7 ms·
The programs are very uniform. There is not multiple ways of doing things (at a presentation level). So you get to use hundreds of thousands of existing apps wr
by aetherspawn 8y ago
The programs are very uniform. There is not multiple ways of doing things (at a presentation level). So you get to use hundreds of thousands of existing apps written over the last N decades in your modern web application.
You just couldn’t write them all over again, there isn’t a team on earth that could, even with infinite money. You’d be talking, I think, more than high double digits, millions of LOC.
JavaScript by comparison .. today it’s React/Angular, but it is very fluid. Not much code will be practically reusable in 5/yr from now.
- gtycomb 8y ago> There is not multiple ways of doing things (at a presentation level). Love the insight. Established businesses like banks look for this kind of stability. And upstarts who build from ground up to challenge status quo, they go on to figure out ways to win with es6 and their friends.
- amelius 8y agoThat makes sense. In this view, how well would a modern, purely functional language do, compared to COBOL?
- pjc50 8y agoThat depends on how well it inter-links with COBOL, surely?
- onion2k 8y agoNot much code will be practically reusable in 5/yr from now. Is that really true? If you look at a lot of JS from 5, 10 or even 20 years ago it still works. The main things that stop it working are security changes, which is arguably a good thing. I don't see why many of today's JS libs will stop working in the future unless there's a good reason why they should.
- ams6110 8y agoIt's not that they won't work, but that nobody will be doing anything new in JS in 10 years. It will become forgotten, mysterious, scary -- like COBOL is today.
- onion2k 8y agoI can't say I agree, but secretly I hope you're right because I'll make a fortune consulting on people's old web apps.
- leanthonyrn 8y agoHow does one search and utilize the use hundreds of thousands of existing apps written over the last N decades? Is their a CPAN like tool for COBOL?
- reitanqild 8y agoI'd guess 1. They are already in place and in use. or 2. Vendor/consultant is aware of them.
- leanthonyrn 8y agoI see. First rule of COBOL club. Don't talk about COBOL club.