Mastodawn

Also, techbros: "AI is going to change everything, nothing will be the same, adopt it or get left behind"

Senior devs: "Well golly gee, now that's something I've never heard before . . ."

@MichaelTBacon @raganwald @gvwilson "Been left behind my whole life. Why should I start worrying about it now?"

*10 new super-shiny things appear on the horizon*

Young dev: "ooh, those are the future! Let's go—"

Old dev: <hand out blocking the way> "Hang, on, wait for it. . . "

*7 of the 10 super-shiny things crash and burn in a fiery ball that can be seen from space*

Old dev: "almost . . ."

*1 of remaining shiny things turns evil and starts eating everything near it*

Old dev: "okay, let's go."

@MichaelTBacon @crazyeddie @raganwald @gvwilson ... and somewhere, imbedded in some large institutional mainframe, a COBOL program is still running.

Everywhere.

The COBOL programs are *EVERYWHERE*.

And they're central, pivotal, and vital to the continued successful operation of most parts of the world economy.

@JeffGrigg @MichaelTBacon @crazyeddie @raganwald @gvwilson Yeah, I know. My mom probably contributed to some of that code (GE, in the 1960s).

My father gave me his IBM COBOL manual. And I've programmed COBOL on Hollerith punch cards.

@deborahh @JeffGrigg @c_merriweather @MichaelTBacon @crazyeddie @raganwald @gvwilson I had to punch my only cards before graduating to a teletype. Didn’t like those new-fangled CRT’s much.