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The sentence after that one says: "That probably says more about my isolation as a programmer than anything else". The point is valid, if only to speak of an i
by gdp 17y ago
The sentence after that one says: "That probably says more about my isolation as a programmer than anything else".
The point is valid, if only to speak of an interesting separation and the generally low-visibility of COBOL in parts of the programming industry.
I can't say I've met anyone who is still actively writing or maintaining COBOL code either. I know a few people who wrote COBOL at the start of their careers, but who have since transitioned into other things.
So I think the validity of the observation stands. A quick straw poll of my colleagues within earshot (yes, I'm reading HN at work) suggests that none of them know any active COBOL programmers either. This is from a group of people from very junior to very senior, with a range of about 1 - 20 years of commercial programming experience.
- michael_dorfman 17y agoSo I think the validity of the observation stands Which observation? That the COBOL-type programmers (and we can add in RPG, and other non-sexy languages as well) are isolated from the rest of the industry? Sure. But in-house developers of serious, back-end-heavy apps have always been isolated-- including from each other.
- gdp 17y agoNo, that the reported popularity of COBOL is at odds with the anecdotal evidence.
- michael_dorfman 17y agoI think if you started calling around to banks, hospitals, transport companies, oil companies, old-school manufacturing facilities, etc., and started inquiring about their existing codebases, you'd get a whole other set of anecdotes.
- gdp 17y agoAnd that would be an interesting thing to see a blog post about too!