4 ms·
I want to know only one thing: COBOL is named under Social Security so I suspect the "outdated computer language that is difficult to write and maintain" Treasu
by chx 10y ago
I want to know only one thing: COBOL is named under Social Security so I suspect the "outdated computer language that is difficult to write and maintain" Treasury uses is not COBOL -- but oh god then what it is??
- fiatmoney 10y agoDating from 1960 ("the systems are about 56 years old"), and especially given that the system in question is likely an IBM mainframe, Fortran would be my guess. Fortran can actually be surprisingly pleasant, at least as pleasant as C, but I'm guessing their particular code is not.
- bigger_cheese 10y agoCould be PL/I
- riprowan 10y agoI'd guess these are coded in assembler, or possibly Fortran.
- Kadin 10y agoOne of the many other articles that have been floating around the past few days mentioned that Treasury has a bunch of programs written in an old IBM architecture's version of assembler.
- chx 10y agoBingo! I just found http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/05/government-agencies-keep-sacrificing-cash-to-zombie-it-systems-gao-finds/ http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/05/govern... mentioning both Individual Master File and Business Master File written in IBM mainframe assembler 56 years ago. Joy. Although I suspect it's a bit of an exaggeration because it seems the IRS is using System/360 which started 1965 https://books.google.ca/books?id=HwniRloeB6cC&pg=PA2&lpg=PA2&dq=ibm+360+irs+%22master+file%22&source=bl&ots=DNqni9DXg1&sig=ag4xDy_ERLUjJeslLy3sIq5rUks&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwix8Krp_PnMAhUGyWMKHfoGA0sQ6AEIKjAB#v=onepage&q=ibm%20360%20irs%20%22master%20file%22&f=false https://books.google.ca/books?id=HwniRloeB6cC&pg=PA2&lpg=PA2...