SI
SI
discoversearch

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor.  We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community.  If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.
Technology Stocks : 2000 Date-Change Problem: Scam, Hype, Hoax, Fraud
 Public ReplyPrvt ReplyMark as Last ReadFilePrevious 10Next 10PreviousNext  
To: Bill Wexler who wrote (113)10/2/1997 1:18:00 PM
From: David Eddy   of 1361
 
Bill,

demand for COBOL-specific talent is not strong, in fact it's decreasing. Salaries for IS personnel (i.e. programmers and analysts well versed in current technologies such as C++, client/server, web apps. etc.)

Just because you've seen 250 press pieces about "COBOL programmer shortage" doesn't mean it's accurate. The reporters are just regurgitating the pieces they've just read while surfing the net.

COBOL is just one of hundreds of languages in common usage. I have a friend overseas that says they have 50 languages in use. And until you take a fairly detailed look, you can't just blow away a language just because it's not aucourant.

Problem is, it's extremely difficult to get primary facts. I can't think of more than a half dozen folks like Capers Jones (Howard Rubin,
Michael Mah & some others) who've actually been able to scratch out a living from this.

Capers does have a list of 600 languages that he's been paid to baseline to Function Point (FP) metrics. His list of languages in active use is growing at over 10% annually.

Don't forget that today's current technology is tomorrow's dog. Surely you'd not dispute that languages like C and C++ are "the portable Assembler languages of the 1990s." The poor schleps that have to maintain/debug C applications ten years from now will rightly so have some very unprintable comments about the idiots who chose that brain dead language.

Remember that Hudson, Studebaker and Packard were well respected cars in their day... and time moves on.

David
Report TOU ViolationShare This Post
 Public ReplyPrvt ReplyMark as Last ReadFilePrevious 10Next 10PreviousNext  

HomeMailHotSubjectMarksPeopleMarksKeepersSettings
Terms Of UseContact UsCopyright/IP PolicyPrivacy PolicyAbout UsFAQAdvertise on SI
© 2025 Knight Sac Media.  Data provided by Twelve Data, Alpha Vantage, and CityFALCON News