New Jersey needs COBOL programmers for their unemployment claims system

Re:New Jersey needs COBOL programmers for their unemployment... by microtherion on Sunday April 05, 2020 @08:42AM (#22785303)

> I did a few years in the salty COBOL mines

In the mid-80s, my first year CS professor anticipated most us ending up "in the lead mines of COBOL programming" — it was commonly assumed that we'd never manage to get rid of the dominance of COBOL.

Are references to mining common in the COBOL scene?

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Re:New Jersey needs COBOL programmers for their unemployment... by tylerrobinson on Sunday April 05, 2020 @09:05AM (#22785379)

I can’t tell if you are joking, but “the salt mines” is a rather common bit of workplace humor, at least in the US.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_mining#Idiomatic_use

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Re:New Jersey needs COBOL programmers for their unemployment... by microtherion on Sunday April 05, 2020 @05:37PM (#22788943)

Thanks! I genuinely was not aware of "salt mines" specifically, though I have come across mining references, and even made some myself, now that I think about it.

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