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> It changed who could write it, too. COBOL democratized coding; companies could take everyday people and train them to be useful COBOL programmers in a few mon
by jrochkind1 5y ago
> It changed who could write it, too. COBOL democratized coding; companies could take everyday people and train them to be useful COBOL programmers in a few months, and to become experts in a year or two. This was crucial given that companies desperately needed more warm bodies to write software.
> “You could pick people up out of the street,” says Jon Pyke, a British coder who learned COBOL back in the 1960s, “and basically and teach them how to do it.”
Well then. This does seem to suggest a solution...
Honestly, this article kind of makes me want to learn COBOL. In my fantasy, the employers desperation somehow makes it a low-stress job, like they know they don't have time for BS, they have to prioritize the most important things and just let you do your job. And they'd be so grateful.
- hackcasual 5y agoIf COBOL were that effective, you'd see derivatives of it in modern day usage. The COBOL misunderstanding is that the hard part of computer programming is the grammar we use.
- perl4ever 5y agoI never had much interest in COBOL, but I really liked Hypertalk's pseudo-english code and sometimes wish it had more influence.
- Eliezer 5y agoI learned to program in hypertalk as a kid, and I am so glad that it never took off.
- neonate 5y agoWhy are you glad that it never took off? That's the opposite of what we usually hear from former Hypercard users...
- perl4ever 5y agoI mean, it did take off, it just petered out after Jobs returned to Apple. "HyperCard was created by Bill Atkinson following an LSD trip." "HyperCard had a significant impact on the web as it inspired the creation of both HTTP (through its influence on Tim Berners-Lee's colleague Robert Cailliau), and JavaScript (whose creator, Brendan Eich, was inspired by HyperTalk)" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HyperCard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HyperCard
- IncRnd 5y agoCOBOL must be effective, since it is used to great effect in these mission critical systems.
- civilized 5y ago> And they'd be so grateful. Or they'd be a bunch of entitled a-holes and constantly try to manipulate you to extract as much value as possible. As finance execs do.
- Waterluvian 5y ago“Hey cost centre, get back to work.”
- jrochkind1 5y agoi said it was a fantasy! But yeah, to have any chance at all, you have to wait until it's really a crisis for them (that can't be blamed on you becuase you aren't there yet), like what might happen in 10 years or so from now, and then show up as a knight in shining armor to rescue them. but yeah, just a fantasy ha.
- civilized 5y agoI agree, it's nice to think that business types might realize they should treat you nicely if their business literally depends on it.
- perl4ever 5y ago>This does seem to suggest a solution... Yeah, some already figured out, if you do that, you don't need people from high wage countries.