The podcast discusses the continued use and relevance of COBOL, its association with mainframes, its rise and decline in the banking industry, challenges of migrating from COBOL, blue-green deployments and the future of COBOL, and the beauty and relevance of learning COBOL.
COBOL, a programming language developed in the 1960s, is still widely used in the technology industry due to its ability to process large amounts of data accurately and securely.
The decline in COBOL's popularity has led to a scarcity of COBOL programmers, making migration to newer languages complex and expensive.
Deep dives
The Role of Cobalt in Technology
Cobalt, a programming language developed in the 1960s, is still widely used today in the technology industry. It is the backbone of important systems, such as credit card transactions and ATM operations, due to its ability to process large amounts of data accurately and securely. The history and adoption of cobalt in mainframes, particularly for batch processing, played a significant role in its prevalence in banking and various industries. Despite being considered a temporary solution, its portability and easy-to-understand syntax led to mass adoption. Nonetheless, cobalt faces challenges in modernization, as the industry moves towards newer languages and development environments.
The Challenges of Migration
The decline of cobalt's popularity has led to a scarcity of cobalt programmers, with an average age of 53. Larger companies and government organizations are recognizing the need to modernize their legacy systems, but migration work comes with challenges. Cobalt's lack of scalability, portability, and an active developer ecosystem makes migration expensive and complex. The tension between building for the future and maintaining existing systems complicates decision-making. Downtime and the high volume of transactions involved in sectors like banking and healthcare hinder smooth migration to newer programming languages. Despite these challenges, cobalt's efficiency and the demand for cobalt programmers ensure its continued relevance.
The Prospects of Cobalt and Learning Opportunities
While cobalt is often viewed as outdated, its enduring effectiveness and job market demand make it worth considering as a programming language to learn. Cobalt's simplicity and clear syntax, akin to writing a love letter, make it accessible even without a formal computer science education. The potential for a resurgence lies in fostering a community that can bring fresh ideas and new development environments to cobalt. Efforts to promote cobalt training and marketability may attract younger developers, who can appreciate the language's strengths. Cobalt's unique qualities, combined with its ability to perform its intended tasks efficiently, make it a language worthy of continued recognition and exploration.
It has become the programming language underneath some of the most important industries in the world, but the community surrounding COBOL is aging, and companies are hungry for newer innovation. COBOL has stood the test of time, but what is its place among newer generations of technologists?
Want to dive deeper into the history of COBOL? Check out the Command Line Heroes episode, “The Infrastructure Effect”.
Get the Snipd podcast app
Unlock the knowledge in podcasts with the podcast player of the future.
AI-powered podcast player
Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features
Discover highlights
Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode
Save any moment
Hear something you like? Tap your headphones to save it with AI-generated key takeaways
Share & Export
Send highlights to Twitter, WhatsApp or export them to Notion, Readwise & more
AI-powered podcast player
Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features
Discover highlights
Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode