[Info-vax] The ghost of Christmas future

[Richard Maher]

Hi Kerry,

[Yep, I still maintain there is going to be a return to the basics as
Companies can no longer afford grandiose SOA / "latest rip-n-replace
craze of the month" distributed programming strategy developed by the
analyst / university / whoever theorists.]

I certainly agree with you but perhaps with a little less of the "return".
Just because DEC/Compaq/HP abandoned it's VMS installed-base some years ago,
does not mean that they're still not there busily developing and maintaining
their VMS-based 3GL applications. Now your colleagues at HP/IMM may have
been able to indulge themselves in playing the prodigal son but some of us
stayed behind and kept the farm going!

Just imagine if these same loyal customers could only find a viable way to
GUIfy and WEBify their rich herritage of 3GL code, business-rules, and data?

Cheers Richard Maher

"Main, Kerry" <Kerry.Main at hp.com> wrote in message
news:mailman.5.1230475606.31861.info-vax_rbnsn.com at rbnsn.com...

> -----Original Message-----
> From: info-vax-bounces at rbnsn.com [mailto:info-vax-bounces at rbnsn.com] On
> Behalf Of Jan-Erik Söderholm
> Sent: December 28, 2008 8:06 AM
> To: info-vax at rbnsn.com
> Subject: Re: [Info-vax] Seasons Greetings
>
> Neil Rieck wrote:
> > On Dec 26, 1:28 pm, "pos" <prosulli... at hotmail.com> wrote:
> >>> May you have lots of fun and enjoyments in this season.
> >> Good luck to everyone (employed, non-employed like me :), vendors,
> >> consultants and others in getting work next year. It is not going to
> be an
> >> easy one. For those who remember the 1990's recession (no, no, not
> just
> >> Palmer :) ) migration projects were usually the first ones to be
> cut. I have
> >> already heard that banks have chopped major migration projects onto
> Linux
> >> from Alpha-based OS's.  Ironically, certain skills may be in demand
> next
> >> year.
> >
> > Last week on BBC World Service (via Sirius Satellite Radio) I heard a
> > piece on commercial software talent. The person being interviewed
> made
> > the following statement:
> >
> > "...most managers are only aware of the so-called sexy software
> > sitting on their PCs. To them, everything is either Google, you-tube,
> > social-business networking sites, or web services. However, there are
> > 170 COBOL transactions done every day for each Google transaction,
> and
> > that it is getting very difficult to find people able to work on
> > COBOL.
> >
> > When pressed further about rewriting business apps in modern computer
> > languages, he simply stated that those languages do not have the
> > features of COBOL so it was unlikely that big businesses would be
> > changing to something else anytime soon, if ever. So it was more
> > likely that older programmers would be pulled out of retirement
> before
> > schools started to place more emphasis on languages like COBOL when
> > training the next generation"
> >
> > Neil Rieck
> > Kitchener/Waterloo/Cambridge,
> > Ontario, Canada.
> > http://www3.sympatico.ca/n.rieck/
>
> Yepp...
> I'm managing a DS20e (4 GB, 600 Mhz) system with aprox 100 users
> logged on daily. Aprox 5-10 trans/sec against the Rdb database
> during daytime (aprox 200 users on Rdb, 50% interactive, 50%
> background detached processes). Everything written i COBOL.
> The box runs at an avarage of 5 % CPU load during busy-hour.
> My point is that this is an very efficent environment and that
> I'd like to see the same efficency from any of the "modern"
> development tools...
>

Yep, I still maintain there is going to be a return to the basics as
Companies can no longer afford grandiose SOA / "latest rip-n-replace
craze of the month" distributed programming strategy developed by the
analyst / university / whoever theorists.

While Cobol is only one of the many traditional languages running the
majority of core businesses today, here is some food for thought - sane
thinking from the past: (2001)

http://tinyurl.com/3crd5o
"Remember Cobol? If You Don't, Get Reacquainted"

Extract :
"In spite of its reputation, Cobol remains a resilient force in IT. Dale
Vecchio, research director at Gartner Inc., says there are roughly 180
billion lines of Cobol worldwide. This isn't surprising, given that Cobol
has been around for more than 40 years. What is surprising is Gartner's
comment in a February research note stating that 15% of all new application
functionality through 2005 will be in Cobol."

Original url (beware wrap)
http://www.computerworld.com/careertopics/careers/training/story/0,10801,60683,00.html

And another reference from the past: (2003)
http://tinyurl.com/a5wv6c
"Is COBOL the 18-Wheeler of the Web?"

Extract:
"If you're looking for a hot combination of highly employable skills,
Consider writing code to provide Web services--in COBOL."

Original url (beware wrap)
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Application-Development/Is-COBOL-the-18Wheeler-of-the-Web/



Regards

Kerry Main
Senior Consultant
HP Services Canada
Voice: 613-254-8911
Fax: 613-591-4477
kerryDOTmainAThpDOTcom
(remove the DOT's and AT)

OpenVMS - the secure, multi-site OS that just works.