IBM will offer free COBOL training

Post by vbezhenar » Sun, Apr 12, 2020, 12:08 AM UTC

hindsightbias wrote: post #171

Yhippa wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It would be very interesting to see the old systems rewritten in a modern language, with modern engineering practices, but keeping the old UI and UX (which often is incredibly ergonomic) - so as to limit scope and not mess it all up by trying to introduce mouse navigation and windowing mess. I was the tech lead on one of these projects. Personally I was sad and frustrated we had to keep the old UX/UI. I would have…

At some point in the web, ergonomic went from something that meant all form and minimal viable function. Efficiency just isn’t a real noun in the UX/UI vocabulary when it somes to complex entry. 30 years ago, those of us on green screens at Big Org knew more shortcuts than any emacs user. Now whenever I have to use a “modern” CRM it’s the most anti-productive aspect of my job.

Post by perl4ever » Sun, Apr 12, 2020, 1:24 AM UTC

zxcvbn4038 wrote: post #83

watt wrote: post #21

It's a trap. The problem with those old codebases that governments, hospitals, big businesses are struggling with is not really the language, it's the engineering practices of that time with regards to constraints of old technology. The language is not the problem - lack of comments, bad variable naming, bad structure (little or no procedures or readability), and just sheer volume of it, is. It would be very interest…

Not to mention GOTO. If your one of the people who hyperventilates when you see a goto because you learned that it was considered harmful in programmer school then Cobol might not be for you. ;) You might be surprised about the comments though - depending on the age of the codebase. Mainframes were rented back in the day, you paid by resources consumed, terminal time was precious, and mainframes were often turned off…

Post by perl4ever » Sun, Apr 12, 2020, 1:40 AM UTC

bdavis__ wrote: post #117

watt wrote: post #21

It's a trap. The problem with those old codebases that governments, hospitals, big businesses are struggling with is not really the language, it's the engineering practices of that time with regards to constraints of old technology. The language is not the problem - lack of comments, bad variable naming, bad structure (little or no procedures or readability), and just sheer volume of it, is. It would be very interest…

I propose that most of the code written in the old days, in COBOL in particular, was not done by computer scientists. There were many lanes for learning COBOL, and they included community colleges and industry training courses. The amount of "computer science / software engineering" concepts that were widely known (or even possible) in those days was very limited. 're-engineering' the code is a valid operation, but t…

Post by perl4ever » Sun, Apr 12, 2020, 1:45 AM UTC

coleca wrote: post #204

lowercased wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They might mean 'volunteer' like people 'volunteer' for the army in the US. you get paid, and get the tools provided, etc., but you're not going to be forced out of your current life and conscripted in to COBOL work. It's a bad word though, because it creates these confusions. However, they might be at a max of existing COBOL 'full timers'. Who would 'volunteer' to leave their current dev roles to jump in to the NJ C…

The NJ site actually asks if you plan to seek compensation and that compensation would have to comply with state procurement laws. So don’t expect boku $$$ for these jobs. They want freebies. There’s no shortage of COBOL devs just a shortage of people willing to pay for them or pay market rates. https://form.jotform.com/200966530056150 Why aren’t we asking other government employees to volunteer for free?

Post by p_l » Sun, Apr 12, 2020, 12:21 PM UTC

mycall wrote: post #208

zxcvbn4038 wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to mention GOTO. If your one of the people who hyperventilates when you see a goto because you learned that it was considered harmful in programmer school then Cobol might not be for you. ;) You might be surprised about the comments though - depending on the age of the codebase. Mainframes were rented back in the day, you paid by resources consumed, terminal time was precious, and mainframes were often turned off…

> Mainframes were rented back in the day, you paid by resources consumed, terminal time was precious, and mainframes were often turned off outside business hours. Sounds very cloud