Boomed

[darmstadt]

For us oldies anyway: http://www.contractoruk.com/004128.html

Imagine all the policy bounds checkers and field validation routines that need modifying to handle zero percent interest rates. The entire insurance industry will be clambering to find COBOL programmers able to understand 30 year old code and everybody else will benefit as demand escalates.

[ratewhore]

the worry is that zero interest rates would cause an unpredictable chain reaction of destruction in the financial system."

Just like CDO's then...

[expat]

For us oldies anyway: http://www.contractoruk.com/004128.html

I don't see that. If it throws an error, you fix it. But I don't think I ever once saw a program validate for interest rate > 0, and offhand I can't think of ever having divided by the interest rate; so I think that 0% will work fine.

Anyway, as for boom: last year I came across a COBOL contract that would have been really convenient for home, so I applied for it. No chance: my 20 years COBOL experience was not recent.

(Ignorant agent crap I suspect, not client, though there are stupid clients too).

[darmstadt]

I don't see that. If it throws an error, you fix it. But I don't think I ever once saw a program validate for interest rate > 0, and offhand I can't think of ever having divided by the interest rate; so I think that 0% will work fine.

Anyway, as for boom: last year I came across a COBOL contract that would have been really convenient for home, so I applied for it. No chance: my 20 years COBOL experience was not recent.

(Ignorant agent crap I suspect, not client, though there are stupid clients too).

Correct, but you really don't want the error to occur in the first place. Remember these programs are probably running in a batch window overnight with a number of other programs dependant on them along with the online systems. If an error occurs overnight, someone has to fix it, this means they will have to go through a whole plethora of tasks which take time causing online systems to be delayed. Better to go through the code first, look for possible errors, make changes and then run them on a test system to see what happens. For COBOL in particular there are tools to do this for you and its not too difficult to write something to go through source in whatever source control system you are using to search for possible problems of this type.

There are still plenty of COBOL (and PL/1) contracts going and the rates are going up all the time. In fact if you're good at COBOL you're going to get a much better rate than a Java programmer nowadays. The problem with 20 years old COBOL is that there have been a hell of a lot of changes. With LE it has become a lot more complex and in fact now there are interfaces into Java, XML, web, etc. People don't realise how much you can now do with it (there is even a COBOL IDE for Eclipse)

[expat]

The problem with 20 years old COBOL is that there have been a hell of a lot of changes.

As it happens, my COBOL isn't 20 years old. I have 20 years of COBOL experience, most recently about 8 years ago.

[DimPrawn]

Correct, but you really don't want the error to occur in the first place. Remember these programs are probably running in a batch window overnight with a number of other programs dependant on them along with the online systems. If an error occurs overnight, someone has to fix it, this means they will have to go through a whole plethora of tasks which take time causing online systems to be delayed. Better to go through the code first, look for possible errors, make changes and then run them on a test system to see what happens. For COBOL in particular there are tools to do this for you and its not too difficult to write something to go through source in whatever source control system you are using to search for possible problems of this type.

There are still plenty of COBOL (and PL/1) contracts going and the rates are going up all the time. In fact if you're good at COBOL you're going to get a much better rate than a Java programmer nowadays. The problem with 20 years old COBOL is that there have been a hell of a lot of changes. With LE it has become a lot more complex and in fact now there are interfaces into Java, XML, web, etc. People don't realise how much you can now do with it (there is even a COBOL IDE for Eclipse)

Yes grandad. What was the 2nd World War like? Did you fly a Spitfire?

[Doggy Styles]

Yes grandad. What was the 2nd World War like? Did you fly a Spitfire?

That's spooky. I was looking at my Spitfire manual last night. It's an original from WWII. Do you think it's worth anything?

[Sysman]

Anyway, as for boom: last year I came across a COBOL contract that would have been really convenient for home, so I applied for it. No chance: my 20 years COBOL experience was not recent.

(Ignorant agent crap I suspect, not client, though there are stupid clients too).

Hah! I read all about fat Y2K COBOL contracts more than a decade ago, but I couldn't get past the agents because I hadn't used the stuff within the last 3 months! I'd got oodles of experience with the thing, and in maintenance of antediluvian projects too, but not in the last 3 months.

To rub salt into the wound, the contracts were right on the doorstep too.

[AlfredJPruffock]

Right then - got COBOL on me CV now - last used it last Wednesday - Procedure Division - sorted.

Profishinal Cobol fully experienced and can bring own Dog on site if security is a concern to the client.

Target Rate - Fiver .


Perfect.