Cobol!? Why!?

Just went to a career fair today, and handed out a few resumes and spoke to a few corporate representatives. The most promising one came with a nice pay package, a job that sounded easy, and it would be a summer internship.

Then he explained they are looking for people with experience with COBOL. I lied and said "sure, I know COBOL" even though I dont (hey, I need work dammit!). My question is, why COBOL? You know, I looked through the course catalog at our school and they dont even teach cobol here. Why use COBOL and not C++???

And now, would someone like to point me to some refrences for COBOL syntax?

>>Why cobol?
Read the previous threads on this., like this one.

Sorry, don't know any references, but I could suggest www.google.com ;)

I have this free COBOL compiler.

http://www.webwareindex.com/tutorials/Cobol.html

http://www.csis.ul.ie/COBOL/

http://www.geocities.com/progshareho.../tutorials.htm

http://www.csis.ul.ie/cobol/Course/Default.htm

http://www.freeprogrammingresources.com/coboltutr.html

http://www.intelinfo.com/newly_resea...ing/COBOL.html

Here are some good ones. Enjoy.

the real reason is THERE IS NO REASON, i remember the other thread and everyone was like "oh its usefull just like c++" it was good business/banking software for its day but people seem to think it's better to keep it around than update it to c++, java, or something that will be around for a few decades, lets face it cobol has been around for 40 something years, why let it keep kicking, specially looking for people w/knowlege of it when you could choose from thousands of qualified c/c++ programmers

If you want a COBOL programmer, the fact that there are n,000 skilled and qualified C++ programmers around is immaterial, and indicative of the failure of the education system to provide what is required by business.

Read those other threads. It's not a cock fight about which is the better language, it is a simple risk analysis. People stick with their existing systems because they work.

Simple fact, more than 70% of all new systems replacing old systems do not work, 78% are at least 1 year late and 84% cost more than four times as much as the IT department said it would. (Figures from European Computer Review, Q3 2002).

i understand what youre saying, i just think...exactly like you said, there arent a lot of people learning COBOL and it will be harder and harder for businesses to find programmers that know it well enough to be an asset.

>>there arent a lot of people learning COBOL
Did you base that on something, or is it just your opinion?

>>and it will be harder and harder for businesses to find programmers that know it well enough to be an asset
Companies will train people in languages too, school isn't the only place to learn things y'know ;)

COBOL is used a lot where I am, getting people to do the job isn't a problem. Their "becoming an assest" comes in time when they learn the inner workings of the systems they are maintaining/developing, not when they learn the syntax of the language.

>>Did you base that on something, or is it just your opinion?
no, not a proven fact just at the school i went to they only offered VB and C++ classes and as far as i know none of the other schools in the area did either, i learned a bit from a tech school i went to ( 2 months or so, part of the curriculum) i guess i'm not realizing that people (40 years later) are still using it :)

I started the other thread because I also saw many job opportunities for COBOL programmers...

But I have one thing to say:
The syntax in COBOL SUCKS!

It are often the bussiness people who decide if a system should be replaced by newer technology or not. So it is in some way a failure of the technicians who don't seem to be able to convince the bussiness people of using new technology. Like adrianxw said, they are currently proving that it is better to keep the old working systems than the new expensive and often not working systems. Bussiness people won't take that risk and keep using their old systems. We programmers may call it stupid, they will call it reasonable.

It is a problem I often see. As technicians we want to develop new technologies and improve existing technologies to make or products "better and more usable". But it seems that a lot of customers don't see the need for all those new stuff and buy for example a new mobile phone when new features are added to a new model.

>We programmers may call it stupid, they will call it reasonable.

If it ain't broke--don't fix it. Why keep replacing working systems with the risky new ones? I taught myself LOGO once--all the rage then. Fat of lot good it does me now.

You can earn a lot of money as a COBOL programmer.

Anybody know of COBOL jobs one could do from home.