Re: Java is becoming the new Cobol
- From: "Pete Dashwood" <dashwood@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2008 11:11:02 +1300
"Richard" <riplin@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:28b05ca0-c7a7-4ad5-b307-644da0ffc5fa@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The article is not making the point that Java is becoming the
corporate language of choice, as Cobol is/once was (choose one), but
that is is becoming obsolete as it is being replaced by newer
languages such as "Ruby, PHP, AJAX [sic]", and even C#.
http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/12/28/52FE-underreported-java_1.html
"""If you're a Java developer, now's the time to invest in new
skills."""
It's true. It is even truer for COBOL developers.
There was a quote from a quarter century ago or more that went "10
years ago there were 3000 languages and COBOL, today there are 300 and
COBOL. In 10 years time I expect there will be 30 and COBOL."
The question then is: Is Java just another fad language in the range:
Algol, Pascal, Modula2, Ada, C++, that will be replaced by the next
fad languages Ruby, PHP, C# which will then be replaced by the
next ...
Bad Question.
Algol, Pascal,Modula2 and Ada were NOT "fad languages", and neither are
Ruby, PHP, and C#.
They simply addressed different paradigms.
Java will not become the new COBOL and neither will anything else.
Or will Java really become the next Cobol and will continue for
decades more ?
COBOL belongs to an era when there was no Network and a centralised
mainframe only needed one or two high level languages to program it.
Those days are gone and COBOL is hanging on currently purely because of its
legacy applications. Even these are being slowly replaced. The only new
development in COBOL of any significance is probably on less than 1% of
sites Worldwide, and most of this will be mainframe, and procedural batch
processing.
The trend is to replace COBOL.
Initially that will be with Java (for the most part), but the important
thing here is not the language, but the paradigm.
Java is an OO language and OO is the basis for future development. COBOL
missed this boat (not through any fault of the language or the vendors of
it, but through the shortsightedness and arrogance of the COBOL community)
and there is no way of catching up.
Once something has been refactored into objects, the languages used to
access the objects are irrelevant; it is the paradigm that is important.
Languages like Java, Ruby, PHP, and C# are designed around OO and are
therefore relevant. It isn't a fad; it is here to stay. Certainly, the
technology may move on from OO (it is already doing so with component based
systems), but the underlying base for the perceivable future will be OO, and
commercial sites will use whatever langiuages support this.
The idea of having ONE language is just stupid. We need different languages
for different purposes.
Most COBOL people simply haven't realised that the Holy Source Code is no
longer relevant. It is Holy Object code and Holy Objects that have inherited
the Earth, and we are seeing better IT systems because of it.
There will almost certainly be newer languages that will improve on areas
not beng well served by current ones, but they will be built around the OO
paradigm and they will not be mutually exclusive with existing languages
like Java.
For this reason, we are not going to see the "end of Java" anytime soon.
Pete.
--
"I used to write COBOL...now I can do anything."
.
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