#cobol https://hachyderm.io/@estherschindler/114288225578620665

I would be a greybeard #UNIX guy if I could grow a non-scraggley beard, and it's unfair to the #DOGE teens to claim that the IRS and Social Security rely on ancient #COBOL code that only a few people alive actually understand. They also rely on ancient #FORTRAN code and even I never studied that at Computer Camp.

Banks and Social Security are not using #COBOL because it’s so great, but because it’s so hard to migrate to something else.

They should and do migrate away … very slowly and carefully.

(I‘m in banking.)

I don’t dislike COBOL. I program daily in #ABAP, which looks like a COBOL dialect. I don’t mind verbosity, verbosity increases readability and debuggability. No devs? Train some. But COBOL developers tell me it has serious limitations. It’s just old.

The #IBMZDay schedule for April 8th is now up! https://community.ibm.com/zsystems/events/ibm-z-day-2025-se/

I worked on the Developer Journey which takes you through everything from technical sessions related to the latest #mainframe hardware to direct application of both open source and proprietary tooling that can help you develop code more effectively, and even a session around getting that #COBOL 6 compiler upgrade done (it has some really cool features)

The event is virtual and free, reg: https://ibm.biz/ibmzday2025-se

What could possibly go wrong? #DOGE to rapidly rebuild #SocialSecurity codebase.
A safe and proper rewrite should take years not months.
The project organized by #Musk lieutenant #SteveDavis, multiple sources who were not given permission to talktell WIRED, and aims to migrate all #SSA systems off #COBOL, one of the first common business-oriented programming languages, and onto a more modern replacement like #Java within a scheduled tight timeframe of a few months.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/03/what-could-possibly-go-wrong-doge-to-rapidly-rebuild-social-security-codebase/

US : le DOGE veut migrer le code de la Sécurité sociale en urgence. Il est écrit en COBOL.
https://next.ink/178163/us-le-doge-veut-migrer-le-code-de-la-securite-sociale-en-urgence-il-est-ecrit-en-cobol/

If you follow #tech for some time now, you've heard of the giant ship of Theseus, built like a house of cards that is #US infrastructure. #COBOL is also still the go-to for the #FinanceIndustry.

Two things can be wrong at the same time tho:

COBOL does need replacing and there should be an actual public-ptivate partnership to replace it, but you shouldn't "move fast and break" people's lives.

#ElonMusk Secretly Working to Rewrite the #SocialSecurity Codebase Using #AI
https://futurism.com/elon-musk-rewriting-social-security-code-ai

Am I the only one who's thinking of learning #COBOL just to see whether the idea of replacing the US Social Security codebase is *exactly* as delusional as I think or whether it is far more delusional than that?

https://gizmodo.com/doge-plans-to-rewrite-entire-social-security-codebase-in-just-a-few-months-report-2000582062