I read the "broken" in the OP title as conceptual problem, not a practical one. "as millions of individuals and companies use them, successfully, as part of th

I read the "broken" in the OP title as conceptual problem, not a practical one. "as millions of individuals and companies use them, successfully, as part of their projects and products" This was true for COBOL in its heyday, too (well, maybe not millions, but there was less computers in the world, too). But would you use COBOL in a new project today, even if it's not actually broken?