You should learn cobol

Novice programmers (and it is quite possible that their colleagues with experience) must often ask themselves whether they need to learn JAVA, or knowledge of JavaScript, Python or Ruby will be quite enough in the modern world. Given the demand for programmers in the current economy, many find a decent job while still studying at universities, and then why, one wonders, do a representative of this profession look into such a distant past as COBOL ?

According to a 2001 Gartner study (in the case of this particular language, this may well be called “recently”), 85% of the global amount of business information was processed in COBOL, and by the current moment the amount of code written in this programming language is starting to increase again. Micro Focus , a company engaged in the development and sale of COBOL modernization tools, claims that 70% of global business is still actively using this language.

And although it is obvious that many of the applications originally written in COBOL will be rewritten, Micro Focus is sure that most of the original code will still be in operation, and the applications will be used for many more years. They are safe, stable, and companies using them are not ready to just give up on them. A Micro Focus program manager named Arunn Ramadoss (Arunn Ramadoss) says: "No other language is able to present business data as accurately as COBOL does."
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And even in the days of late retirement, there are fewer and fewer engineers able to work with this language. Someone stops working, others go to positions related to management, not development.

Ramados believes that the world's largest companies and agencies will soon be very interested in young programmers who understand COBOL, as well as new technologies, such as .NET or HTML5, believing that learning this programming language will do good work to all students of programming faculties. , and their graduates, as very soon a sufficient number of interesting vacancies associated with COBOL will appear on the market. Not to mention that this programming language is easy to learn.

In truth, such vacancies are already beginning to appear , and most often with the note “urgently required.”

“The days when you could be“ exclusively a Java programmer ”or“ only a C programmer ”are gone,” says Arunn: “Today you need to know several languages ​​and technologies, as well as how they can be integrated.”

Integration is perhaps the most important trifle for a person who has decided to take on COBOL. The nature of the language, and the nature of its systems are very tightly tied to the business logic and processes. Therefore, the greatest test for the developer and programmer will not be learning the language itself, but an understanding of how it can be used in a modern corporate environment.

As an example, Ramadoss talks about the business process of transferring funds from one bank account to another - this procedure has not changed at all since its inception. But the way people interact with their bank accounts and transactions has undergone significant, if not drastic, changes. Today, everyone wants to access the account using a PC or mobile phone.

In turn, for companies using the application written in COBOL, the most difficult moment will be the preservation and transfer of accumulated experience and knowledge of existing business processes to new developers. Those programmers who already know this language and understand how it integrates into modern technologies will favorably stand out against the background of their colleagues, despite the fact that, in principle, this is not the most difficult to learn, technology (which means many can relate to her somewhat frivolous).

So how do you start a person who is interested in learning this oldest programming language? The best start is cobol.com , where you can find a lot of information on how to approach this technology. As for the literature, the book “The 21st Century COBOL Programmer” by the authors Nancy Stern, Robert A. Stern and James P. Ley is considered to be a recognized benchmark.

And of course, right here, on your favorite resource, you can find interesting materials relating to this programming language.

via eWeek , RRW