[kpgraham]

In 2015 I took a contract job with a large team at Verizon because I am an old man and know both Java and COBOL. The idea was to replace COBOL code with Java. The Java ran on IBM iron that was similar to the existing COBOL system. The COBOL code consistently ran at least 3-4 times faster than the Java code, no matter what we did. I think that the bottleneck was access to the huge Verizon customer database, but even the straight Java ran slower than the equivalent COBOL. They moved the project to another data center and I lost my job (my last job before I retired). I don't think that they ever got things going. I'm not sure that they ever will.

[jacquesm]

COBOL is ridiculously efficient when it comes to doing bulk IO when coupled with the right hardware that is optimized for COBOL. Attempting to use some other language to do the same thing will have the same effect as inefficient memory access patterns have on a GPU.

[rbanffy]

Few people will realize that COBOL is actually a very low level language these days.

[boznz]

There seems to be a moral to every Old language replacement story.

I am Not sure why languages are suddenly considered obsolete, I think it is that all the programmers suddenly run over to the next big thing leaving massive gaps in staff that mean recruitment becomes a problem. If I was in the market today I would be running the other way and embracing what currently works.

[hakfoo]

I blame the Resume Driven Development mindset.

"Maintained a COBOL system that processes twenty zillion transactions per hour" just doesn't sparkle like "replaced 40-year-old monolith with a galaxy of JavaScript microsoervices that get winded at 100 requests per hour."