Re:Otterkit COBOL, a new free and open source COBOL compiler...
by the_af on Tuesday January 17, 2023 @09:02AM
(#34412427)
> I find COBOL to be a very interesting language, with a huge unexplored potential. For example, I'm sure that most people are not aware that COBOL has generics, method overloading, declarative error/exception handling, asynchronous messaging, etc.
But most COBOL systems are legacy systems, using a version of COBOL designed many decades ago, and without any of these features.
Starting to use the features you list will effectively be like learning a completely new language, only without any of the upsides of modernity and all of the downsides. If you are going to migrate from legacy COBOL to slightly-less-legacy-COBOL-but-at-the-same-time-all-these-frightening-new-features, you might as well migrate to a more modern platform and language.
But most COBOL systems are legacy systems, using a version of COBOL designed many decades ago, and without any of these features.
Starting to use the features you list will effectively be like learning a completely new language, only without any of the upsides of modernity and all of the downsides. If you are going to migrate from legacy COBOL to slightly-less-legacy-COBOL-but-at-the-same-time-all-these-frightening-new-features, you might as well migrate to a more modern platform and language.