OwnwnDec 27, 2024
Benno
You, an idiot: "COBOL is a dead language."
Me, a wise person: https://github.com/meyfa/CobolCraft
GitHub - meyfa/CobolCraft: A Minecraft server written in COBOL

A Minecraft server written in COBOL. Contribute to meyfa/CobolCraft development by creating an account on GitHub.

GitHub
Dec 27, 2024 at 6:05amWeb
Show threadElias MårtensonDec 27, 2024

@benno OK, this is amazing.

I'm not usually the one to ask why when it comes to interesting open source projects. However, in this case I have to, since there appears to be very little reason for anyone to use this, unless of course the intent is to make it better than the alternatives, in which case I am going to be one of this project's main proponents.

Show threadkeithzgDec 27, 2024
@benno Just read the project README and it seems to me there is a plausible scenario where code in this project ends up in global corporate use
Show threadgzDec 27, 2024
@benno
CobolCraft? More like witchcraft!
Show threadPeter HDec 27, 2024

@benno The whole 'this or that programming language is dead' thing irritates me.

COBOL is alive. It's currently 19th on THIOBE (https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/), with a rating just below te likes of Ruby and R.

Which I find funny, because Ruby is one of the languages people told me to switch to because my Visual Basic, PHP and Java apps would get in to trouble because Ruby was growing.

TIOBE Index - TIOBE

TIOBE
Show threadBennoDec 27, 2024
@peter_slwk I may have opined on similar things in the past… https://youtu.be/BCqGjGzWI48
"The New COBOL" - Benno Rice (PyCon AU 2019)

YouTube
Show threadNicholas Edward Werner-MatavkaDec 27, 2024
@peter_slwk @benno It's alive, but it's kind of domain-specific, isn't it? Nobody should be writing *games* in the Common Business-Oriented Language—it is a programming language made for people in three-piece suits who use it to do Serious Work, like double-entry accounting and payroll software.
Show threadPeter HDec 27, 2024
@nickmatavka @benno Absolutely!
Show threadJo Kingly Dec 27, 2024
@benno These kinds of projects make my day.
Show threadThadDec 27, 2024

@benno The only time my grandpa ever talked to me about my work, he asked if people still use COBOL. I told him it's kind of tapered off into a niche but it's still used some places.

He retired from the local utility company in the 1980s, so that's where he'd have been using COBOL. I figure that makes him the first programmer in the family.

He was oldschool enough that when I asked him if he'd ever heard of C he said he hadn't.

Show threadNateDec 27, 2024

@benno

I wrote COBOL for 9.5 years and occasionally think about getting back into it "for the money".

This project is fucking incredible!

@hacks4pancakes

Show threadHi it's Kylie 🫀Dec 27, 2024

@benno what the fuck why

Okay I read the docs and I'm insanely impressed and honestly a little curious to try to run it but still.....WHY

Show threadPaul HoffmanDec 28, 2024
@benno Not as insane as a well-paid contract that a friend of mine had in the late 1980s to use COBOL to write a (….wait for it….) SCSI driver.
Show threadBjörn 🌸 StarkimarmDec 28, 2024
@benno
As if COBOL could ever die...
Show threadAllan Svelmøe HansenDec 28, 2024
@Starkimarm @benno This could even break the Matrix :D
Show threadjohn localhostJan 1, 2025
@benno the horrible temptation to switch my minecraft server over to this (it wouldn't work because it's modded)
Show threadBennoJan 1, 2025
@mjdxp Clearly you just need to port the mods!
Show threadDragon-sided DJan 1, 2025

@benno For 2 decades, I have had the same career advice for young people:

1. Nursing. Lots of educational assistance financing available, you can start earning almost immediately, and as an LPN or RN people will pay you very well to travel to all sorts of places you'll love.

2. COBOL. You will work a little, only when you feel like it. Everyone will treat you like a fucking wizard.

Edit: h/t to a Wizard