KAY’SCORNER
10 JANUARY2020|COMPUTERSHOPPER|ISSUE
LearnCobol,young coder
UUUSUALLYBASEthesecolumns
arrround what’s fun, newand
treeendyinmyareaofcomputer
ussse, andthismonth is no
exxxception: theprogramming
lannnguageCobol hasjust
ceeelebrated its60th birthday.OK,
soooCobolisn’t really fun, newor
treeendy, butwhat’sodd is thatit’s
stillreally important.
It was already seen as boring
annndunfashionablewhen Ifirst
aaarned it back in the 80s. These
daaays, hardly any universities
include Cobol on theircourses,
and most people in IT probably
think of it as ahistorical curiosity.
So you might be surprised to
learnthat you’ve almost certainly
interacted with aCobol program
recently. If you’vegot moneyout
of an ATM, used online banking,
interacted with agovernment
department,sent or received a
parcel, talked to acallcentre,a
Cobol programwas likely involved.
Around 65% of active code
stillbeingused todayiswritten in
Cobol and, accordingtoReuters,
around$3tn everyday in theUS
is handledbyCobolsystems.
What’smore,whileweall think of
computingassomething where
things are created new and
sparkly all the time,many of the
systems you’veinteracted with
will have been creakingalong
sincethe 70s or 80s, possibly
without anything being changed.
So how come we’re still
relying on codewrittensolong
ago? There are several reasons.
First,the code still largely does
what it’s meant to.There’s jazzy
new stuff to make it look pretty,
but the bits behind the scenes
that makesureit’s your bank
account the funds areput into,
that there’senoughmoneyinthe
account before you empty the
cashpoint, therules forthat sort
of thingdon’t change.What’s
more,the companyyou’re
dealing with won’tmakeany
more profitiftheyspend millions,
or even billions, updatingit.
COSTANALYSIS
If you think my estimatesfor the
costare unreasonable, do aquick
web search forgovernment
computer system problems and
take your pickofheadlines such
as ‘Abandoned NHSsystemhas
cost£10bn’, ‘£12bn government
computer system scrapped’and
so on. Idon’t know forsure that
the systemsbeing replaced
wereCobol ones, butIbet they
are.Idoknow that when the
Commonwealth Bank of Australia
rewrote itsCobol bankingsystem
in 2012, it took fiveyearsand
over A$1bn (around £500m).
One reason forthe high costs
is that thoseold Cobolsystems
are often very complex. Back in
the days whentheywerewritten,
even amainframe computer
couldn’tdealwith averylarge
program, so to getanATM
system, forexample,you might
have several hundred smaller
programs each doing asmall part.
Those separateprograms are
layeredand convoluted, and
changing them would be
horrendous. Youthink the HS
trainline people have problems?
They’re tinybycomparison, and
while we allsigh if anew trainline
doesn’t get built on time and on
budget, if you open your online
banking accountand all your
money has disappeared you’d do
alot more than grumble.
So the Cobol programs have
to keepworking,and that
involves having Cobol
programmers to maintain them.
So here’s aquestion: what
happens whenall theold Cobol
programmers retire?Most of
them have done so already, while
afew arestill coining it in even
thoughthey’re well past
retirement. One group in theUS
calledCobol Cowboys(withthe
tagline ‘not our firstrodeo’) has
part-time consultants, most over
retirementage,who earn good
money as consultants fixing
problems or makingsure new
interfaces interactwith theold
systems. Most were originally
employed in thesame industries
theynow consultfor,and are
chosen because they’retrusted.
GOLDEN OLDIES
Another example-notrelated to
Cobol Cowboys–is of aUS
government department that has
oneelderly employeeinhis 70s,
on oxygen, who remains vital
because he’s the only person
whounderstands thesystem
being used.According to a
vice-president at IT company
Unisys, thegovernment
departmentsends outapolice
car to pickthe employee up and
bring himintowork every
morning,tomake sureheand his
oxygen mask get there OK.
What’s neededisanew
generationofprogrammers to
keep things going, but thesnag is
thatyoung programmers aren’t
interestedinlearning Cobol;it’s
seen as alanguage of old fuddy
duddies, and thework is generally
fairly tediousmaintenance work.
Thingsaren’tall bad, however.
IBMhas launched training
programs andfellowships for
young developerstolearn Cobol,
andsaysithas now trained
nearly200,000developers.
So wouldIbelearning Cobol
if Iwas starting my programming
career right now? I’mnot sure.
Eventhe mostenthusiastic
supportersofCobol give it a
maximum lifespan of maybe
being themajorbusiness
language forthe next 20 years.
Then again,thatwas what they
told me back in 1980, and look
at Cobol now.
KAYEWBANK
Software guru andShopperlegend
[email protected]
Chancesareyou’ve usedtechnologybasedon Cobolinthe last fewweeks.Sowhy,asks
KayEwbank,isitseenasanarchaic languagethat nobodywantstolearn?
Around 65%ofactivecode still being used todayiswritteninCobol,
and around $3tn every dayinthe US is handled by Cobol systems
