Michael and Johnny look at COBOL, the 62 year old programming language that was brought to the forefront of everyone's mind last year during the early days of the pandemic. We discuss why it is relevant today more than ever, walk through its history and motivation behind its creation before wrapping up with a discussion on its future.

Recorded Date: Sunday, April 4, 2021

Time Stamps

• 00:00:18: Why are we talking about COBOL?
• 00:03:25: History of COBOL
• 00:12:36: Is COBOL here to stay?

Highlights

• Why is COBOL so important in 2021 62 years after it was created?
• COVID-19 pandemic brought COBOL to the forefront of people's minds
• There are over 200 billion lines of COBOL code in production today
• 43% of banking systems are built on COBOL and 95% percent of ATM swipes rely on COBOL code
• The government was highly involved in pursuing the advancement of technology in the 60s
• COBOL and the mainframe have been attached at the hip
• Any company that has been in business for more than 30 years uses mainframes and COBOL
• Who needs to interface at the level of COBOL and mainframes?
• Michael now believes in the blockchain as it is written in C++, not COBOL

Links

• Unemployment Checks are being held up by a coding language almost nobody knows
• 'COBOL Cowboys' Aim To Rescue Sluggish State Unemployment Systems
• Wanted urgently: People who know a half century-old computer language so states can process unemployment claims
• Programming Languages Genealogical Tree Simple
• Programming Languages Genealogical Tree FUll
• Who uses mainframes and why do they do it?
• Why The Mainframe Still Matters in 2020

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