6 ms·

Any stories from production users of GnuCOBOL?

• the_only_law 6y ago
  I’m curious too, my understanding is that 90% of COBOL work is done in older mainframes (or ported from older mainframes to newer ones) and likely uses whatever IBM compilers. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of GnuCOBOL being used outside of learning.
  • nonesuchluck 6y ago
    In my (very limited) z/OS experience, COBOL by itself is necessary but not nearly sufficient. COBOL code is used inside a framework of highly proprietary software and system services: - DB2 (database is builtin to the mainframe) - GDG (Generation Data Groups, versioned file system) - ACL (IBM's original access control lists) - JCL (automation, parameters, logging) - SyncSort (data sorting, joining) - various CA Technologies products - etc!
    • the_only_law 6y ago
      Yep this is why I'm also weary of people who suggest to "just learn COBOL" for a job.
    • kjs3 6y ago
      Don't forget CICS (OLTP component). But spot on...a mainframe is an ecosystem, not a language.
      • nonesuchluck 6y ago
        Probably not hard for you to guess that my experience is limited entirely to enterprise batch processing and data warehousing. I've heard of CICS, but only as a nasty rumor.