[ahlatimer]

It is indeed true. They had a pre-existing task system that ran on the HP3000 that was built in COBOL. They modeled the new one (that was supposed to be web based) on the old one, and they decided to build it all in COBOL. I'm guessing they repurposed [1] some code, and they definitely repurposed the database. I think the goal was to have employees continue to use the command-line based task system while allowing customers to input tasks on the web. I think they also wanted employees outside the main office to still be able to access the task system if they were, say, at a client's office.

I left right around this whole project got started. I even mocked up the original interfaces. Twice. The first time I didn't do the whole thing in a table and my manager couldn't understand it, so I had to rip out any CSS and divs and go back to the 90's. They had two "graphic designers" on staff, so I'm not entirely sure why I was given that task, but there it is.

My whole time there seemed like some weird trip back in time. It took me a while to get used the copyright date on the COBOL compiler being two years before I was born.

[1]: "Repurposed" is used loosely. The way you build web apps in COBOL is so convoluted that it's extremely hard to use pre-existing code.