cross-posted from: https://lemmy.cringecollective.io/post/9716
Maybe some ALGOL 58 while we're at it too.
this post was submitted on 20 May 2024
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COBOL is actually not that bad. It can work with SQL, it can have unit testing/integration testing. It can even go on the web (LOL).
But in all seriousness, the bad part about COBOL is lack of context. Most code that is in COBOL has not been touched in decades. And no one is willing to modify because of serous consequences (AKA job ruining errors) that can occur.
I worked with it in insurance and transportation. In both cases, the COBOL was actually pretty solid...but we didnt know WHY we were doing the operations.
the old languages still have their fans – and COBOL, Fortran, Ada, and Lisp are still holding strong in their respective niches
Lisp variants like Clojure are being used for new projects (e.g. Logseq) but I'd be surprised to hear of anyone choosing COBOL for a greenfield project.
Yeah the only reason someone should learn COBOL is job security and potentially making a living moving things over. No reason to start a project in the lang. You can make flat files into ODBCs nowadays.
I suppose the ability to be left alone because everyone is afraid the COBOL person leaves and the company goes under is a good reason :)