State of New Jersey needs COBOL programmers

[Fred Cisin]

On Sat, 4 Apr 2020, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:

>> On Sat, 4 Apr 2020, Jeffrey Brace via cctalk wrote:
>>> https://josephsteinberg.com/covid-19-response-new-jersey-urgently-needs-cobol-programmers-yes-you-read-that-correctly/
>>>
>>
> On 4/4/20 9:47 PM, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote:
>> In December 1999, they were looking for COBOL programmers.
>>
>
> To be fair, in 1999, everybody under the sun was looking for COBOL
> programmers.
>
> --Chuck

VERY TRUE.

New Jersey is and was far from unique.  They are like every other similar 
installation.  We never fix things until we get desperate.
What percentage of managers INTEND to update their legacy code base?


In 1970, in my absolutely bottom of the totem pole job at Goddard Space 
Flight Center, I questioned the use of 2 decimal digits for the year. 
(FORTRAN)  I was told, "don't be ridiculous.  All of this will be redone 
long before that, and WE won't be here to be held responsible".
That was also when I learned to write comments before writing code, since 
they damn sure wouldn't tolerate taking time to add comments after the 
program seemed to work.


The entire industry was "taken by surprise" when it came time to deal with 
Y2K.

Not just the computer industry.  I re-ordered check blanks from my bank in 
late 1998.  They came with "19______" preprinted for date.


--
Grumpy Ol' Fred     		cisin at xenosoft.com