The Governor of New Jersey had put out a plea to COBOL developers to volunteer to support the states aging computing systems.
In an article in The Register he explains that the 40 year old Benefits system relies upon this code and is struggling with the amount of applications being made.
While asking for volunteers, he may need to ask for retired or semi-retired developers to come back to work.
It does raise the question of technical debt, but it also shows that while an aging language COBOL was literally a Business Programming language and is still relevant today.
While COBOL is still available and indeed has several Windows and Object Orientated versions, many companies and organisations have been converting, rewriting from scratch, even redesigning systems to move their old coding real estate to modern languages. Although often the database stays the same.
It is a shame, that as this need arrives, contract developers in the UK and around the world cannot travel to the USA to offer assistance for this task due to the current travel restrictions.
Grace Hopper who’s work gave rise to the COBOL language in 1959, would if she was still alive probably have a wry smile today at the longevity of her creation.
Are you a COBOL or software developer? how are you coping with the current self-isolation directives? Please let us know.
