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Any COBOL Programmers? Uncle Sam needs you now !!!
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Blimey!
I did a Computer Studies degree at the Polytechnic of Wales back in the mid 1980s and did COBOL then. Hated it! And quickly forgot most of it too!!
I did a Computer Studies degree at the Polytechnic of Wales back in the mid 1980s and did COBOL then. Hated it! And quickly forgot most of it too!!
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I also studied COBOL, in addition to Assembler, JCL, FORTRAN languages and loved the Assembler language. At the time of my studies. mainframes were not as powerful as nowadays. When I was ready to compile my COBOL program, I used Assembler language to send out a message to everyone, that "The system is going down for a reboot, please save your work and log off". This worked just fine twice, compiled my program quickly, until the mainframe operators removed my access to schedule a JCL batch jobs.
The guy, who wrote the first electronic ticker tape for Nasdaq in CICS language was my professor. He just laughed at the operators, when they complained about my JCL batch jobs...
Yeah, that was in the 80s for me too, haven't used these languages since the mid 80s, early 90s.
The guy, who wrote the first electronic ticker tape for Nasdaq in CICS language was my professor. He just laughed at the operators, when they complained about my JCL batch jobs...
Yeah, that was in the 80s for me too, haven't used these languages since the mid 80s, early 90s.
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Yeah, I lived, breathed, and ate COBOL for many years.
I saw the news article about this and I wrote Phil Murphy (Governor of New Jersey) but he never got back to me.
I told him that I was 85 so he'd better hurry.
(I messed up my subject line, and that can't be edited.)
I saw the news article about this and I wrote Phil Murphy (Governor of New Jersey) but he never got back to me.
I told him that I was 85 so he'd better hurry.
(I messed up my subject line, and that can't be edited.)
Last edited by a moderator:
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I learned COBOL, but never really used it after that. However, lots of legacy systems originally written in COBOL work well, even today. I remember during the Y2K "crisis" that we were getting lots of business from companies using COBOL systems for store management, accounting, inventory, etc, and who wanted to be sure their systems would survive Y2K. So it's not just the US Government using COBOL, there are a lot of Fortune 500 companies in that same boat.
Oh, and I was on a contract supporting the IRS and they were using Assembler as late as 2010 with no real plans to retire it. They have such huge processing needs that the overhead of more modern languages means every time they try to update from the Assembler to some more modern language the programs actually run so much longer that they become unusable. They end up throwing hardware at the problem, but they get caught in a Catch-22 in that the Assembler won't run on some modern hardware, but converting the Assembler to more modern languages to use the newer hardware means it runs more slowly, which means they have to have bigger hardware to compensate and then Congress complains about how much it costs to modernize, so nothing gets done. Add in the greying population of programmers who actually know Assembler and the IRS is staring in the face of absolute chaos.
Oh, and I was on a contract supporting the IRS and they were using Assembler as late as 2010 with no real plans to retire it. They have such huge processing needs that the overhead of more modern languages means every time they try to update from the Assembler to some more modern language the programs actually run so much longer that they become unusable. They end up throwing hardware at the problem, but they get caught in a Catch-22 in that the Assembler won't run on some modern hardware, but converting the Assembler to more modern languages to use the newer hardware means it runs more slowly, which means they have to have bigger hardware to compensate and then Congress complains about how much it costs to modernize, so nothing gets done. Add in the greying population of programmers who actually know Assembler and the IRS is staring in the face of absolute chaos.
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My brother has forgotten more computer languages than I ever knew. I called him when I saw they were scrambling for COBOL programmers. He said no way, but they - being the State of Ohio, contacted a retired friend of his and he is trying to help them out. His retired friend worked with Grace Hopper back in the day so that should give you an idea how old he is!
Lisa
Lisa
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I met Grace Hopper, so now you know how old I am!
Do you know any more about your brother's friend? Does he live in Ohio, or is he helping out via remote assistance?
Do you know any more about your brother's friend? Does he live in Ohio, or is he helping out via remote assistance?
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I wish I had met her. When I taught computer science I always covered the history. She was my favorite to cover because she was so innovative and just amazing. I had a couple of videos of some of her teachings on computers. She had a way of explaining on a very understandable level.
Lisa
Lisa
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I met Capt. Hopper before they promoted her to Commodore, then Admiral. I heard her speak three times, and each time the history was the same, but she always ended the speech with cutting edge developments. Brilliant lady!
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No I don’t know anything about his friend. He said he is not sure it was just a brief contact.
Lisa
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