State of New Jersey needs COBOL programmers

[Bill Degnan]

This may have already been said, but I have worked with a little COBOL
within MS .NET for fun, some years ago, just to see it run.  I am sure
that's what they're intending the candidates for this job will have had
experience doing.  My guess would be it's just as important to be a .NET
guru who can update COBOL within that environment as if it was C# or ASP.
COBOL/.NET.   You would need to assign printers, add option codes, etc..
You would be working with legacy code that is solid, just needs parameter
updates stuff like that.  Networking, printer configurations and
environment tweaks.

When I ran COBOL GAP accounting jobs way back when while at DuPont, we used
TSO/JCL to set up the jobs.  Now a day .NET fulfils that layer.

I guess it is possible that an AIX server emulating an early 80's IBM
server emulating an IBM 360 is the environment is being used but I bet it
was upgraded to .NET years ago.  Not so crazy.  COBOL is great for things
like printing checks.

So if you're a .NET guru this might be a fun contract in the $200/hr's.
Hmmm...

Bill




On Sun, Apr 5, 2020, 9:41 AM Stefan Skoglund via cctalk <
cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:

> lör 2020-04-04 klockan 21:47 -0700 skrev Fred Cisin via cctalk:
> > 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/
> >
> > In December 1999, they were looking for COBOL programmers.
> >
> > They were told to update their software.
> >
> > Now, 20 years later, they are looking for COBOL programmers, to start
> > the
> > update project.
> >
>
> To be fair, in this case updating your software means:
>
> throw out the baby with the water
> build a completely new IT infrastructure with everything
> and expect things to work badly the next 5-8 years....
> long enough to hinder/(be a millstone around) the governor's re-
> election campagin
>
> and then in 15 years, be prepared to redo....
>
> Pundits like this steinberg is right and wrong - they doesn't
> acknowledge how expensive new fangled information technology is.
>
>
>