Matt

Is COBOL really that hard to understand? Fintech people talk about it like it's some esoteric thing that the gods left behind, that mere mortals cannot comprehend

Let me guess, those programs are actually full of clandestine backdoors and porting the software might blow their cover... right? Seems reasonable in this case they'd use AI to do a rewrite if they're trying to hide something, don't want any actual humans looking at how the sausage is made

#COBOL #programming

Feb 24 at 9:36pmWeb
Show threadMedborgarnFeb 24
@mdc It all comes down to "Why change something that works?". Why should a bank invest 7 figures sums to rebuild their whole infrastructure? When the one they have works.
Show threadGracious  AnthraciteFeb 24

@mdc

This... probably requires a greater conspiracy than is viable, but it sure is a good theory.

Show threadfundamentalFeb 24
@mdc It would be interesting to see how often 'backdoor' is used in prompts given to these coding agent models. I can't imagine though COBOL is any easier to read than FORTRAN and that language gets painful fast.
Show threadChip UnicornFeb 26

@mdc
In a word, no. COBOL is not that hard to read.

Here's some example code: https://github.com/writ3it/cobol-examples?tab=readme-ov-file

GitHub - writ3it/cobol-examples: The set of cobol examples

The set of cobol examples. Contribute to writ3it/cobol-examples development by creating an account on GitHub.

GitHub
Show threadMattFeb 26

@Chip_Unicorn

Exactly, the whole COBOL is incomprehensible to modern programmers argument is total bunk. It's less the syntax and more cutting through the bewildering reams of unstructured code these legacy programs likely use that would slow people down. But, COBOL IDEs exist and have debuggers, someone could spend a few days stepping through a program and make sense of it