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I wasn't aware that migrating projects off Cobol has become cheap and it would only take a Claude subscription. In my experience, the problem had always been m

I wasn't aware that migrating projects off Cobol has become cheap and it would only take a Claude subscription. In my experience, the problem had always been maintaining the business logic and any integrations with third-party software that also may be running legacy code-bases or have been abandoned. It can get quite complicated, from what I've seen. Now of course if you're talking about well maintained code-bases with 100%, or close to 100% test coverage, and that includes the integration part along with having the ability to maintain the user experience and/or user interface then yes it becomes a relatively easy process of "just write the code". But, in my experience, this has never been the case. For the 2.x code-bases I maintain, the customers simply doesn't want to pay for any of it. They might choose to at a later time, but so far it has been more cost effective for them to pay me to maintain that legacy code than pay to have it migrated. Other customers have different needs and thus budget differently. I'll refrain from judging if 2 to 3 was a missed opportunity or not. I believe the core team does actually know what they're doing and that any decision would've been criticized.

Tempest1981 7mo ago
IBM shares fell 13% in a single day in last month: "IBM Sinks Most Since 2000 as Anthropic Touts Cobol Tool" https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ibm-sinks-most-since-2000-210436663.html https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ibm-sinks-most-since-2000-210... It may not be "cheap", but possibly cheaper than IBM's consulting.
- scorpioxy 7mo ago
  I skip news like that. It's an AI business hyping one of their tools in a major AI hype-cycle. Shares can go up and down based on sentiment. My point still stands. To me, there's a big difference between saying that migration projects can now be assisted with some AI tooling and saying that it is cheap and to just get Claude to do it. Maybe I am out of touch but the former is realistic and the latter is just magical hand-waving.
- Marazan 7mo ago
  IBM share price is back to where it was pre-Anthropic press release.
  - thaumasiotes 7mo ago
    Sure, but imagine how much higher it would have gone in the counterfactual world where Anthropic didn't have an automatic port-from-Cobol tool.
    - Maxion 7mo ago
      Remember that those who trade on the stock market are not programmers with decades of experience writing cobol.
- PurpleRamen 7mo ago
  Share-pricing operates on illusions. Just selling a plausible claim can influence the price. Whether they will deliver at the end, doesn't matter at that moment.
  - eru 7mo ago
    Feel free to correct the market and make oodles of money.
    - kelipso 7mo ago
      Risk my money based on a bunch of wallstreetbets idiots yoloing their money using a random number generator and seeing the word AI on twitter posts, sure lol. I’ll let you play in that cesspool.
      - eru 7mo ago
        I am!
eru 7mo ago
> I believe the core team does actually know what they're doing and that any decision would've been criticized. I agree with the latter. About the former: they probably made a good decisions given the information available at the time. I mean that nowadays they know more than they did in the past.
ehutch79 7mo ago
> I wasn't aware that migrating projects off Cobol has become cheap and it would only take a Claude subscription. It's like you never even saw u/bumlazer42069's seminal post that 'itd only take 3 prompts and a weekend for me to port all that cobol to typescript'

Tempest1981 7mo ago

IBM shares fell 13% in a single day in last month: "IBM Sinks Most Since 2000 as Anthropic Touts Cobol Tool" https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ibm-sinks-most-since-2000-210436663.html https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ibm-sinks-most-since-2000-210... It may not be "cheap", but possibly cheaper than IBM's consulting.

scorpioxy 7mo ago
I skip news like that. It's an AI business hyping one of their tools in a major AI hype-cycle. Shares can go up and down based on sentiment. My point still stands. To me, there's a big difference between saying that migration projects can now be assisted with some AI tooling and saying that it is cheap and to just get Claude to do it. Maybe I am out of touch but the former is realistic and the latter is just magical hand-waving.
Marazan 7mo ago
IBM share price is back to where it was pre-Anthropic press release.
- thaumasiotes 7mo ago
  Sure, but imagine how much higher it would have gone in the counterfactual world where Anthropic didn't have an automatic port-from-Cobol tool.
  - Maxion 7mo ago
    Remember that those who trade on the stock market are not programmers with decades of experience writing cobol.
PurpleRamen 7mo ago
Share-pricing operates on illusions. Just selling a plausible claim can influence the price. Whether they will deliver at the end, doesn't matter at that moment.
- eru 7mo ago
  Feel free to correct the market and make oodles of money.
  - kelipso 7mo ago
    Risk my money based on a bunch of wallstreetbets idiots yoloing their money using a random number generator and seeing the word AI on twitter posts, sure lol. I’ll let you play in that cesspool.
    - eru 7mo ago
      I am!

eru 7mo ago

> I believe the core team does actually know what they're doing and that any decision would've been criticized. I agree with the latter. About the former: they probably made a good decisions given the information available at the time. I mean that nowadays they know more than they did in the past.

ehutch79 7mo ago

> I wasn't aware that migrating projects off Cobol has become cheap and it would only take a Claude subscription. It's like you never even saw u/bumlazer42069's seminal post that 'itd only take 3 prompts and a weekend for me to port all that cobol to typescript'