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Learning COBOL: A Journey for the Modern Programmer

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Re: Learning COBOL: A Journey for the Modern Programmer

#31

Post by 908B64B197 »

the_af wrote: post #30

I suppose it's again that time of the year when there's a flood of articles trying to convince people that COBOL is worth learning, that it's been updated or that it pays really well, and that there are lots of hidden opportunities for you to make big money working with COBOL! Those of us who actually worked with COBOL aren't fooled though. It bears repeating: COBOL is a horrible language and it's often used in legac…

Keep in mind that everyone working in COBOL trying to squeeze costs.

It's a dead ecosystem.

Re: Learning COBOL: A Journey for the Modern Programmer

#32

Post by sillyquiet »

I took a survey of historical programming languages course in college that covered FORTRAN, COBOL, SNOBOL, Prolog, SmallTalk, and several others of importance or uniqueness. Each section required a small practical program be written in that language, and we discussed each in its context of usage, 'family tree', syntax etc

I guess I am saying programming history classes is where COBOL belongs.

Re: Learning COBOL: A Journey for the Modern Programmer

#33

Post by jmt_ »

the_af wrote: post #28
aoleinik wrote: post #22

Out of curiosity, does knowing COBOL pay well in 2021? It seems COBOL programmers are in critical demand and free market economics should mean that COBOL programmers get paid premiums. I would research this by myself, but not really sure where to start - and googling “COBOL Developer Salary” leads to results in the 80-120k range (which is no small number, but not significantly different from a modern language develop…

No, it doesn't, at least not in my country (not the US). It's a falsehood that often gets repeated. No, COBOL jobs don't pay particularly well. Plus they have the downside of, you know, having to work with COBOL, a horrible programming language. And mostly at banks and financial institutions, the main users of legacy COBOL systems.

I would also assume companies/banks hiring COBOL programmers are more interested in candidates with years of experience with the language, since opportunities to build and grow with COBOL seem pretty slim outside of legacy maintenance. Granted, the old COBOL heavy hitters are becoming less common, but I would still think it would be difficult for someone that picked it up for a year or two to compete. Seems like it's just not worth the time and effort to break into this space.

Re: Learning COBOL: A Journey for the Modern Programmer

#34

Post by jdcaballerov »

hn8788 wrote: post #12
Smithalicious wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe it's because I'm not a native English speaker but what does "divide into" mean?

I'm a native English speaker, and I've never heard that phrase either. I assume it's the same as "divide by", but I could be wrong.

Divide into is the opposite of Divide by. X2 into 1500 is 1500/X2

Re: Learning COBOL: A Journey for the Modern Programmer

#36

Post by marktangotango »

the_af wrote: post #30

I suppose it's again that time of the year when there's a flood of articles trying to convince people that COBOL is worth learning, that it's been updated or that it pays really well, and that there are lots of hidden opportunities for you to make big money working with COBOL! Those of us who actually worked with COBOL aren't fooled though. It bears repeating: COBOL is a horrible language and it's often used in legac…

So much this, I work in a city with literally thousands of former cobol developers who's jobs were offshored over the past two decades. Check online jobs boards, there is very very little demand for this skill, shortage is myth.

Re: Learning COBOL: A Journey for the Modern Programmer

#37

Post by marktangotango »

giantg2 wrote: post #23
rbanffy wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are also somewhat underpaid. I’d totally like to be paid to work on mainframes, even if writing COBOL code, but not by taking a pay cut.

How much do you make? Many of the postings I see are $250k+. That's like 3x what I make.

> Many of the postings I see are $250k+. That's like 3x what I make.

Proof please.

Re: Learning COBOL: A Journey for the Modern Programmer

#38

Post by giantg2 »

marktangotango wrote: post #37
giantg2 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much do you make? Many of the postings I see are $250k+. That's like 3x what I make.

> Many of the postings I see are $250k+. That's like 3x what I make. Proof please.

Ah, I see. I was looking at consultant jobs. Regular jobs seem to be less.

Re: Learning COBOL: A Journey for the Modern Programmer

#39

Post by mathgorges »

slowmotiony wrote: post #24

Does anyone know of any good resources for learning basics of JCL, datasets, jobs, the z/OS Host and so on? I find that when I look at the screens of my mainframe colleagues, the COBOL code is actually the only thing I can wrap my head around, as opposed to all the weird mainframe tools built around it.

Theres almost certainly a more direct route, but I learned most of these things (not really JCL) by learning HLASM from this resource:

http://csc.columbusstate.edu/woolbright/WOOLBRIG.htm

Re: Learning COBOL: A Journey for the Modern Programmer

#40

Post by mathgorges »

submeta wrote: post #35

Anyone attempted to write a COBOL code generator in a more comfortable language? Or isn‘t code generation the problem, rather the reading/modifying legacy code?

It's the latter.

COBOL development is nearly never greenfield, and many of the (mainframe) systems you'll have to work with behave differently than you'd expect if you're someone that learned about software after the 80's.

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