Given the engineer’s amendment to “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” is usually “If it ain’t broke, it doesn’t have enough features yet.”, I can only surmise that COBOL must be one of those languages that are so terrible that they deter their programmers from wanting to do that.
I once had to modify some COBOL code. It’s a highly organized language, not terrible. But because it’s old there’s a shortage of people now who are good at it or want to learn it. You pretty much have to decide your career is going to be working on old code.
COBOL has entered the chat: If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
Given the engineer’s amendment to “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” is usually “If it ain’t broke, it doesn’t have enough features yet.”, I can only surmise that COBOL must be one of those languages that are so terrible that they deter their programmers from wanting to do that.
I once had to modify some COBOL code. It’s a highly organized language, not terrible. But because it’s old there’s a shortage of people now who are good at it or want to learn it. You pretty much have to decide your career is going to be working on old code.
I’ll add that 20 years ago they said if you want to make money as a programmer then learn COBOL because of the demand
It’s on my to-learn list.
I loathe that line
If it ain’t broke… maintain it.
+1 - the word “loathe” doesn’t get used often enough. The only time I remember hearing it in a movie was in Sixteen Candles.