Ask HN: How to look for a programming opportunity • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How to look for a programming opportunity

#21

Post by ahlatimer » Thu, Mar 11, 2010, 12:12 AM UTC

ivenkys wrote: post #15

ahlatimer wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can easily find you a job doing web programming in COBOL. The first tech company I worked for decided to build their new task system in COBOL. I can't really remember the framework they were using (RMCOBOL, I think), but they had somehow managed to find a way to get Apache installed on a HP 3000 that communicated with a COBOL web app. Keep in mind, I'm 20, and I only really started working when I was 18. This all h…

"I worked for decided to build their new task system in COBOL" - this cannot be true .

It is indeed true. They had a pre-existing task system that ran on the HP3000 that was built in COBOL. They modeled the new one (that was supposed to be web based) on the old one, and they decided to build it all in COBOL. I'm guessing they repurposed [1] some code, and they definitely repurposed the database. I think the goal was to have employees continue to use the command-line based task system while allowing customers to input tasks on the web. I think they also wanted employees outside the main office to still be able to access the task system if they were, say, at a client's office.

I left right around this whole project got started. I even mocked up the original interfaces. Twice. The first time I didn't do the whole thing in a table and my manager couldn't understand it, so I had to rip out any CSS and divs and go back to the 90's. They had two "graphic designers" on staff, so I'm not entirely sure why I was given that task, but there it is.

My whole time there seemed like some weird trip back in time. It took me a while to get used the copyright date on the COBOL compiler being two years before I was born.

[1]: "Repurposed" is used loosely. The way you build web apps in COBOL is so convoluted that it's extremely hard to use pre-existing code.

Re: Ask HN: How to look for a programming opportunity

#22

Post by ahlatimer » Thu, Mar 11, 2010, 12:17 AM UTC

GFischer wrote: post #18

ahlatimer wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can easily find you a job doing web programming in COBOL. The first tech company I worked for decided to build their new task system in COBOL. I can't really remember the framework they were using (RMCOBOL, I think), but they had somehow managed to find a way to get Apache installed on a HP 3000 that communicated with a COBOL web app. Keep in mind, I'm 20, and I only really started working when I was 18. This all h…

The best-paying jobs advertised at the state telecom are for Senior COBOL programmers. That definitely makes me wish I knew it a bit better :P (I did have COBOL classes at college, and I'm 29)

It's an easy enough language to master. There aren't a whole lot of constructs. The difficulty is wrapping your head around the massive lines of code that any COBOL program of reasonable complexity is bound to have. Not to mention every variable being defined by what it looks like, no notion of scope, no syntactic sugar like for or while loops, and no notion of methods. It's all supposed to read like English, but while English can pack a lot of meaning in a few statements, COBOL can't do anything in a few statements.

Re: Ask HN: How to look for a programming opportunity

#23

Post by starkfist » Thu, Mar 11, 2010, 12:19 AM UTC

Giles is wrong. Learning a new language/toolkit is actually a "job getting skill." I got my last 3 jobs by learning Javascript, Ruby, and Objective-C. They would not have hired me if I hadn't taught myself how to do stuff in those languages. If it's a startup job you are expected to hit the ground running. Figure out what job you want and then figure out what you need to know to get it.

That said, hardcore C++ skills are in demand everywhere from audio software to robots to games to wall street to scientific research. Even "web" companies need C++, Google, OKCupid, Amazon, etc. If you're already good at it, it's a great skill to polish up.