4 ms·
Next we'll get to hear that modernizing old software systems is too hard, so they're still running COBOL on a mainframe out of a single DC that had a fiber cut
by trimbo 5y ago
Next we'll get to hear that modernizing old software systems is too hard, so they're still running COBOL on a mainframe out of a single DC that had a fiber cut or something.
- malux85 5y agoYou take your eye off the ball for 20 or 30 years and look what happens (throws hands in air)
- hughrr 5y agoThere’s a lot of that stuff out there still. I was speaking to a former colleague a couple of years back and he discovered a NT4 box with a Hayes modem dangling off it doing mission critical EDI stuff in VB4 while doing a site migration. Not come across anything that old yet. Last one was a single irreplaceable VAX doing DHCP for about 200 users about ten years after it should have been in a skip.
- BeefWellington 5y agoI had a consultant buddy ask me about FoxPro last year because he knew I had done some work with it at one point. Apparently all of payroll at some largeish company you've maybe heard of (~15k employees) was done using an ancient FoxPro Windows 3.11 version (2.6? 2.7? memory's rusty) running via compatibility on Windows 7 and they were just getting around to trying to replace it. In a way people probably think things like that are insane but if you step back and look at it, if it was getting the job done all these years it was decent engineering.
- userbinator 5y agoIf anything, it's probably a newer part of the system that failed. The old stuff tends to stay around precisely because it's so reliable.
- throwawayboise 5y agoAlso because anything new needs to go through a byzantine FAA approval process. That puts a strong bias towards keeping the old (and approved) systems online.