Re: Old broken COBOL programs from the 70s and 80s

#1 07-19-2008, 01:14 PM

>>> On 7/18/2008 at 12:26 AM, in message
<b1c5d257-8c79-43a8-a8d0-e986530039ac@d19g2000prm.googlegroups.com>,
x01001x<xemail@softhome.net> wrote:
> So I guess it was around 1998-1999 I started hearing all this stuff
> about how the old COBOL programs needed to be Y2k-upgraded, because
> they were only able to handle two-digit dates instead of 4-digit
> dates.
>
> All of a sudden all these old COBOL programmers got new jobs to fix
> their old broken code.
>
> I assume (perhaps incorrectly) that COBOL programs are primarily for
> business applications, unlike FORTRAN for science and math, and BASIC
> for basic programming.
>
> Will people please comment on these old broken COBOL programs from the
> 1970s and 1980s which needed to be upgraded.
>
> Why were companies still using such ancient code in 1999?
> What kind of hardware would even still be heavily used at that time
> which would support old COBOL code?

What an odd question. We are using programs that were originally written in
1978. Which is not to say they haven't been heavily modified in the 30
years hence, and upgraded to use more recent compilers. But why throw away
what is still working?

Frank

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode