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I'm not sure why transpiling away COBOL [assuming it hasn't been modernized like C++] wouldn't make the most sense.

by wrsh07 11y ago

JoshTriplett 11y ago
Consider the kind of shop that has large quantities of COBOL; they're unlikely to be excited about a major change that may potentially decrease the stability of their system. And what advantage would transpiling bring over just compiling? The only real reasons to transpile are either 1) if there's an environment you want to target that mandates a particular language, or 2) if you want to interoperate with code in another language that's not capable of speaking or being spoken to via some FFI or other function-call/library/IPC interface.
ctdonath 11y ago
Modernization has happened. I recall a reference to "Object-oriented COBOL on JAVA VM".
fennecfoxen 11y ago
I'm not sure why there won't just be a gradual shift to businesses offering services on a quasi-modern technology stack, and able to offer the same capabilities in a more-competitive fashion. Certainly in some industries like banking, certifying it and appeasing the auditors will be a huge deal, which is presumably why COBOL and RPG are still a big deal there today - but hey, maybe there will be other advantages when you move away from storing your records in EBCDIC, too. :P (EBCDIC - you know, the un-ASCII, designed after ASCII specifically to be backwards-compatible with the integers punched on punch cards.)
- pjmlp 11y ago
  Because Cobol keeps getting updated to follow up with times. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COBOL#COBOL_2002_and_object-oriented_COBOL https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COBOL#COBOL_2002_and_object-or...
sliverstorm 11y ago
Why? If the codebase is mature and there are no glaring problems, why not hire COBOL programmers at a modest premium? COBOL still works. If COBOL programmers were gone, never to come back, they would have to port- but the market worked its magic.
- cgh 11y ago
  Exactly. I'm not a Cobol programmer but I did learn it in school. From this limited experience and from speaking to some older guys who actually do it for a living, there's probably no language out there that's better at what Cobol is all about: report generation. Not to mention decimal arithmetic.
  - hga 11y ago
    Yeah, I did 1 week of it in the summer of 1978 and for what it's good at, it was slick. Found myself missing the decimal arithmetic stuff when I was doing C on early UNIX(TM) systems in the '80s.
agumonkey 11y ago
Many people tried fat transpilation to COBOL, they marketed it as an easier for business users, but from what I recall, the generated code was messy, people had to tap into it, making it even messier and it never caught on.

I'm not sure why transpiling away COBOL [assuming it hasn't been modernized like C++] wouldn't make the most sense.

by wrsh07 11y ago

I'm not sure why transpiling away COBOL [assuming it hasn't been modernized like C++] wouldn't make the most sense.

Consider the kind of shop that has large quantities of COBOL; they're unlikely to be excited about a major change that may potentially decrease the stability of their system. And what advantage would transpiling bring over just compiling? The only real reasons to transpile are either 1) if there's an environment you want to target that mandates a particular language, or 2) if you want to interoperate with code in another language that's not capable of speaking or being spoken to via some FFI or other function-call/library/IPC interface.

ctdonath 11y ago

Modernization has happened. I recall a reference to "Object-oriented COBOL on JAVA VM".

fennecfoxen 11y ago

I'm not sure why there won't just be a gradual shift to businesses offering services on a quasi-modern technology stack, and able to offer the same capabilities in a more-competitive fashion. Certainly in some industries like banking, certifying it and appeasing the auditors will be a huge deal, which is presumably why COBOL and RPG are still a big deal there today - but hey, maybe there will be other advantages when you move away from storing your records in EBCDIC, too. :P (EBCDIC - you know, the un-ASCII, designed after ASCII specifically to be backwards-compatible with the integers punched on punch cards.)

pjmlp 11y ago
Because Cobol keeps getting updated to follow up with times. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COBOL#COBOL_2002_and_object-oriented_COBOL https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COBOL#COBOL_2002_and_object-or...

sliverstorm 11y ago

Why? If the codebase is mature and there are no glaring problems, why not hire COBOL programmers at a modest premium? COBOL still works. If COBOL programmers were gone, never to come back, they would have to port- but the market worked its magic.

cgh 11y ago
Exactly. I'm not a Cobol programmer but I did learn it in school. From this limited experience and from speaking to some older guys who actually do it for a living, there's probably no language out there that's better at what Cobol is all about: report generation. Not to mention decimal arithmetic.
- hga 11y ago
  Yeah, I did 1 week of it in the summer of 1978 and for what it's good at, it was slick. Found myself missing the decimal arithmetic stuff when I was doing C on early UNIX(TM) systems in the '80s.

agumonkey 11y ago

Many people tried fat transpilation to COBOL, they marketed it as an easier for business users, but from what I recall, the generated code was messy, people had to tap into it, making it even messier and it never caught on.