Cobol stands for COmmon Business-Oriented Language. This is a programming language that has been around since the early 60′s. Yet, it is still used by a lot of huge businesses. Why would businesses stick with Cobol when there are plenty of newer and more powerful object oriented languages?
One reason is that to rearchitecture an entire system is very costly. Think about it, you would need to hire programmers who are knowledgeable about Cobol and the language the code will be “translated” to. These programmers are hard to find and won’t come cheap!
If it works then don’t fix it. This is a very true and makes complete sense. Upgrading does a few things; it could increase speed, fix bugs and even be more efficient. Some companies are very content with Cobol and there is really nothing wrong with it. Therefore, it is kept.
Can learning Cobol still be beneficial? Absolutely! Many big businesses that still use Cobol are seeing a very interesting and troublesome problem. Most of their Cobol programmers are getting to the point of retirement. So, hire new ones! Therein lies a problem with this, most colleges to don’t teach Cobol anymore, they have moved on to newer and better languages.
It is definitely smart for college students in the Computer Science field to learn Cobol. This language can help them in finding a job with ease after graduation. Many companies look for younger college students who know Cobol. By taking a course or just learning it on your own, you can separate yourself from all the other Computer Science majors. That difference or separation would be that you know Cobol and they don’t.
Cobol is very similar and very different from your newer languages. Cobol allows you to do a lot of the same things that Java and C++ programmers are used to. You still get loops, if statements and variable declarations. The difference is that it is simply done a different way. You don’t use the int word to declare an integer; you use a PIC 9 clause instead. It is very confusing and weird at first, but becomes second nature after a while.
Pick up a book or take a course on Cobol I promise it will come in handy at some point. If anything it will be a great addition to your resume. Cobol programmers are becoming hard to find. The language itself is over 50 years old and is here to stay. Do your homework, search for companies that still use Cobol on their mainframes. I bet you will be surprised!