[Info-vax] Variable declarations, was: Re: improving EDT

[Kerry Main]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Info-vax [mailto:info-vax-bounces at rbnsn.com] On Behalf
> Of David Froble via Info-vax
> Sent: 30-Nov-16 1:03 AM
> To: info-vax at rbnsn.com
> Cc: David Froble <davef at tsoft-inc.com>
> Subject: Re: [Info-vax] Variable declarations, was: Re:
improving
> EDT
> 
> Kerry Main wrote:
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: Info-vax [mailto:info-vax-bounces at rbnsn.com] On
> Behalf Of Arne
> >> Vajhøj via Info-vax
> >> Sent: 28-Nov-16 10:55 PM
> >> To: info-vax at rbnsn.com
> >> Cc: Arne Vajhøj <arne at vajhoej.dk>
> >> Subject: Re: [Info-vax] Variable declarations, was: Re:
> > improving
> >> EDT
> >>
> >> On 11/23/2016 10:58 AM, Kerry Main wrote:
> >>> A bit dated, but given the huge amount of Cobol code still
> >> running
> >>> many mission critical banking, insurance and similar
> >> environments,
> >>> likely still applies today:
> >>> http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Application-Development/Is-
> >> COBOL-the-18W
> >>> heeler-of-the-Web
> >>>
> >>> http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1432435/cobol-
> >> lease-life
> >>> Key point is to leverage and sell Cobol integration skills
> > with
> >> .Net,
> >>> J2EE and other web integration technologies with the
> >> philosophy of
> >>> "upgrade and integrate", not "rip-and-replace".
> >> That theory has been around for many years.
> >>
> >> But reality does not seem to have caught up with the theory.
> >>
> >> Arne
> >>
> >
> > Cobol and mainframes are so embedded in today's business
> world, that
> > it will likely be at least 2 decades before either of these
are
> > totally gone.
> >
> > I know one relatively large OpenVMS/Cobol shop that today
> controls
> > most of the trucking between Canada and the US. If their app
> stops,
> > then so do most of the trucks at the border.
> >
> > They have been tinkering on the edges to replace this
> environment with
> > Windows for about 10 years now.
> 
> Are they building large parking lots at the border?
> 
> :-)
> 
> Why are they wanting to tinker with something that works?  Is
it
> not as good as needed?  Or did some asshole who drank the
> weendoze kool aid involved?
> 

Typical for many shops where a new IT senior exec comes in is
presented with the old "Cobol programmers are just too hard to
find .." issues.

Rather than pay the existing Cobol programmers more than the
going rate to keep them and provide incentives for others to make
quite a bit more money by learning Cobol, they thought they could
"rip-n-replace" and the exec would be a hero. 

Question - how many programmers would be willing to make $60/hr
using all the "cool" languages vs. how many would be willing to
make $80-$100/hr using Cobol? 

Do you think programmers would remain "pure" to the cool
languages?

Course, they made this decision with very little understanding of
the complexity of the business logic that has been around and
constantly being upgraded for approx. 25 years. And now they have
spent literally hundreds of thousands of $'s (could be millions) 
before finally seeing the light and adopting
"upgrade-n-integrate". Their only success (granted was more than
3 years since I last talked to them) was moving off a few of the
15+ active-active clustered applications to Windows, but since
all the key apps and DB (Rdb) was on the prod dual node Alpha
ES45 OpenVMS cluster, they had to pay some large $'s for Attunity
(3rd party data integrator prod) to reach out and smoothly access
the OpenVMS systems.

Ah well .. as the US election and Brexit showed, sometimes you
just have to scratch your head and move on.


Regards,

Kerry Main
Kerry dot main at starkgaming dot com