this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2023
220 points (96.6% liked)

Technology

34894 readers
980 users here now

This is the official technology community of Lemmy.ml for all news related to creation and use of technology, and to facilitate civil, meaningful discussion around it.


Ask in DM before posting product reviews or ads. All such posts otherwise are subject to removal.


Rules:

1: All Lemmy rules apply

2: Do not post low effort posts

3: NEVER post naziped*gore stuff

4: Always post article URLs or their archived version URLs as sources, NOT screenshots. Help the blind users.

5: personal rants of Big Tech CEOs like Elon Musk are unwelcome (does not include posts about their companies affecting wide range of people)

6: no advertisement posts unless verified as legitimate and non-exploitative/non-consumerist

7: crypto related posts, unless essential, are disallowed

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

It's not the 1st time a language/tool will be lost to the annals of the job market, eg VB6 or FoxPro. Though previously all such cases used to happen gradually, giving most people enough time to adapt to the changes.

I wonder what's it going to be like this time now that the machine, w/ the help of humans of course, can accomplish an otherwise multi-month risky corporate project much faster? What happens to all those COBOL developer jobs?

Pray share your thoughts, esp if you're a COBOL professional and have more context around the implication of this announcement ๐Ÿ™

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[โ€“] gedhrel@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think you vastly overestimate the separability of these systems.

Picture 10,000 lines of code in one method, with a history of multiple decades.

Now picture that that method has buried in it, complex interactions with another method of similar size, which is triggered via an obscure side-effect.

Picture whole teams of developers adding to this on a daily basis in realtime.

There is no "meaningful progress" to be made here. It may offend your aesthetic sense, but it's just the reality of doing business.

[โ€“] aksdb@feddit.de 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What's the alternative in your opinion?

Not doing anything and keep fiddling around in this mess for the next 20 years?

Continue trying to capture this problem big-bang, which means not only dealing with one such unmaintainable module but all of them at once?

Will every module be a piece of cake? Hell no. But if you never start anywhere, it doesn't get better on its own.

[โ€“] gedhrel@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

The alternative is to continue with a process that's been demonstrably successful, despite it offending your sensibilities.

Banks are prepared to pay for it. People are prepared to do it. It meets the business needs. Change is massively high-risk in a hugely conservative industry.

[โ€“] aksdb@feddit.de 1 points 1 year ago

And what is that successful process?