France’s social security system runs on it. State Bank of India’s customer records and Life Insurance Corporation’s policy database depend on it. India’s booming software industry was originally built with expertise in it. A small applause then, suits as well as nerds, for COBOL as it turns 50.
(This story appears in the 03 July, 2009 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)
COBOL was backed by IBM. And businesses buy anything that is backed by IBM. It was a great language for its times, but languages like C , Java solved different problems, which COBOL would never.<br /> Getting COBOL projects from the west, is the equivalent of getting decommissioned military equipment from Russia. I don't find it worthwhile to sing praises about it.
on Jul 28, 2009Thats why probably COBOL programmers have been least affected by the global meltdown ! Since they are essentially in the KTBR - Keep The Business Running kinda projects!
on Jul 7, 2009