Re: [PLUG] Fw: [plug-announce] Tue Apr 12 - PLUG North - "Modern Cobol" by Elizabeth Joseph and Walt Mankowski (7pm EDT online)

[JP Vossen via plug <plug@lists.phillylinux.org>]

For PLUG, thanks for Lyz and Walt for some neat information and discussion.

For everyone, this topic came up because I mentioned I was reading a fascinating book that just came out:
* https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/modern-mainframe-development/9781098107017/
* _Modern Mainframe Development_
* by Tom Taulli
* Released March 2022
* Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
* ISBN: 9781098107024
* 345 pages

It says...pretty much everything Steve says below, and a lot more.  According to ch04 and per https://oreil.ly/L8Lcz:
* Every day 200 times more COBOL transactions are performed versus Google searches.
* More than 220 billion lines of code are running today, or about 80% of the world’s total.
* About 1.5 billion new lines of COBOL are written each year.

That does not match up with the numbers Lyz had, her COBOL LoC number was WAY higher.  But still, interesting.

Anyway, it's a cool book.

PLUG email thread starts: http://lists.netisland.net/archives/plug/plug-2022-04/msg00027.html


On 4/12/22 02:11, Steve Litt via plug wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Tuesday 4/12/2022 at 7pm Eastern time sharp, Philly Lug (not the Phoenix
> LUG we usually pair up with) presents on COBOL via Jitsi,
> https://meet.jit.si/PLUGNorthApril2022 . I might be there. Some facts
> about COBOL you might not know:
>
> * The language has built in indexed sequential files for lightning fast
>    data access.
>
> * Many modern COBOLs can interface to many modern SQL databases.
>
> * Millions and millions of lines of 40 year old COBOL are still doing
>    their job quite well. Same software, always improving hardware.
>
> * All COBOL programs were either abandoned or Y2K retrofitted in the
>    late 1990's, so there are no foreseeable cataclysms coming down the
>    pike.
>
> * Although many or most businesses rewrote their software in other
>    languages, some saw the performance of Java, C++, Python, PHP, Perl,
>    Note.js, React, Vue, Rails and the like and said nahhh, I'll just keep
>    updating my COBOL.
>
> * COBOL is very, very good at massive data manipulation.
>
> * The majority of COBOL programmers are in old peoples' homes or in
>    that great data center in the sky (with GoLUGgers Homer Whitaker and
>    Gary Miller), so there are very few competent COBOL programmers
>    remaining.
>
> * COBOL programmers are so needed that companies are training young
>    people to program COBOL on the company dime.
>
> * It's not easy to get a COBOL job because the jobs are hidden away,
>    but work at good pay can be gotten by someone somewhat proficient at
>    COBOL and proficient at searching for work.
>
> * COBOL has very little Geek Pazazz, so COBOL programmers might have
>    less competition than you might imagine.
>
> * COBOL changes very slowly, so it's a pretty good profession for the
>    programmer with other priorities such as kids, spouse and family.
>
> * If you're 45 right now, it's conceivable you could learn COBOL and
>    make a living with COBOL until you're in your 70's. I'm not so sure
>    I'd recommend it to a 20 year old.
>
> * COBOL stands for COmmon Business Oriented Language, created
>    approximately in 1960. It was made for business.
>
> * COBOL has built in sort and merge. This was a very big deal before
>    the mid 1980's, when separate merge programs became cheaper. Unix
>    had a sort program early, I don't know how early. In a big, hairy
>    program, it's still nice to handle this kind of stuff in-house.
>
> * COBOL can do recursion:
>    https://www.microfocus.com/documentation/visual-cobol/VC23/VS2015/HHPTCHPTIP12.html
>
> * COBOL has a type called "procedure-pointer", which I believe can
>    empower COBOL to use and be used as a callback function:
>    https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/developer-for-zos/9.1.1?topic=clause-procedure-pointer-phrase
>
> * COBOL now has Object Orientation if you want to use it.
>
> * COBOL was created in 1960 or
>    thereabouts. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COBOL
>
> * In college (1983) I personally created a COBOL program whose input
>    was a COBOL program's source code and whose output was a hierarchy
>    diagram showing all loops, branches, and paragraph calls.
<snip>

Later,
JP
--  -------------------------------------------------------------------
JP Vossen, CISSP | http://www.jpsdomain.org/ | http://bashcookbook.com/
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