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by ArtB
4787 days ago
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> * People are still writing COBOL constantly, but usually on existing systems. From what I've seen (somewhat limited honestly) it's less "writing" and more like "patching". Minimal maintenance features like adjusting tax rates, accepting 4 digit years, updating country names etc. I wouldn't even call them minor features enhancements, more like routine maintenance. |
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Yeah, almost all of those 5 billion new lines are first copied from those existing 200 billion, then patched.
My last job had a big system where they wanted to enable a new country to be processed. The IT staff started to analyze how to modify it, but an executive for the user department gave the order: "Copy the entire codebase of the existing system, add XYZ- to all the program names, then make the changes". No-one dared disobey. Happily the existing codebase wasn't impacted, but there was now twice as much maintenance, operations, and standby support to do. I'm guessing that executive's gone now, and maybe the systems are now being supported overseas.