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PR piece for Auka. A classic example of one of pg's submarines[1]. Auka CEO Döderlein, mentioned a mere 5 times, says there are only 3 options, ignore the prob

PR piece for Auka. A classic example of one of pg's submarines[1]. Auka CEO Döderlein, mentioned a mere 5 times, says there are only 3 options, ignore the problem, big bang rewrite, or bolt on new pieces. Don't panic! Just call Auka. They have your new piece. There's no mention of the option we would all pick, a gradual migration, of course. [1]http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html

jacquesm 10y ago
Agreed. And besides that, banks should do what they want to do. That COBOL software they are running is hardly ever a problem, the problems are usually in the new stuff which has been far less battle tested and is connected to a hostile network.
- Bluestrike2 10y ago
  Legacy COBOL systems (hell, a lot of legacy code in general) is a perfect example of the "if it's not broken, don't fix it" mantra. There's an incredible amount of work involved in rewriting legacy code, and when you're talking about doing so in a constantly updating, critical context like financial transactions, it kind of highlights the need to take things slow and carefully. My experience with old legacy systems (20+ year old C in particular) is limited, but it was enough to recognize that just ripping it all out is an awfully ignorant approach compared to a gradual migration of what needs to be replaced. It's also an incredibly expensive one, especially since it's a recurring situation. No matter how clean and clear you think your code is, or how thoroughly you've commented everything, in a decade or two, someone is probably going to be groaning about it being legacy code.
deleted 10y ago
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erikb 10y ago
It's a pity that pg drifts off in the end assuming that the medium blog would be more serious just because of its existing. It's just that the main text content market hasn't hit the internet yet at the time of the writing. Or maybe it was part of his PR campaign to bring HN to life, who knows.

jacquesm 10y ago

Agreed. And besides that, banks should do what they want to do. That COBOL software they are running is hardly ever a problem, the problems are usually in the new stuff which has been far less battle tested and is connected to a hostile network.

Bluestrike2 10y ago
Legacy COBOL systems (hell, a lot of legacy code in general) is a perfect example of the "if it's not broken, don't fix it" mantra. There's an incredible amount of work involved in rewriting legacy code, and when you're talking about doing so in a constantly updating, critical context like financial transactions, it kind of highlights the need to take things slow and carefully. My experience with old legacy systems (20+ year old C in particular) is limited, but it was enough to recognize that just ripping it all out is an awfully ignorant approach compared to a gradual migration of what needs to be replaced. It's also an incredibly expensive one, especially since it's a recurring situation. No matter how clean and clear you think your code is, or how thoroughly you've commented everything, in a decade or two, someone is probably going to be groaning about it being legacy code.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

erikb 10y ago

It's a pity that pg drifts off in the end assuming that the medium blog would be more serious just because of its existing. It's just that the main text content market hasn't hit the internet yet at the time of the writing. Or maybe it was part of his PR campaign to bring HN to life, who knows.