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Wow, I was sure that COBOL is not being used any more since the new programming languages are just better in any aspect. What's the reason that COBOL faded ove

Wow, I was sure that COBOL is not being used any more since the new programming languages are just better in any aspect. What's the reason that COBOL faded over the years?

goatinaboat 7y ago
the new programming languages are just better in any aspect. Well, you should question your assumption that the new languages are better. They aren’t, they are just more fashionable. You can see this in every aspect of life, not just programming. Previous generations liked high-quality products that would last. Modern day people like cheap objects that soon break and are thrown away and replaced with something equally cheap and flimsy. There’s a reason that COBOL (and FORTRAN) code is still running 50 years later, and that last year’s JavaScript already needs to be rewritten.
- onei 7y ago
  It depends how you quantify better. If you mean easier to hire developers in, provides higher levels of abstraction, etc. then modern programming languages are generally better. If you value stability and cost, as those who own these COBOL do, then you don't care about what it's running on and what you have is good enough until it suddenly isn't. 50 years is a long time to find bugs and modern applications don't have anything close to that level of hardening.
  - goatinaboat 7y ago
    you mean easier to hire developers in, provides higher levels of abstraction, etc. then modern programming languages are generally better That’s a subtle distinction, in JavaScript a high level of abstraction means hiding the details of the DOM and how the interface works, whereas in COBOL or FORTRAN what you’re really abstracting is the problem domain itself. Availability of programmers is part driven by the market but largely by programmers themselves who try to avoid mature and established technologies and chase the hottest new trend. So it’s true what you say, but it doesn’t happen because it has to but because people want it to.

Wow, I was sure that COBOL is not being used any more since the new programming languages are just better in any aspect. What's the reason that COBOL faded over the years?

goatinaboat 7y ago

the new programming languages are just better in any aspect. Well, you should question your assumption that the new languages are better. They aren’t, they are just more fashionable. You can see this in every aspect of life, not just programming. Previous generations liked high-quality products that would last. Modern day people like cheap objects that soon break and are thrown away and replaced with something equally cheap and flimsy. There’s a reason that COBOL (and FORTRAN) code is still running 50 years later, and that last year’s JavaScript already needs to be rewritten.

onei 7y ago
It depends how you quantify better. If you mean easier to hire developers in, provides higher levels of abstraction, etc. then modern programming languages are generally better. If you value stability and cost, as those who own these COBOL do, then you don't care about what it's running on and what you have is good enough until it suddenly isn't. 50 years is a long time to find bugs and modern applications don't have anything close to that level of hardening.
- goatinaboat 7y ago
  you mean easier to hire developers in, provides higher levels of abstraction, etc. then modern programming languages are generally better That’s a subtle distinction, in JavaScript a high level of abstraction means hiding the details of the DOM and how the interface works, whereas in COBOL or FORTRAN what you’re really abstracting is the problem domain itself. Availability of programmers is part driven by the market but largely by programmers themselves who try to avoid mature and established technologies and chase the hottest new trend. So it’s true what you say, but it doesn’t happen because it has to but because people want it to.