[phendrenad2]

Ironically enough, the way to get rid of COBOL is more of it. Democratize it. Right now, you can "learn COBOL" but you'll never get access to a mainframe environment or the actual COBOL compiler or the obscure database used by hospitals and banks, because they're too expensive. So, make emulators so that non-COBOL programmers can play around in a COBOL world without going to work for a bank or hospital. The problem with COBOl is, it's all-or-nothing. You're either in the COBOL world or you are not. But if you add an onramp, Java/C++ programmers will maybe make COBOL versions of their libraries. There will be more people going to COBOL StackOverflow. There will be more cross-pollination between COVOl and non-COBOL devs. More people will form businesses trying to bride the gap between COBOl and Java. Right now, only COBOL devs are trying to get out of COBOL-land. And their vendors will sell them overpriced solution. The Java developers on the other shore can only watch with fascination, they can't help.