Re: COBOL ain't quite dead - yet !



"Robert" <no@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:pe6ig4t8nhvj7tv9uakknckth23q08ru51@xxxxxxxxxx
On Mon, 27 Oct 2008 12:02:29 -0600, "James J. Gavan"
<jgavandeletethis@xxxxxxx> wrote:

+Micro Focus ACTION Program exceeds 50 U.S member Universities

ACTION-assisted courses ensure graduates are skilled in high-demand COBOL

To see demand for Cobol in job ads, go to:

http://www.indeed.com/jobtrends

Enter "cobol" without quotes. Note the trend is declining, has fallen
about 30% in three
years.

Enter "cobol, c#" without quotes. This undocumented feature allows you to
compare multiple
trends on one graph. Note that c# doubled in three years, is about four
times Cobol.

Enter "cobol, java, c#, pl/sql" without quotes. Note that java is about
double the other
three combined, and pl/sql is double Cobol.


Interesting figures, Robert.

Jobs are only an indicator of actual use though. For example, there are
millions of people using C# and Java who don't have programming jobs, do not
consider themselves professional programmers, and are maybe writing
applications for their friends and family... then ther are all the "one man
bands" who won't appear in the job ads but are beavering away in the eternal
hope of finding the "killer application".

Speaking of that, I had an unexpected visit from a lady I know and had not
seen for some time. She had been in Cuba making music videos and was passing
through, Tauranga where she was judging a Salsa dancing contest. She took
time to drop by and have lunch with me. We've been friends for years and our
connection is through the Arts and music. Anyway, she saw my laptop sitting
on the coffee table and asked me what I was writing. So I told her (both in
the prose sense and in the programming sense). She got quite
enthusiastic...

"Could you write an application for a mobile device, like a cell phone or
iPod?".

I confirmed that I had the tools to do so and had been thinking about this
for some time. Unfortunately, it is on a back burner while I complete the
things I'm doing currently.

I asked her what she had in mind.

"What about a downloadable guitar tuner, that you could have on your cell
phone?"

I realised this was a stroke of brilliance and wheels in the back of my head
started spinning, processing what would be involved. Finally the little
ticket emerged which said "Viable, and a very interesting task".

"Lizzie, that's a brilliant idea... I'd really like to write that." She
beamed.

"While I was in Havana the guys in the band were always misplacing their
guitar tuners... but they always had their cell phones to hand. Seems to me
if the cell phones could act as tuners it would be really cool..."

I promised to look into it and told her if I did it, and made money from it,
I'd see she got a fair cut... She looked at me and said: "I know you would
Pete. But it isn't about the money. I just think it would be a useful thing
to have..."

After she'd gone I was quite excited and found it difficult to continue with
normal work...

I hopped onto GOOGLE and searched, hoping that I wouldn't find anything. I
started thinking this could be the "killer application"....

The trouble with really good ideas is that if you have them, other people
probably do too... :-)

In seconds I found 15 different applications that could be loaded to a cell
phone and would enable it to act as a guitar tuner. :-)

My other idea (letting a cell phone act as a wireless router to provide
Internet and WLAN connection for wireless enabled devices within the range
of the phone) has also been done, quite recently, for Windows based
phones...

OK, back to the drawing board...

I guess I need to stop searching for the "killer application", at least
until I finish the Migration Toolset... :-)

Still, if anyone has an idea... :-)

Pete.
--
"I used to write COBOL...now I can do anything."








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