4 ms·

But are these legacy systems from the 70s, 80s, 90s using modern cobol?

by j0hnyl 2y ago

ithkuil 2y ago
When you hear about people being paid $X vs 10x$X to fix some cobol; is there a correlation between the age of the cobol system?
- HeyLaughingBoy 2y ago
  Probably not; just a matter of how desperate they are.
  - ithkuil 2y ago
    Which is also a function of how hard it is to find someone who has the required skills to address the problem
jcranmer 2y ago
Almost certainly yes. The "legacy systems" are likely running on versions of the mainframe with long-term support contracts, whose vendors are committed to providing newer compilers with support for newer versions of the specification as necessary.
NikolaNovak 2y ago
Depends what you mean; but not necessarily. I am managing an ERP system implemented / went live in 2016. It's working on modern P10 hardware, which was released in 2021. The ERP system is continually updated by the vendor and customized by the client. Even for COBOL running on an actual mainframe, which I think most HNers would think of 1970s dinosaur, most of the actual machines in production would be pretty new. IBM z16 was launched in 2022. So they are "legacy systems" in the sense they're not written on a javascript framework which was launched last week, running on lambda instances in AWS :). But they are not "OLD" systems, as such.
- zifpanachr23 2y ago
  Yep, the system is old in the same way that we could call x86 "old". The architecture is backwards compatible with instructions going back to the mid 1960s...but that doesn't mean new instructions and updates to the ISA aren't being pushed out on a pretty regular cadence. The new Telum II processor (and certainly this also implies another big ISA update and new hardware cycle) was announced at Hot Chips just a few weeks ago for example. See: https://chipsandcheese.com/2024/09/08/telum-ii-at-hot-chips-2024-mainframe-with-a-unique-caching-strategy/ https://chipsandcheese.com/2024/09/08/telum-ii-at-hot-chips-...

But are these legacy systems from the 70s, 80s, 90s using modern cobol?

by j0hnyl 2y ago

But are these legacy systems from the 70s, 80s, 90s using modern cobol?

When you hear about people being paid $X vs 10x$X to fix some cobol; is there a correlation between the age of the cobol system?

HeyLaughingBoy 2y ago
Probably not; just a matter of how desperate they are.
- ithkuil 2y ago
  Which is also a function of how hard it is to find someone who has the required skills to address the problem

jcranmer 2y ago

Almost certainly yes. The "legacy systems" are likely running on versions of the mainframe with long-term support contracts, whose vendors are committed to providing newer compilers with support for newer versions of the specification as necessary.

NikolaNovak 2y ago

Depends what you mean; but not necessarily. I am managing an ERP system implemented / went live in 2016. It's working on modern P10 hardware, which was released in 2021. The ERP system is continually updated by the vendor and customized by the client. Even for COBOL running on an actual mainframe, which I think most HNers would think of 1970s dinosaur, most of the actual machines in production would be pretty new. IBM z16 was launched in 2022. So they are "legacy systems" in the sense they're not written on a javascript framework which was launched last week, running on lambda instances in AWS :). But they are not "OLD" systems, as such.

zifpanachr23 2y ago
Yep, the system is old in the same way that we could call x86 "old". The architecture is backwards compatible with instructions going back to the mid 1960s...but that doesn't mean new instructions and updates to the ISA aren't being pushed out on a pretty regular cadence. The new Telum II processor (and certainly this also implies another big ISA update and new hardware cycle) was announced at Hot Chips just a few weeks ago for example. See: https://chipsandcheese.com/2024/09/08/telum-ii-at-hot-chips-2024-mainframe-with-a-unique-caching-strategy/ https://chipsandcheese.com/2024/09/08/telum-ii-at-hot-chips-...