Another issue with COBOL (Apart from being unsexy and verbose) is simply getting access to a proper mainframe environment. You could pick up COBBOL using someth

Another issue with COBOL (Apart from being unsexy and verbose) is simply getting access to a proper mainframe environment. You could pick up COBBOL using something like GNU Cobol or similar but it's working in the z/OS environment that is needed and understanding the various system facilities and how they interact. MTM is pretty much one of the only ways to get access to a recent version of z/OS to test on (the other being shelling out 2K/yr for IBM LMS access). In a age when most things come with snazzy oneliners and docker images trying to learn COBOL is an esoteric endevour. The language has its warts and quirks, but it's nothing too crazy. Same with TSO and learning JCL, it's orthogonal to the current landscape. (Not saying I wouldn't love to be doing in here in Canada) Fun fact: The current version of IBM Cobol has JSON GENERATE and JSON PARSE, so you can whip up endpoints that interact directly with a mainframe (as long as your convert the code page at the network boundary). Never thought I'd be able to use React and Cobol backed by DB2 in 2018.