> Let's remember that in those 42 years the number of BASIC, FORTRAN, or COBOL jobs has diminished through to almost nothing. That's true, but it's a hockey st

> Let's remember that in those 42 years the number of BASIC, FORTRAN, or COBOL jobs has diminished through to almost nothing. That's true, but it's a hockey stick / logarithmic thing. When I started coding, the BASIC and COBOL technologies were waning-- still bringing in paychecks, but it was clear that their peak was a few years in the past. There are lots of people right here on these forums using technologies today that are in the exact same situation. Citing these examples by name usually erupts into a flame war, but for sake of illustration, a good example might be PHP.